Adenophora lilifolia Ladybells Z 3-8

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  Soft, majestic purple-magenta thistles on prickly silver foliage and stems.

  Can not ship to: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

  Size: 4-6’ x 2”
  Care: full sun in moist, well-drained soil
  Native: Europe and western Asia
  Wildlife Value: Bees, butterflies and birds

  Identified by Dioscorides in De Materia Medica for medicinal use around 70 A.D.  Chosen as the symbol of Scotland by King James V. According to legend the Scotch thistle helped Scotland fend off a night-time Viking invasion by preventing a sneak attack.  It caused the Vikings to scream in pain waking the Scots.  Introduced to American gardens in late 1800’s.

• Helleborus niger Christmas rose, Black hellebore Z 5-8 POISON

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  The name Helleborus is Greek from hellein meaning “to kill” and bora meaning “food” referring to the plant’s poisonous qualities if placed in food.  This species is ancient – known as long ago as 300 BC in Greece where it “purged and cured the mad or melancholicke daughters of Praetus with the roots thereof.” (Parkinson, 1629) Grown in the Eichstätt Garden, the garden of Johann Konrad von Gemmingen, prince bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria, c. 1600.  In Middle Ages petals thrown on floor to drive out evil and ward off power of witches. English herbalist John Gerard (1545-1612) strangely recommended it for curing poisoned animals. Sorcerers made themselves invisible by tossing the powdered plant in the air.

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  Native: Southern Europe

  Both the Latin and common names are related to flax.  Linaria comes from “linum” which is Greek for “flax” and toadflax includes the word “flax.”  The leaves of Linaria purpurea resemble flax leaves.  According to 17^th century English herbalist, John Parkinson, the plant “causes one to make water.”  Grown by English plantsman and explorer, Tradescant the Elder, 1634.

• Sempervivum tectorum Hens and chicks Z 3-10

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  Grown in gardens for thousands of years.  Sempervivum means “live forever.”  Romans planted Hens and chicks on their roofs to ward off lightening.  As a succulent it holds water and is probably more difficult to catch fire.  “This practice was preserved for historians when Charlemagne (720-814), first Holy Roman Emperor and unifier of a large part of northern Europe, ordered that all villagers within his crown lands plant houseleeks on their roofs He decreed: “Et ille hortulanus habeat super domum suam Iovis barbam. (And the gardener shall have house-leeks growing on his house. Capitulare de villis, about 795,  LXX.)”