Clusters of dark blue tubes with white throats blooming in mid to late summer – one of the easiest (least picky) gentians to grow. One botanist believes this is the same as Gentiana gracilipes. I admit, we’ve grown both and I cannot tell the difference. Botanists sometimes differentiae plants on tiny plant parts not readily visible. Such botanists are called “splitters.” We’ll await modern DNA testing to tell.
Clusters of dark blue tubes with white throats blooming in mid to late summer – one of the easiest (least picky) gentians to grow. One botanist believes this is the same as Gentiana gracilipes. I admit, we’ve grown both and I cannot tell the difference. Botanists sometimes differentiae plants on tiny plant parts not readily visible. Such botanists are called “splitters.” We’ll await modern DNA testing to tell.
Powder-blue flowers of terminal clusters in early summer; feathery, thin,”threadleaf” foliage turns caution-sign yellow in fall.
Size: 2-3’ x 2-3’
Care: sun to part shade in moist well-drained soil
Native: Central-So, US
Wildlife Value: attracts butterflies & bees
Awards: Plant of Merit, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Gold Medal
Collected in 1940 in Yell County Arkansas along a stream 3 miles west of Birta.
OUT OF STOCK
Sprays of large, single warming yellow daisies, blushed with apricot top a bushy mound of light green leaves, blooms late-summer to late-fall
Size: 1-2’ x 2-3’ and spreading
Care: Full sun to part shade, tolerates normal, sandy or clay soil
Wildlife Value: Attracts bees, butterflies and birds. Deer resistant.
One of the rubellum hybrids, Hybridized in the 1930’s
OUT OF STOCK
SHRUB Boxwood
Size: 24” x 30”
Care: Light to Part shade in well drained, alkaline soil. Do not crowd with other plants, roots prefer no competition. Fertilize regularly for dramatic growth. Prune in early spring. Unlike English boxwood this can be pruned back hard. One of a few shade tolerant evergreens and deer resistant too. Also the most hardy Boxwood.
Introduced from Asia to American and European gardens around 1900 by Ernest Henry “Chinese” Wilson (1876-1930) who scoured Asia for plants.
Dark pink-purple flowers from late spring to mid-summer
Size: 32” x 18”
Care: full sun to part shade in moist well-drained soil
Native: Europe
Wildlife Value: a favorite of Bumblebees
In Greek mythology Silene was a companion of Bacchus who was covered with foam. Dioicus means that male and female plants are separate. Described by 1750’s. Grown in American gardens since 1800’s
