Description
Profuse violet blooms on mint-scented, gray-green foliage gives frosty image, June-October
Profuse violet blooms on mint-scented, gray-green foliage gives frosty image, June-October
Profuse violet blooms on mint-scented, gray-green foliage gives frosty image, June-October
$16.95/bareroot
BuySmall crimson-red bells dangle from July to September
Size: 8’ x 3’
Care: Sun in humusy, fertile, moist well-drained soil. Mulch around the base. Flowers on current year’s stems so cut back to 6-9” in late winter or early spring.
The genus Clematis was named by Dioscordes, physician in Nero’s army, from “klema” meaning climbing plant. The species 1st collected by the “Father of Texas botany,” Ferdinand Lindheimer in 1830’s. Max Leichtin of the Baden Garden sent Clematis texensis to Kew Botanic Garden near London in 1880’s. French nurseryman Francisque Morel sent this selection to William Robinson who named it for his English nursery at Gravetye Manor in 1914.
$12.75/bareroot
BuyBalloon 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
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. English herbalist John Gerard (1545-1612) strangely recommended it for curing poisoned animals. Sorcerers made themselves invisible by tossing the powdered plant in the air.
Fast-growing, pyramidal-shaped deciduous conifer. The orange to brown trunk base tapers and thickens with up to a dozen large buttress-like root flares extending several feet up the trunk. Feathery, fern-like, soft foliage emerges light green in spring, and turns red-bronze in fall before dropping. Its branches are well-attached and make excellent climbing.
Size: 70-90’ x 15-25’
Care: sun in moist to moist well-drained, slightly acid soil
Native: Szechuan China
Awards: Royal Botanic Garden Award of Garden Merit, Yew Dell Botanical Gardens’ Theodore Klein Plant Awards & Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Gold
From fossil records, dawn redwood is known to have existed as many as 50,000,000 years ago. However, it was not until 1941 that dawn redwood was first discovered growing in the wild near the town of Modaoqi China by Chinese forester, T. Kan. Seeds collected from the original site were made available to the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1947. Seedlings grown therefrom were planted in front of the Lehmann Building at MBG in 1952 where they have now developed into large mature trees (70’+ tall). Dawn redwood is a deciduous, coniferous tree that grows in a conical shape to 100’ tall. It is related to and closely resembles bald cypress (Taxodium) and redwood (Sequoia).