Description
Stalk of dozens of pink-purple, white or red lilies with down-facing, reflexed petals in early summer.
pink-purple lilies with down-facing, reflexed petals
Stalk of dozens of pink-purple, white or red lilies with down-facing, reflexed petals in early summer.
Outfacing, white, waxy cup-shaped flowers resembling single roses in late winter, evergreen leaves.
Size: 12-20” x 12”
Care: part shade in moist well-drained soil Native: rocky places in Europe
Awards: Received Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.
The name Helleborus is Greek from hellein meaning “to kill” and bora meaning “food” referring to the plant’s poisonous qualities if placed in food. This species is ancient – known as long ago as 300 BC in Greece where it “purged and cured the mad or melancholicke daughters of Praetus with the roots thereof.” (Parkinson, 1629) Grown in the Eichstätt Garden, the garden of Johann Konrad von Gemmingen, prince bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria, c. 1600. In Middle Ages petals thrown on floor to drive out evil and ward off power of witches. Gerard recommended it for curing poisoned animals. Sorcerers made themselves invisible by tossing the powdered plant in the air. The German name of Schneerose (snow rose) is perhaps more appropriate.
OUT OF STOCK
SHRUB Boxwood
Size: 24” x 30”
Care: Light to Part shade in well drained, alkaline soil. Do not crowd with other plants, roots prefer no competition. Fertilize regularly for dramatic growth. Prune in early spring. Unlike English boxwood this can be pruned back hard. One of a few shade tolerant evergreens and deer resistant too. Also the most hardy Boxwood.
Introduced from Asia to American and European gardens around 1900 by Ernest Henry “Chinese” Wilson (1876-1930) who scoured Asia for plants.
OUT OF STOCK
Lavender-Pink outside and white inside funnels in June
Size: 20-30” x 12-24”
Care: sun in well-drained soil
Native: northeast North America
Wildlife Value: attracts Baltimore butterfly
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.
Emerging from a rosette of charming crinkly leaves, spikes of pink-purple trumpets bloom generously from June – July.
Size: 2-6” x 15-18”
Care: sun to part shade in well-drained to moist well-drained soil
Native: South Africa
Wildlife Value: Walnut tolerant, deer resistant, hummingbird plant
Stachys is an old Greek word meaning “spike.” This species collected from the wild before 1834.