Centaurea dealbata Persian cornflower Z 3-8

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• Linaria purpurea Purple toadflax Z 5-9

  Violet racemes all summer July to September

  

  $9.95/bareroot

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  Violet racemes all summer through fall

  Size: 36” x 12”
  Care: Sun, well-drained soil
  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.

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

  Outfacing, white, waxy cup-shaped flowers resembling single roses in late winter, evergreen leaves.

  

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  Outfacing, white, waxy cup-shaped flowers resembling single roses in late winter, evergreen leaves.

  Size: 12-20” x 12”
  Care: part shade in moist well-drained soil
  Native: rocky places in Europe
  Awards: Received Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.

  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.

• Thymus serpyllum syn. Thymus praecox Mother-of-thyme, creeping thyme Z 4-9

  Short purple spikes in June-July

  

  $10.25/pot

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  Short purple spikes in June-July

  Size: 3” x 24”
  Care: sun in well-drained soil
  Native: Europe & Western Asia
  Size: groundcover, rock garden, herb, fragrant foliage, thyme lawn

  Thymus  from the Greek word for “odor” due to the plant’s fragrance.  Ancient Greeks made incense with thyme.   This species since at least 1753. Acc’d to Parkinson in 1640 this remedied hysterics in women.  Wm. Robinson wrote,”nothing can be more charming than a sunny bank covered with” Thymus serpyllum.  LH Bailey extolled it as “prized as an evergreen edging and as cover for rockwork and waste places …The leaves are sometimes used for seasoning.”

• Clematis texensis ‘Gravetye Beauty’ Z 5-9

  Small crimson-red bells dangle from July to September

  

  $16.95/bareroot

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  Small crimson-red bells dangle from July to September

  Size: 8’ x 3’
  Care: Sun in humusy, fertile, moist well-drained soil. Mulch around the base. Flowers on current year’s stems so cut back to 6-9” in late winter or early spring.

  The genus Clematis was named by Dioscordes, physician in Nero’s army, from “klema” meaning climbing plant. The species 1^st collected by the “Father of Texas botany,” Ferdinand Lindheimer in 1830’s. Max Leichtin of the Baden Garden sent Clematis texensis to Kew Botanic Garden near London in 1880’s.  French nurseryman Francisque Morel sent this selection to William Robinson who named it for his English nursery at Gravetye Manor in 1914.