"New" Heirloom Plants

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  • Lilium michiganense Michigan lily Z 4-8

    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.

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    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.

    Size: 2-5’ x 8-10”
    Care: sun to part-shade in moist to moist well-drained, neutral to acidic soil.
    Native: New Hampshire west to Wisconsin, south to Arkansas, east to Alabama and Florida
    Wildlife Value: attracts hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies

    This had several prior names, as varieties or subspecies of Lilium canadense or Lilium speciosum.  In 1915 botanist Oliver Atkins Farwell (1867-1944) renamed it in “Notes of Michigan Liliaceae,” Bulletin of Torrey Botanical Club 42, p. 353, based on one he collected in 1910 in Wiard’s Crossing, Michigan.

  • Primula beesiana Candelabra primrose, Bee’s primrose Z 4-8

    From 2-8 stems, each bearing a whorl of a dozen or so small, fuchsia-pink flowers encircling each leafless  stem like a ballerina’s tutu,, then alternating  with a leafless stem, the  another whorl of flowers then another section of leafless stem in tiers, Each whorl blooms in succession from the bottom up.

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    From 2-8 stems, each bearing a whorl of a dozen or so small, fuchsia-pink flowers encircling each leafless  stem like a ballerina’s tutu,, then alternating  with a leafless stem, the  another whorl of flowers then another section of leafless stem in tiers, Each whorl blooms in succession from the bottom up.

    Size: 1’ x 1’
    Care: part shade in moist or moist well-drained soil in neutral to acidic pH
    Native: Sichuan and Yunnan provinces in SW China and Myranmar
    Wildlife Value: attracts butterflies, bees and other pollinators
    Awards: Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit

    Primula means “first spring” in Italian. The common name “Bee’s” is not for the insect; it’s for the nursery that grew them on and sold them and funded Scottish collector George Forrest’s trip to China to hunt for plants.  Forrest collected this around 1910. Naturalist Arthur Bulley (1861-1942) owned that nursery, Bees Ltd.

  • Thalictrum alpinum Alpine meadowrue Z 2-9

    Flowering June, purple skirt surrounding dangling yellow anthers on this petite Meadowrue

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    Flowering June, purple skirt surrounding dangling yellow anthers on this petite Meadowrue

    Size: 8” x 4”
    Care: sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil
    Native: Mountains Western US, north to Alaska, Eastern Canada, Siberia, Europe & China

    Thalictrum is from Greek meaning “to flourish” or “look green.”  In China called “gao shan tang cao.”  Collected before 1679.

  • Wisteria frutescens syn. Wisteria macrostachya America wisteria Z. 5-8

    Lush, dense, drooping, fragrant purplish-blue, pea-like racemes in late summer on new fragrant purplish-blue, pea-like. drooping flower-clusters in early summer on new stems.

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    Lush, dense, drooping, fragrant purplish-blue, pea-like racemes in late summer on new fragrant purplish-blue, pea-like. drooping flower-clusters in early summer on new stems.

    Size: 12-20’ x 4’
    Care: sun to part shade in moist, mildly acidic soil For best flowering trim vine to four buds from last year's new growth in late winter or early spring, before this year's growth begins. A legume, so it enriches the soil by adding nitrogen. Seed pods poisonous.
    Native: Virginia to FL, west to TX, north to IL
    Wildlife Value: Larval host for Marine Blue skipper butterfly. Deer resistant

    Collected before 1753. Wisteria named “in memory of Caspar Wistar,(1761-1818) M.D. late professor of anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania, and for many years president of the American Philosophical Society: a philanthropist of simple manners, and modest pretensions, but an active promoter of science.” Thomas Nuttall.