Perennials & Biennials

Showing 337–344 of 512 results

  • Papaver anomalum alba Z 5-9

    Paper thin petals on this pure white poppy with yellow stamens blooms May to October except in the heat of July.

    $10.25/pot

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    Paper thin petals on this pure white poppy with yellow stamens blooms May to October except in the heat of July.

    Size: 12” x 8”
    Care: sun to part shade in well-drained soil. Deer resistant
    Native: European Alps

    Anomalum means extraordinary and this poppy is.  Collected by 1909.

  • Papaver bracteatum Great scarlet poppy Z 5-8

    Glossy fire engine red petals with black heart

    $10.25/bareroot

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    Available for purchase in Spring only

    Glossy fire engine red petals with black heart in June. D.M. Ferry Catalog, 1876: ”great beauty and magnificent.”

    Size: 3-4’ x 3’
    Care: sun in well-drained soil. Foliage dies back in summer & reemerges in the cool autumn. Drought tolerant and deer resistant.
    Native: Siberia & Northern Iran

    Papaver bracteatum was introduced to European gardens in 1817 from its native Siberia.  Poppies have been grown since at least the time when Homer wrote the Illiad, in which he used the poppy’s hanging bud as a metaphor for a dying soldier. During World War I, Canadian soldier John McCrae again united the poppy with dying soldiers.  He wrote “In Flanders’ Field.”

  • Papaver orientale ‘Princess Victoria Louise’ Poppy Z 3-7

    crinkled, crepe-paper like apricot-pink petals

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    ARCHIVED

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

    Dramatic, crinkled, crepe-paper like apricot-pink petals with black blotch in center – June.  It is an ephemeral, like a tulip; it all disappears in summer and then the leaves reappear in late fall, so don’t be surprised.

    Size: 24-30” x 18”
    Care: sun in well-drained soil

    Poppies have been grown since at least the time when Homer wrote the Illiad, in which he used the poppy’s hanging bud as a metaphor for a dying soldier. French botanist Tournefort discovered the classic orange poppy, P. orientale in Armenia in 1714 and sent it to the King of France. This cultivar of the Oriental poppy in gardens since 1908. Princess Victoria Louise (1892-1980) was the only daughter of William II, German Emperor and Empress Augusta Victoria of Prussia and the maternal grandmother of Queen Sophie of Spain and former King Constantine II of the Hellenes.  By marriage she was the Duchess of Brunswick. She was a beauty and the flower is aptly named.

  • Papaver orientale Poppy Z 2-7

    The classic poppy - papery tabasco petals with black blotch center in June. D.M. Ferry Catalog, 1876:"great beauty and magnificent.” It appears to die back in summer then the leaves reappear in fall.

    $10.25/bareroot

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    Available for purchase in Spring only

    The classic poppy – papery tabasco petals with black blotch center in June. D.M. Ferry Catalog, 1876: ”great beauty and magnificent.”  It appears to die back in summer then the leaves reappear in fall.

    Size: 2-3’ x 2’
    Care: Full sun in well-drained soil.
    Native: Caucasus
    Wildlife Value: Deer resistant.

    Poppies have been grown since at least the time when Homer wrote the Illiad, in which he used the poppy’s hanging bud as a metaphor for a dying soldier. During World War I, Canadian soldier John McCrae again united the poppy with dying soldiers.  He wrote “In Flanders’ Field.”
    French botanist Joseph Pitton Tournefort (1656-1708) discovered this in Armenia in 1714 and sent it to the King of France.    In 1741 Englishman Peter Collinson sent seeds to John Bartram who cultivated the plant in his Philadelphia nursery.  Jefferson grew the oriental poppy at Monticello and Washington grew it at Mount Vernon.  Acc’d to the Gardeners Dictionary, 1768 “There are two or three varieties of this which differ only in the colour of their flowers … and a double flower of this kind … Tournefort says, the Turks eat the green heads of this Poppy, although they are very bitter and acrid.”

  • Papaver rupifragum Spanish poppy Z 5-9

    Small crinkled, crepe-paper like apricot petals all summer & fall except for a recess in the heat of July.  If you let them go to seed they will make more plants and you’ll be glad for it.

    $10.25/pot

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    Small crinkled, crepe-paper like apricot petals all summer & fall except for a recess in the heat of July.  If you let them go to seed they will make more plants and you’ll be glad for it.

    Size: 12-18" x 8"
    Care: sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil. Deer resistant, drought tolerant
    Native: Spain, Asia Minor & Caucasus

    First described in Journal of Botany in 1873. Louise Beebe Wilder considered this among her favorite perennials. (1918). One of our favorites too! Gertrude Jekyll, mother of the mixed perennial border planted this for its “rich apricot color.” (1908).

  • Parthenium integrifolium Wild Quinine Z 3-8

    Work-horse white cymes July through October

    $13.25/bareroot

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    Work-horse white cymes July through October

    Size: 2-3’ x 12”
    Care: sun in moist well-drained soil
    Native: Mass. To Georgia & Minn. To Arkansas, incl. WI
    Wildlife Value: provides nectar and pollen to native bees.

    Seeds are fragrant when crushed.  Named “quinine” because it was used to treat fevers similar to malaria.  Catawabe Indians used the leaves to treat burns and the flowers to treat fever.  1st described in literature in 1732.

  • Penstemon digitalis Foxglove beardtongue Z 2-8

    Palest of pink tubular bells in June - deadhead for rebloom. More vigorous and longer blooming than its well-known cultivar ‘Husker Red.’

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    OUT OF STOCK

    Palest of pink tubular bells in June – deadhead for rebloom.  More vigorous and longer blooming than its well-known cultivar ‘Husker Red.’

    Size: 24-48” x 18”
    Care: sun or part shade in fertile, well-drained soil
    Native: Nebraska, Wisconsin
    Wildlife Value: host for caterpillar of Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly.

    Penstemon is named for its five stamens, penta meaning “five” in Greek.  Used medicinally by the Dakota and Pawnee – to remedy chest pains, chills and fevers.  P. digitalis first sent to Europe when the son of the royal Spanish gardener sent it to Kew Botanic Garden in England, 1793.

  • Penstemon grandiflorus Large beard tongue Z 3-9 short-lived perennial that reseeds

    Large pink to lavender trumpets along the 3’ stem in early summer

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    OUT OF STOCK

    Large pink to lavender trumpets along the 3’ stem in early summer

    Size: 3’ x 10”
    Care: full sun in well-drained soil
    Native: IL to N. Dakota, south to TX, Wisconsin
    Wildlife Value: attracts Baltimore butterfly

    Discovered by Thomas Nuttall, (1786-1859) who searched entire No. American continent, describing this Penstemon as “splendid and beautiful,” on his trip up the Missouri River in 1811. Cured chest pains and stomach aches for the Dakota and chills and fever for the Pawnee. Sioux made decoctions of this to remedy chills and fever and chest pain.