The top of each erect stem curves over like a hook. A single red or orange flower dangles from the stem’s tip. Spotted petals (botanically called tepals) curve up with their tips nearly reaching the top of the flower. Stamens hang down from the center then flare out inviting bees and butterflies to its pollen. They flower for nearly a month in mid-summer.
OUT OF STOCK
The top of each erect stem curves over like a hook. A single red or orange flower dangles from the stem’s tip. Spotted petals (botanically called tepals) curve up with their tips nearly reaching the top of the flower. Stamens hang down from the center then flare out inviting bees and butterflies to its pollen. They flower for nearly a month in mid-summer.
Balloon shaped buds as though puffed with air, open to white, five-petal bells from mid-summer to early fall.
Size: 24" x 12"
Care: 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. The 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 first collected this 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 gardens by 1782. Robert Fortune found the white form in a nursery near Shanghai and sent it to England in 1845.
OUT OF STOCK
All summer long, droves of lavender blossoms above a mini pillow of spoon-shaped, glossy foliage.
Size: 6-8” x 6-8”
Care: sun in well-drained soil
Native: southeast France on limestone seacliffs
Wildlife Value: deer resistant, salt tolerant
Described by Linnaeus, 1753. The name Limoniuim comes from the Greek word for meadow.
OUT OF STOCK
White-lavender flowers in May atop wiry stems look like fantastical birds with too many wings, or a four-cornered bishop’s hat. Ornamental heart-shaped leaves and red stems.
Size: 6-12” x 18” slow spreader
Care: shade to part shade in well-drained to moist well-drained soil. Once roots established, valuable in dry shade
Native: China, Japan & Korea
Its Chinese name is “Yin Yang Ho” meaning “Licentious goat herb, “ because allegedly an aphrodisiac for goats! In China & Japan thought to remedy impotence, liver ailments & all age related maladies. In Western gardens since 1834.
Violet racemes all summer through fall
Size: 36” x 12”
Care: Sun, well-drained soil
Native: Southern Europe
Both the Latin and common names are related to flax. Linaria comes from “linum” which is Greek for “flax” and toadflax includes the word “flax.” The leaves of Linaria purpurea resemble flax leaves. According to 17th century English herbalist, John Parkinson, the plant “causes one to make water.” Grown by English plantsman and explorer, Tradescant the Elder, 1634.
