Wine-red petals of bell-shape with yellow centers flowers in early spring. Fun, furry foliage and Medusa-like seed heads.
Size: 12-20” x 4-8” Care: sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil Native: Europe Wildlife Value: Deer resistant, early pollen source for bees.
Called Pasqueflower because it blooms at Easter time. Variety rubra considered a separate species, not a variety, by Caspar Bauhin in Theatri botanici, 1671. Illustrated in Gerard’s Herball, 1636.
Chrysanthemum x rubellum ‘Mary Stoker’ Z 4-9
Sprays of large, single warming yellow daisies, blushed with apricot top a bushy mound of light green leaves, Blooms late-summer to late-fall
Sprays of large, single warming yellow daisies, blushed with apricot top a bushy mound of light green leaves, blooms late-summer to late-fall
Size: 1-2’ x 2-3’ and spreading Care: Full sun to part shade, tolerates normal, sandy or clay soil Wildlife Value: Attracts bees, butterflies and birds. Deer resistant.
One of the rubellum hybrids, Hybridized in the 1930’s
Penstemon hirsutus Downy penstemon Z. 3-9
Lavender-Pink outside and white inside funnels in June
Lavender-Pink outside and white inside funnels in June
Size: 20” x 12-24” Care: sun in well-drained soil Native: northeast North America Wildlife Value: feeds native bees, Baltimore butterfly and endangered Rusty patched Bumble Bee
Penstemon is named for its five stamens, penta meaning “five” and stemon meaning “stamen” in Greek. Penstemons are “handsome and deserving,” Bailey. P. hirsutus sent from America to England in 1758.
Size: 4” x 4” Care: sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil Native: Alps & Pyrenees Mountains
Grown in gardens for thousands of years. Sempervivum means “live forever.” Romans planted Hens and chicks on their roofs to ward off lightning. As a succulent it holds water and is probably more difficult to catch fire. “This practice was preserved for historians when Charlemagne (720-814), first Holy Roman Emperor and unifier of a large part of northern Europe, ordered that all villagers within his crown lands plant houseleeks on their roofs, presumably as a safety measure. He decreed: Et ille hortulanus habeat super domum suam Iovis barbam. (And the gardener shall have house-leeks growing on his house. Capitulare de villis, about 795, LXX.)”