Our Plants
Showing 33–40 of 616 results
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Alyssum wulfenianum syn. Alyssum ovirense Alpine alyssum, Madwort Z 3-9
Spring to early summer, clumps of sunny yellow blooms over gray foliage
OUT OF STOCK
Spring to early summer, clumps of sunny yellow blooms over gray foliage
Size: 4-6” x 12-18”
Care: sun in well-drained soil
Native: GermanyDescribed in Willdenow’s Enum. pl. suppl. Before 1814. Grown at the Agricultural Center in Beltsville Maryland in 1897.
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Amorpha canescens Lead plant Z 2-9
Arching violet spikes flower in mid-summer top pinnately compound, grey-green leaves.
Arching violet spikes flower in mid-summer top pinnately compound, grey-green leaves. Liberty Hyde Bailey (1933): “Handsome free-flowering shrub of dense habit, well adapted for rockeries and borders …”
ONLY AVAILABLE TO SHIP IN EARLY SPRING, WHILE DORMANT. (USUALLY APRIL/MAY)
Size: 2-4’ x 2-3’
Care: sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil, drought tolerant.
Native: Broad swath of central No. America from Canada to TX. Wisconsin native. Common shrub in Great Plains’ tall-grass prairies and seasonally wet soil.
Wildlife Value: Honeybees and butterflies; especially Whitney's Underwing, relish its nectar. Supports over 50 bee species.
Awards: Great Plants for Great PlainsAmorpha means “deformed” in Greek and “becoming grey” in Latin. Called Lead plant due to old belief that plant grew in soil containing lead. 1st described in published work in 1813. Used medicinally by numerous Native Americans to kill pinworms, remedy eczema, stomach aches, neuralgia, rheumatism and cuts. Steeped leaves made tea for Oglala. Oglala mixed its dried leaves with buffalo fat for smoking. Winnebago powdered the leaves, added water and applied it to skin to remedy scalds. They also ate the roots. Sioux: A tea made from leaves drank as a beverage, treated flu related congestion and as a bath for eczema. Dried leaves part of mixture for smoking. Pre-bison hunt ceremony used stems.
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Amsonia hubrichtii Thread leaf amsonia, Arkansas amsonia Z 5-8
Powder-blue flowers of terminal clusters in early summer; feathery, thin,”threadleaf” foliage turns caution-sign yellow in fall.
Powder-blue flowers of terminal clusters in early summer; feathery, thin,”threadleaf” foliage turns caution-sign yellow in fall.
Size: 2-3’ x 2-3’
Care: sun to part shade in moist well-drained soil
Native: Central-So, US
Wildlife Value: attracts butterflies & bees
Awards: Plant of Merit, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Gold MedalCollected in 1940 in Yell County Arkansas along a stream 3 miles west of Birta.
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Amsonia orientalis syn. Rhazya orientalis European bluestar Z 5-8
“Immensely tough and useful filler” “100 Plants Every Gardener Should Grow,” Gardens Illustrated No. 231 Purplish blue terminal flower clusters are larger and longer lasting than other Amsonia. Yellow foliage in Fall.
“Immensely tough and useful filler” “100 Plants Every Gardener Should Grow,” Gardens Illustrated No. 231
Purplish blue terminal flower clusters are larger and longer lasting than other Amsonia. Yellow foliage in Fall.Size: 12-20” x spreading
Care: sun to light shade in moist well-drained soil
Native: TurkeyDeer resistant, salt and heat tolerant. Classified as critically endangered as it is losing its native habitat and was over harvested. Collected before 1844.
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Amsonia tabernaemontana Willow bluestar Z 4-10
Sky blue bells flower along terminal panicles from May to June. In fall thin, willow-like foliage turns sunny yellow.
Sky blue bells flower along terminal panicles from May to June. In fall thin, willow-like foliage turns sunny yellow.
Size: 24”x 18”
Care: sun to part shade in moist to moist-well-drained soil Heat and drought tolerant.
Native: Pennsylvania to Florida
Awards: Chicago Botanic Garden Award of Merit.Amsonia named for 18th century colonial physician Charles Amson. Tabernaemontana named for a physician who lived in the 1500’s, First described in 1788. Jakob van Bergzabern who changed his name to Tabernaemontanus. First described in 1788. Listed in The Wild Flowers of America, 1879.
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Anchusa azurea Bugloss Z 3-8
June-July true blue flowers, or all summer if deadheaded after bloom and before seeds set.
June-July true blue flowers, or all summer if deadheaded after bloom and before seeds set.
Size: 2-3' x 12'
Care: full sun in moist well-drained to well-drained soil.
Native: Mediterranean region“…perennial plant, with broad rough leaves … the branches grow more erect, and the flowers which are of a bright azure colour, are collected into spikes, coming out singly between the leaves.” Philip Miller 1768. ” Lovely rich gentian blue flowers, freely borne from May to August.” H.H. Thomas 1915. Recommended by Gertrude Jekyll, mother of today’s perennial gardens, in 1908. Anchusa from anchousa a paint used on skin.
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Anchusa capensis Cape forget-me-not, Cape bugloss Z 6-9
Truest of blue flowers from summer through fall
OUT OF STOCK
Truest of blue flowers from summer through fall. Do you need to know anything else?
Reseeding annual in colder zones.
Size: 8” x 8”
Care: sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil
Native: So. Africa.
Awards: Plant Select® Central Rocky Mountain regionCollected and introduced to Europe in 1794 by von Thunberg (1743-1828). Carl Peter von Thunberg, student of Linnaeus at Uppsala University in Sweden, made three trips to the Cape of Good Hope 1772-1775 where he collected about 1000 new species, Java and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) 1777 and 15 months in Japan where he befriended local doctors who gave him hundreds of plants new to Western horticulture. He succeeded Linnaeus as professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala and King Gustav beknighted him. Young Cape forget-me-not plants were eaten as a vegetable, Annals of the South African Museum, 1898. Louise Beebe Wilder loved this plant, effusing, “One of the prettiest (blue annuals) is the Cape Forget-me-not. Not one of its cerulean family boasts a purer blue and its summer-long period of bloom and indifference to drought make it a really valuable annual. It has also a sturdy habit of growth and sowing its hardy seeds freely it does its best to become a permanent resident.” Robinson called it “Remarkably fine…” The Garden 1873. The name Anchusa from anchousa paint used on skin.
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Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’ Windflower Z 4-8
Pearl-like buds open to graceful single white umbels in autumn.
Pearl-like buds open to graceful single white umbels in autumn. One of internationally known garden designer Piet Oudolf’s 100 “MUST HAVE” plants, Gardens Illustrated 94 (2013)
Size: 4-5’x 12” and spreading
Care: Sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil
Awards: Received England’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit. 2016 Perennial Plant of YearThe Japanese anemone was first collected by Thunberg around 1776. Introduced to cultivation in the West when Robert Fortune (1812-1880) found them growing wild at a graveyard near Shanghai in 1844. Fortune remarked that the Anemone was “a most appropriate ornament to the last resting place of the dead.” Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’ is a sport of a cross between Japanese anemone and A. vitifolia, introduced by Lady Amherst from Nepal in 1829. This white sport appeared in the nursery of Messier Jobert at Verdun-sur-Meuse in 1851. He propagated it and named it for his daughter, Honorine. The name Anemone is Greek for the wind, “so called, because the flower is supposed not to open, except the wind blows.” The Gardeners’ Dictionary, 1768.
