Description
ARCHIVED
Note: This is a plant not currently for sale. This is an archive page preserved for informational use.
Up-facing blue-violet bells in early spring emerge from foliage decorated with silky hairs.
Up-facing blue-violet bells in early spring emerge from foliage decorated with silky hairs.
ARCHIVED
Note: This is a plant not currently for sale. This is an archive page preserved for informational use.
Up-facing blue-violet bells in early spring emerge from foliage decorated with silky hairs.
$12.75/bareroot
BuyPurplish-blue spikes from July to October. Fragrant foliage.
Size: 2-3' x 12"
Care: Full sun in well-drained soil, heat and drought tolerant.
Native: North America, Wisconsin native.
Wildlife Value: Skipper butterflies and Rusty patched Bumble Bees love Anise hyssop’s nectar, deer resistant.
The name Agastache is from Greek agan and stachys meaning much like an ear of wheat referring to the shape of the flower spike. Anise hyssop leaves were used by American Americans of the Missouri River region to make tea and as a sweetener in cooking. For Cheyenne it relieved chest pain due to coughing or to a dispirited heart. Listed as an aromatic herb in McMahon’s 1805 book.
OUT OF STOCK
Gorgeous – July – September bright orange cymes
Size: 2-3' x 12"
Care: Sun in moist well-drained to dry soil
Native: East and south North America, Wisconsin native
Wildlife Value: Host for Monarch caterpillars and its nectar is a favorite for 13 different butterflies: 4 Swallowtails, 2 Fritillaries, Checkered white, Spring azure, Small copper, Sachem, Monarch, and Coral and Gray hairstreaks. Attracts Ladybugs that eat many insect pests.
Awards: Great Plants for Great Plains; Perennial Plant Assn. Plant of the Year 2017.
Named after Asclepias, a Greek god of medicine. Omaha Indians ate the raw root to cure bronchial and pulmonary ailments, their Shell Society was the authorized guardian of the plant, taking 4 days to dig, prepare and distribute the root. Most important medicine for Menominee Indians. The Iroquois smashed roots on legs to impart strength to runners. Navajo cured coyote bites and flu with Butterfly weed. Millspaugh said used as “subtonic, diaphoretic, alternative, expectorant, diuretic, laxative, escharotic, carminative, anti-spasmodic, anti-pleuritic, stomachic, astringent, anti-rheumatic, anti-syphilitic and what not?” 1st collected by Rev. John Banister in colonial Virginia c. 1680. A gunman mistakenly shot and killed him while he collected plants. Used by natives for Bloody Flux; the Root must be powdered and given in a Spoonful of Rum, or rather as the Indians give it, bruise the Root, and boil it in Water, and drink the Decoction: Pehr Kalm saith it is excellent for the hysteric Passion.” HoChunk placed masticated root into wounds. Cultivated by Jefferson. Pressed specimen in Emily Dickinson’s herbarium.
$9.95/bareroot
BuyProfusion of small classic daisies May-July atop fragrant silver foliage. Cut back for rebloom. Let the seeds drop for more plants next year. If you cut them back after the 1st flowering they will rebloom for most of the summer and fall.
Size: 2’ x 3’
Care: sun in moist well drained soil
Native: central & southern Europe
Named by Carl Heinrich Schultz (1805-1867)
OUT OF STOCK
Grown for its silver-grey foliage in the garden & dried in arrangements
Size: 3’ x 2’ and spreading
Care: sun in well-drained soil
Native: Colorado south to Texas, west to California.
Blackfoot cleaned themselves with this as part of religious rituals. California’s Shasta Indians prepared dead bodies to be buried with the leaves. HoChunk made a smudge to revive the unconscious. Cahuilla Indians made baskets and roofs and walls of their homes with the stems. First collected for gardens by Thomas Nuttall in early 1800’s. Artemisia named for the wife of Mausolus, king of Caria, who began using another Artemisia. Miller 1768.