Perennials & Biennials

Showing 129–136 of 508 results

  • Corydalis ochroleuca syn. Pseudofumaria alba Z 4-8

    Clumps of crem white with a touch of yellow, narrow, tube-shaped flowers with flared ends bloom over mounds of ferny foliage from late spring – fall. One of longest blooming flowers for shade.

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    Clumps of cream white with a touch of yellow, narrow, tube-shaped flowers with flared ends bloom over mounds of ferny foliage from late spring – fall. One of longest blooming flowers for shade.

    Size: 6-12” x 12”
    Care: Shade to part shade in well-drained soil
    Native: Balkans

    Corydalis is Greek for “lark” korydalos, referring to the shape of flower resembling a lark’s spur. This species published in 1831. Gertrude Jekyll (1848-1931) planted Corydalis ochroleuca as a “wide carpet” under peonies in her spring garden at her home, Munstead Wood.

  • Corydalis sempervirens syn. Capnoides sempervirens, Fumitory, Rock harlequin RESEEDING SHORT-LIVED PERENNIAL

    Pink tube-shaped flowers with flaring yellow ends bloom from spring to summer

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    RESEEDING SHORT-LIVED PERENNIAL

    Pink tube-shaped flowers with flaring yellow ends bloom from spring to summer

    Size: 10-12” x 10-12”
    Care: Sun to part shade in moist well drained soil
    Native: from Nova Scotia west to Alaska, south to North Carolina, Wisconsin native

    Corydalis is Greek for “lark” korydalos, referring to the shape of flower resembling a lark’s spur.    First described and named (name now changed) in 1753. Pressed specimen in Emily Dickinson’s herbarium.

  • Crambe maritima Sea kale Z. 5-9

    Very sweetly fragrant, honey-scented, chalky white flowers cover the plant in late May and early June. Ornamental, bluish crinkled foliage all season.

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Very sweetly fragrant, honey-scented, chalky white flowers cover the plant in late May and early June. Ornamental, bluish crinkled foliage all season.

    Size: 18” x 12” spreads
    Care: Moist well-drained soil in full sun
    Native: Western Europe to Asia Minor
    Awards: England’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit and Great Plant Pick Award from Elisabeth Carey Miller Botanical Garden.

    Crambe means cabbage in Greek.  “The glaucous leaves of the Sea kale afford a striking contrast to the bronzy foliage of surrounding subjects…I have eaten them several times and thought them delicious.” The Garden March 1876.  “By the turn of the 19th century, sea kale was a very popular vegetable; its blanched shoots, which have a sweet, nutty cabbage flavor, were readily found in the finest markets and restaurants,” The American Gardener, March/April 2009. Grown by Jefferson.  “Sea Kale was among Thomas Jefferson’s favorite vegetables; he first planted seed of it at Monticello in 1809. Native to the seacoast of Great Britain, this hardy perennial of the cabbage family is grown for the early spring sprouts that arise from well-established plants (2 to 3 years old). Sea Kale is also quite ornamental with blueish-green leaves and showy white flowers in summer. Sea Kale has a pleasing, mild cabbage taste. At Monticello the shoots are often covered with large blanching pots as they emerge in spring. When the leaves get six inches high, they are cut from the ground and can be prepared like asparagus.”.  https://www.monticello.org/house-gardens/in-bloom-at-monticello/sea-kale/.  Recommended as an ornamental flower by Gertrude Jekyll in 1908 for its glaucous foliage.

  • Dalea aurea syn Parosela aurea Golden prairie clover Z 5-9

    Cone-shaped fuzzy yellow flower spikes rise above sparse foliage in April-June

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    Note: This is a plant not currently for sale.  This is an archive page preserved for informational use.

    Cone-shaped fuzzy yellow flower spikes rise above sparse foliage in April-June

    Size: 1-3’ x 1’
    Care: sun in dry soil
    Native: West US from TX to WY
    Wildlife Value: Attracts bees, butterflies
    Size: Native Americans used Golden Prairie-clover to treat diarrhea and colic

    Collected and described by Thomas Nuttall, 1813.

     

  • Dalea purpurea syn. Petalostemon purpurea Violet prairie clover Z 4-9

    Vase shaped clump with wands of violet to purple encircling tall coneheads mid-summer

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Vase shaped clump with wands of violet to purple encircling tall coneheads mid-summer

    Size: 2’ x 18”
    Care: full sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil.
    Native: Canada to Texas, Wisconsin native
    Wildlife Value: Host for caterpillars of Dogface Sulphur, Striped blue & Mexican blue butterflies. Supports over 80 bee species including endangered Rusty patched Bumble Bees

    Dalea named to honor English botanist Dr. Samuel Dale (1659- 1739.)  Chippewa, Meskwaki and Navajo used medicinally – as remedies for heart ailments, pneumonia, diarrhea and measles.  Comanche and Lakota chewed the root like gum, for its sweet taste. Sioux combined it with Amorpha canescens, Leadplant to ambush bison. Sioux also treated fevers and stomach disorders with an infusion made from the plant. Pawnee made brooms from the flexible stems.  1st collected by French botanist André Michaux (1746-1802) who spent 11 years in America collecting hundreds of new plants.

  • Darmera peltatum syn. Peltiphyllum peltatum Umbrella plant, Indian rhubarb Z 5-8

    Grow this for its pink umbellifer flowers in early spring or its gigantic, round with ruffled edged foliage dramatic in green in summer but magnificent turning red in fall

    $13.75/bareroot

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    Grow this for its pink umbellifer flowers in early spring or its gigantic, round with ruffled edged foliage dramatic in green in summer but magnificent turning red in fall

    Size: 3-4’ x 3’
    Care: shade to sun in wet soil
    Native: Oregon & California
    Awards: Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit

    Collected before 1849.  Karok natives (NW corner of California) ate young shoots and Miwok tribal members, (N. central California), mixed crushed root with acorn meal to make it white.

  • Delphinium elatum Perennial larkspur Z 2-7

    Spikes of blue to purple single, elf-capped shaped blossoms with black eyes in June, repeating in August-September.  Sturdy stems.

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    Spikes of blue to purple single, elf-capped shaped blossoms with black eyes in June, repeating in August-September.  Sturdy stems.    One of internationally known garden designer Piet Oudolf’s 100 “MUST HAVE” plants, Gardens Illustrated 94 (2013)

    Size: 4’ x 12”
    Care: part sun in moist well-drained soil.
    Native: Siberia & central Europe

    Grown in the Eichstätt Garden, the garden of Johann Konrad von Gemmingen, prince bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria, c. 1600. One of the parents of today’s border hybrids.  Pressed specimen in Emily Dickinson’s herbarium.

  • Delphinium exaltatum Tall Larkspur, American larkspur Z 4-8

    Graceful, lavender or purple spikes of trumpets on tall stems in July to August.

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Graceful, lavender or purple spikes of trumpets on tall stems in July to August.

    Size: 3-4' x 9"
    Care: Care: sun to part shade in moist well-drained soil. Withstands winds, no staking needed. Not fussy like fancy hybrids. Tougher and much longer living than modern hybrids. Let the seeds drop & you’ll get some babies.
    Native: Pennsylvania to No. Carolina west to Ohio & Alabama
    Wildlife Value: attract hummingbirds

    Delphinium, named by Dioscorides, is Greek for “dolphin” due to the resemblance of the flower shape.  According to Aiton, early director at Kew Royal Garden, John Bartram (1699-1777) sent it to England.  London’s Chelsea Physic gardener Philip Miller grew it in 1758. Jefferson planted this at Monticello in the NW quarter of the outer border in March 1811.