White-lavender flowers in May atop wiry stems look like fantastical birds with too many wings, or a four-cornered bishop’s hat. Ornamental heart-shaped leaves and red stems.
Size: 6-12” x 18” slow spreader Care: shade to part shade in well-drained to moist well-drained soil. Once roots established, valuable in dry shade Native: China, Japan & Korea
Its Chinese name is “Yin Yang Ho” meaning “Licentious goat herb, “ because allegedly an aphrodisiac for goats! In China & Japan thought to remedy impotence, liver ailments & all age related maladies. In Western gardens since 1834.
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
Limonium minutum Dwarf statice Z 5-9
All summer long, droves of lavender blossoms above a mini pillow of spoon-shaped, glossy foliage.