Size: 3” x 24” Care: sun in well-drained soil Native: Europe & Western Asia Size: groundcover, rock garden, herb, fragrant foliage, thyme lawn
Thymus from the Greek word for “odor” due to the plant’s fragrance. Ancient Greeks made incense with thyme. This species since at least 1753. Acc’d to Parkinson in 1640 this remedied hysterics in women. Wm. Robinson wrote,”nothing can be more charming than a sunny bank covered with” Thymus serpyllum. LH Bailey extolled it as “prized as an evergreen edging and as cover for rockwork and waste places …The leaves are sometimes used for seasoning.”
Lilium superbum Meadow lily Z 4-8
Briliant orange with purple spots, turks-cap type lily blooming in late summer to early fall
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.
Clematis texensis ‘Gravetye Beauty’ Z 5-9
Small crimson-red bells dangle from July to September
Small crimson-red bells dangle from July to September
Size: 8’ x 3’ Care: Full sun in humusy, fertile, moist well-drained soil. Mulch around the base. Flowers on current year’s stems so cut back to 6-8” in late winter or early spring.
The genus Clematis was named by Dioscordes, physician in Nero’s army, from klema meaning “climbing plant.” The species 1st collected by the “Father of Texas Botany” Ferdinand Lindheimer in 1830’s. Max Leichtlin of the Baden Botanic Garden sent C. texensis to Kew Botanic Garden in London in 1880. French nurseryman Francisque Morel sent this selection to William Robinson. Robinson named it for his English nursery at Gravetye Manor in 1914
Campanula portenschlagiana Dalmatian bellflower Z 4-8
Purple, upfacing bells for months in mid to late summer
Purple, upfacing bells for months in mid to late summer
Size: 4-6” x 20” Care: full sun-part shade in moist well-drained soil Native: Northern Yugoslavia Awards: England’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit. Top rated for ornamental traits and landscape performance by the Chicago Botanic Garden & Elisabeth Carey Miller Botanical Garden Great Plant Pick.
Campanula is Latin meaning “little bell.” This species named for one of its discoverers, Franz Edler von Portenschlag-Ledermayer (1772-1822). 1st described in Systema Vegetabilium 5: 93 in 1819