Description
August and September, bodacious, white, pink or crimson platters, looking like the tropics.
August and September, bodacious, white, pink or crimson platters, looking like the tropics.
August and September, bodacious, white, pink or crimson platters, looking like the tropics.
$10.25/pot
BuyAtop a mound of spatula-shaped, crinkled leaves with scalloped edges rises a bounty of 4 to 5 inch tall spikes, each crowned with a hoard of tiny fuchsia-colored trumpets blowing their horns “look at me” in early to mid-summer.
Size: 4-8" x 8-12" spreading slowly by rhizomes
Care: sun to part shade in moist well-drained soil
Native: South Africa
Wildlife Value: Deer resistant. Attracts small bees and butterflies
English adventurer and naturalist William John Burchell (1781-1863) scoured South Africa from 1803 to 1815 collecting more than 50,000 specimens packed in 48 crates. In places unexplored he found insects, animals, fish and unknown plants, this being one. Although he published two volumes of his exploration, he did not finish the last, third volume, leaving another to write the botany. Premier English botanist George Bentham (1800-1884) took up the task authoring Labiatarum Genera et Species, published in 1834. He wrote the first published description and named this tiny plant with outsized charm.
$10.25/bareroot
BuySoft, majestic purple-magenta thistles on prickly silver foliage and stems.
Can not ship to: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
Size: 4-6’ x 2”
Care: full sun in moist, well-drained soil
Native: Europe and western Asia
Wildlife Value: Bees, butterflies and birds
Identified by Dioscorides in De Materia Medica for medicinal use around 70 A.D. Chosen as the symbol of Scotland by King James V. According to legend the Scotch thistle helped Scotland fend off a night-time Viking invasion by preventing a sneak attack. It caused the Vikings to scream in pain waking the Scots. Introduced to American gardens in late 1800’s.
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.
$12.75/bareroot
BuyBalloon shaped buds opening to white bells in mid-summer to early fall.
Size: 24" x 12"
Care: Full sun to part shade in moist well-drained soil. Heat and drought tolerant. Deadhead for rebloom.
Native: Eastern Asia
Wildlife Value: attracts hummingbirds, bees & butterflies
Awards: England's Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.
Platycodon is Greek from platys meaning “broad” and kodon meaning “bell”, referring to the shape of the flower. Cultivated in China for hundreds of years where it is called Jie-geng. Chinese used the root boiled to cure a chill in the stomach. Mentioned in Man’yoshu, a Japanese anthology of poems written in the 8th century. German botanist Johann Gmelin (1709-1755) collected P. grandiflorus in Siberia in 1754. Gmelin’s Siberian mission, sponsored by Catherine the Great, took 10 years and nearly killed him. Gmelin introduced it to European garden cultivation by 1782. Robert Fortune found the white form in a nursery near Shanghai and sent it to England in 1845.