Eryngium giganteum Miss Wilmott’s ghost SELF-SEEDING BIENNIAL Z 5-8

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  Size: 24-36”x 12”
  Care: Sun in well-drained alkaline soil, drought tolerant
  Native: Mediterranean
  Wildlife Value: attracts butterflies, bees and hover flies.

  Centranthus is from the Greek meaning “spurred flower.”  According to Culpepper, an English herbalist from the early 1600’s, this plant comforts the heart and stirs up lust.  Parkinson, in 1629 describes it “of a fine red colour, very pleasant to behold.”

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  Awards: England's Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.

  Platycodon is Greek from platys meaning “broad” and kodon meaning “bell”, referring to the shape of the flower. Cultivated in China for hundreds of years where it is called Jie-geng.  The Chinese used the root boiled to cure a chill in the stomach. Mentioned in Man’yoshu, a Japanese anthology of poems written in the 8^th century.  German botanist Johann Gmelin first collected this in Siberia in 1754.  Gmelin’s Siberian mission, sponsored by Catherine the Great, took 10 years and nearly killed him.  Gmelin introduced it to European gardens by 1782.  Robert Fortune found the white form in a nursery near Shanghai and sent it to England in 1845. 

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  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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