Description
Rare plant. Spires of tiny purple to blue trumpets with yellow throats spring, summer & fall. Love this itsy plant.
Rare plant. Spires of tiny purple to blue trumpets with yellow throats spring, summer & fall. Love this itsy plant.
Rare plant. Spires of tiny purple to blue trumpets with yellow throats spring, summer & fall. Love this itsy plant.
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 17th century English herbalist, John Parkinson, the plant “causes one to make water.” Grown by English plantsman and explorer, Tradescant the Elder, 1634.
Atop a mound of spatula-shaped, crinkled leaves with scalloped edges rises a bounty of 4 to 5 inch tall spikes, each crowned with a hoard of tiny fuchsia-colored trumpets blowing their horns “look at me” in early to mid-summer.
Size: 4-8" x 8-12" spreading slowly by rhizomes
Care: sun to part shade in moist well-drained soil
Native: South Africa
Wildlife Value: Deer resistant. Attracts small bees and butterflies
English adventurer and naturalist William John Burchell (1781-1863) scoured South Africa from 1803 to 1815 collecting more than 50,000 specimens packed in 48 crates. In places unexplored he found insects, animals, fish and unknown plants, this being one. Although he published two volumes of his exploration, he did not finish the last, third volume, leaving another to write the botany. Premier English botanist George Bentham (1800-1884) took up the task authoring Labiatarum Genera et Species, published in 1834. He wrote the first published description and named this tiny plant with outsized charm.
Small purple flowers atop tall leafless stems from July to October. Great see-through blooms for growing in back, middle or front of the garden.
Size: 3-4’ x 8”
Care: full sun in moist, well-drained, fertile soil - self-seeder
Native: South America
Awards: Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit & Missouri Botanic Garden Plant of Merit.
Introduced to garden cultivation from its native Buenos Aires in 1726 by the Sherard brothers.
Brilliant orange with purple spots, turks-cap lily with dramatic, swept-back petals blooming late summer to early fall. Slow to mature but when it does it bears up to 40 flowers on one plant.
Size: 10’ x 12”
Care: Sun in moist to moist-well-drained, acidic soil
Native: from VT to Fl & west to Mississippi River, Wisconsin native
Lilium was named for the Greek word for smooth, polished referring to its leaves. This collected before 1665. In his 1665 book, Flora, seu de Florum Cultura John Rea, nurseryman and author, called it the “Virginia Martagon.” Sold in America’s 1st plant catalog, Bartram’s Broadside, 1783. L.H. Bailey (1913): “The most magnificent and showy of native North American species, well worthy of extensive cultivation.”