Description
OUT OF STOCK
Tall, erect, purplish- pink spike in August-September
Tall, erect, purplish- pink spike in August-September
OUT OF STOCK
Tall, erect, purplish- pink spike in August-September
$12.75/bareroot
BuyOne sided, horizontal, purple tinged spikelets looking like a row of eyelashes, July-October.
Size: 2' x 12"
Care: sun in dry to moist well-drained soil
Native: all US except SE & NW, Wisconsin native
Wildlife Value: Host for caterpillars of Green skipper butterfly. Deer resistant
Awards: Great Plants for Great Plains Grass of the Year 2008
For the Navajo this was a “life medicine” and an antidote to an overdose of “life medicine.” Also used to cure sore throats and cuts – chew on the root and blow on the cut. Navajo girls carried it in the Squaw Dance. Hopi made baskets from this grass. Zuni made brooms & hairbrushes from it. Several tribes ate this & made bedding for their animals from this. Lakota children played a game using this grass: Most of the stems have two flowers on them. Children competed to see who could find the stems with three flowers, like finding a four-leaf clover. First collected for horticulture by Humboldt & Bonpland who scoured Latin America from 1799-1804.
$12.95/bareroot
BuyAiry pink panicles like delicate billowing clouds of seed heads, top clumps of arching slender leaves in mid-summer persisting through winter.
Size: 2-4' x 18"
Care: moist soil in sun to shade
Native: Europe, Asia & No. America, Wisconsin native
Deschampsia named for French botanist Deslongchamps (1774-1849.) Caespitosa means that it grows in clumps. Named and described in 1753.
$12.75/bareroot
BuyThe description in the Chiltern Seeds catalog cannot be improved: “This is the most elegant and refined of the North American prairie grasses …the finest texture composed of the thinnest of thin, thread-like, glossy green blades,.. in autumn turning deep orange before fading to a light copper for the winter. In late summer the plants bear, on very slender stalks high above the foliage, unbelievably delicate, graceful flower panicles, excellent for cutting. ”One of internationally known garden designer Piet Oudolf’s 100 “MUST HAVE” plants, Gardens Illustrated 94 (2013)
Size: 2’ x 2’
Care: Full sun in well-drained soil
Native: from Canada in the north to Texas in the south, Wisconsin native
Wildlife Value: seeds are food for birds
Awards: Missouri Botanic Garden Plant of Merit & Great Plants for Great Plains Grass of the Year.
Sporobolos is Greek from sporo meaning seed and ballein meaning to cast forth because the seed readily falls from the flower (or dropseed, the common name). Ojibwa “Medicine Society” used roots to cure sores & “remove bile.”
$12.75/bareroot
BuyMay – June, scarlet and yellow columbines
Size: 24-36”x 12”
Care: part shade in moist well-drained soil
Native: Eastern Canada to Florida, west to New Mexico, Wisconsin native.
Wildlife Value: Rich, sugary nectar important food for ruby-throated hummingbirds. Buntings and finches eat the seeds. Sole food source for columbine duskywing caterpillar.
Seeds are fragrant when crushed, used by Omaha, Ponca and Pawnee as perfume. Pawnee used the plant as a love charm by rubbing pulverized seeds in palm of hand and endeavoring to shake hand of desired person. Crushed seeds also used to cure fever and headaches. Cherokee made a tea for heart trouble. The Iroquois used the plant to cure poisoning and to detect people who were bewitched. Grown by Englishman Tradescant the Elder in 1632. He may have received it from France. Cultivated by Washington & Jefferson.