Description
ARCHIVED
Note: This is a plant not currently for sale. This is an archive page preserved for informational use.
Cone-shaped fuzzy yellow flower spikes rise above sparse foliage in April-June
Cone-shaped fuzzy yellow flower spikes rise above sparse foliage in April-June
ARCHIVED
Note: This is a plant not currently for sale. This is an archive page preserved for informational use.
Cone-shaped fuzzy yellow flower spikes rise above sparse foliage in April-June
$9.25/bareroot
BuyUmbels of arching stems with nodding bells of lilac shading to pink or occasionally white. May to June.
Size: 12”-18”x 3-6”
Care: sun to part shade in moist well-drained soil
Native: Canada to Mexico, Wisconsin native
Wildlife Value: nectar source for Hairstreak butterfly, Attracts hummingbirds.
Cernuum is Latin meaning “nodding.” Many groups of 1st Americans ate the bulbs raw, roasted or dried for winter storage or as flavoring for soups and gravies. Cherokee used this plant medicinally to cure colds, hives, colic, “gravel & dropsy,” liver ailments, sore throats, “phthisic,” and feet in “nervous fever.” Those in the Isleta Pueblo were not quite as creative as the Cherokee and used this only for sore throats and infections. Meriwether Lewis collected this in Montana and wrote, “I met with great quantities of a small onion about the size of a musquit ball … They were crisp, white and well-flavoured. I gathered about a half a bushel of them before the crew arrivd.” Chicago is believed to be named for the Algonquin word for this plant chigagou.
$12.95/bareroot
BuyCool club-like maces at the ends of stems- June to October
Size: 30" x 24"
Care: Full sun to part shade in moist or moist well-drained soil
Native: Vermont west to Wisconsin, south to Georgia and Missouri
Awards: Great Plants for Great Plains
1st described in 1835.
$12.75/bareroot
BuyFragrant medium pink umbels, like an upside down ballerina’s skirt, July – September.
Size: 3’-4’ x 2-3’
Care: Sun in moist to moist well-drained soil, deer resistant
Native: North America – all states (except along the Pacific coast) & eastern half of Canada, Wisconsin native
Wildlife Value: host for Monarch caterpillars, flowers are source of nectar for several butterflies
Named after Asclepias, a Greek god of medicine. Native American groups used Swamp milkweed – Chippewa to increase their strength & the stems made into twine; Iroquois to heal navels in babies, to increase or decrease urine and to make a person strong enough to punish witches; Meskwaki to drive out tapeworms; and Menominee used it as an ingredient in food – added to deer soup & cornmeal mush. Listed as growing in England in Miller’s Gardeners’ Dictionary, 1768. Pressed specimen in Emily Dickinson’s herbarium.
OUT OF STOCK
Briliant orange with purple spots, turks-cap type lily blooming in late summer to early fall
Size: 10’ x 12”
Care: shade to sun in moist, acidic soil
Native: from VT to Fl & west to Mississippi River, incl. Wisconsin
Lilium was named for the Greek word for smooth, polished referring to its leaves. Collected before 1762. Sold in America’s 1st plant catalog, Bartram’s Broadside, 1783. L.H. Bailey (1913): “The most magnificent and showy of native North American species, well worthy of extensive cultivation.” Found growing in moist meadows from Massachusetts to Indiana and Alabama. In 1665 John Rea called it the “Virginia Martagon,” In 1738 colonial botanist John Bartram sent it to his “brothers of the spade” in London where it caused a sensation. A challenge to grow, it demands well-drained, acid soil and plenty of moisture.