Perennials & Biennials

Showing 481–488 of 508 results

  • Tradescantia bracteata Spiderwort Z 4-9

    rosy purple flowers July-August

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    $12.25/bareroot

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    rosy purple flowers July-August

    Size: 12-18” x 12”
    Care: full sun to part shade in moist well drained soil
    Native: Minnesota south to Texas
    Wildlife Value: attracts bees & butterflies

    Genus named after John Tradescant the Younger, an English botanist, who introduced Tradescantia virginiana to garden cultivation in 1637, when he sent it to his father, gardener to King Charles I.   This prairie plant collected before 1938.

  • Tradescantia virginiana Spiderwort Z 4-9

    Purple umbels with prominent yellow stamens June – October

    $12.25/bareroot

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    Purple umbels with prominent yellow stamens June – October

    Size: 18-24" x 24"
    Care: Full sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil
    Native: From New York to South Dakota, Virginia and Arkansas
    Wildlife Value: Bumblebees and honeybees eat the nectar and collect the pollen.

    Named after John Tradescant, an English botanist and gardener to King Charles I.   Parkinson explains the origin of this plant: “This Spider-wort is of late knowledge, and for it the Christian world is indebted unto that painfull industrious searcher, and lover of all natures varieties, John Tradescant who first received it of a friend, that brought it out of Virginia,” (1639). It was probably sent to mainland Europe in 1500’s. Grown at America’s 1st botanic garden, Elgin Botanic Garden 1811.  Tradescantia was cherished by the Dakota Indians for its beauty.  Cherokee ate the young greens and prescribed it to cure stomachaches after overeating, female illnesses, cancer and insect bites.  Menominee revived those “defiled by touch of bereaved.” Natives applied a poultice of the leaves topically for insect bites and stings. By 1659 ones with white, light blue and reddish flowers grown in England. According to Monticello.org the root exuded a gummy liquid which, when inserted into a cut on top of a person’s head remedied the person’s “craziness.” Cultivated in the U.S. since 1700’s

  • Tricyrtis hirta Japanese Toad Lily, Hairy toadlily Zone 4 – 8

    flowers white with purple spots.

    $12.75/bareroot

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    From August to October flowers white with purple spots.

    Size: 2-3' x 12"
    Care: Moist well-drained soil in part shade to shade
    Native: Japanese islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu
    Awards: Oklahoma Proven 2010, Rated good by the Chicago Botanic Garden

    Name Tricyrtis is Greek meaning “three cavities”, supposedly describing the outer petals.  Originally collected for the West by Swedish Carl Pehr von Thunberg (1743-1828) who traveled spent seven years collecting plants in South Africa and Japan and Indonesia. Japan in 1775-1776. (1743-1828) Named by English botanist Sir Joseph Hooker in 1863. The Japanese name for this plant hototogisu, means “cuckoo” because the purple dots on the petals resemble the spots on the cuckoo bird’s chest.   purple dots on the petals resemble the spots on the cuckoo bird’s chest.

  • Trillium grandiflorum Large flowered Trillium, Wake robin Z 4-8

    Pure white trio of petals atop whorl of leaves in May. Ephemeral.

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    OUT OF STOCK – Available for purchase in Spring only

    Pure white trio of petals atop whorl of leaves in May. Ephemeral.

    Size: 12-18” x slowly spreading
    Care: shade to part shade in moist soil
    Native: Quebec to Georgia, west to Minnesota WI native
    Awards: Elisabeth Carey Miller Botanical Garden Great Plant Picks

    Chippewa made decoctions of Trillium for aching joints & sore ears. Menominee cured many ailments with this Trillium: irregular menstrual periods, cramps, diuretic, swollen eyes and “sore nipples and teats pierced with a dog whisker.” Collected by Frenchman André Michaux (1746-1802) who spent 11 years in America collecting hundreds of new plants.

  • Trollius europaeus Globe flower Z 5-8

    Ball-shaped deep golden buds opening to nearly orange cups with prominent stamens from May to June & sporadically in September  

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Ball-shaped deep golden buds opening to nearly orange cups with prominent stamens from May to June & sporadically in September

     

    Size: 18-24”x 24”
    Care: Full sun to part shade in moist to wet soil
    Native: Northern Europe

    Trollius is derived from the old Swiss-German word trol meaning “something round,” referring to the shape of the flower. Swedish used the fragrant drying flower petals for a strewing herb. Introduced to European gardens by the 1500’s and cultivated in America in the 1700’s. Grown in the Eichstätt Garden, the garden of Johann Konrad von Gemmingen, prince bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria, c. 1600.

    Grown by Jefferson.

  • Tunica saxifraga syn. Petrorhagia saxifraga Tunic flower Z 4-8

    Free blooming pixie, palest of pink blossoms from June through October on wiry stems form a 4" tall mound.

    $9.25/bareroot

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    Free blooming pixie, palest of pink blossoms from June through October on wiry stems form a 4″ tall mound.

    Size: 6" x 8"
    Care: Full sun in well-drained soil.
    Native: Pyrenees and Alps
    Wildlife Value: Drought tolerant.
    Awards: Royan Horticultural Society Award of Merit.
    Size: Perfect for rock gardens, front of borders or groundcover.

    Tunica is Latin meaning tunic or coat referring to overlapping bracts beneath the flower.  Before 1753. Near the turn of the century William Robinson described the Tunic flower as having “elegant little rosy flowers … a neat plant for the rock garden and fringes of borders and thrives like a weed between the stones in a rough stone wall.”  “Suggestive of a miniature gypsophila.”  H.H. Thomas, 1915.

  • Umbilicus oppositifolius syn. Chiastophyllum oppositifolium Lamb’s tail  Z 5-9

    For shady gardens, a low mound of thick, succulent green leaves, bearing arching, upright stems with dangling chains of sulphur yellow flowers in May-June.

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    OUT OF STOCK

    For shady gardens, a low mound of thick, succulent green leaves, bearing arching, upright stems with dangling chains of sulphur yellow flowers in May-June.

    Size: 6-8” x 10-12”
    Care: part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil
    Native: Caucasus Mountains
    Awards: Recipient Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit

    1st described and named as Cotyledon oppostitfoilum in Bulletin scientifique (publié par l’) Académie Imperiale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg 2: 813. 1837.

  • Vaccinium macrocarpon syn. Oxycoccus macrocarpus Cranberry Z 3-7 Evergreen shrub

    Clusters of nodding clusters of pink tube-shaped flowers in spring grow into large cranberries in September-October.

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    Clusters of nodding clusters of pink tube-shaped flowers in spring grow into large cranberries in September-October.

    Size: 8-10" x 2-3'
    Care: sun in moist well-drained acidic soil
    Native: Northern east coast to northern central US & Canada, Wisconsin native
    Wildlife Value: attracts bees, butterflies, and birds for nectar; small animals eat the fruits and nest in it

    “An easy to grow and beautiful ornamental …will thrive in moist soil. A bog is not necessary… The evergreen plants make dense 8” to 10” high mats of tiny leaves (that) bear little pinkish flowers in late spring, and in the fall the leaves turn as fiery red as the berries.” 25 sq ‘+ 5 lbs berries.  Cuttings easily root. Plant 1 per sq. ft.  Described by Aiton.  Algonquin, Chippewa, Iroquois, Ojibwa ate the berries.