Description
OUT OF STOCK
Tall, erect, purplish- pink spike in August-September
Tall, erect, purplish- pink spike in August-September
OUT OF STOCK
Tall, erect, purplish- pink spike in August-September
OUT OF STOCK
Its delicate appearance conceals its hardy constitution. Dainty bluish-lilac bells to 12” stems on bushy round ground-hugging foliage. Blooms from June to October and occasionally November. Perfect for rock gardens and borders.
Size: 9-12" x 12"
Care: Sun to part shade in moist well-drained soil
Native: Europe, Siberia and North America, including Wisconsin
Wildlife Value: Walnut and deer tolerant
Lakota ate the leaves raw and cooked and made an infusion of the roots to remedy earaches. Sir Walter Scott immortalized the Bluebell of Scotland in Lady of the Lake. Also a subject of Emily Dickinson’s poetry.
In May and June yellow petticoats peek out from under eye-popping red skirts flaring at the ends as these flowers dangle from tall stems.
Size: 24-36”x 12”
Care: part shade in moist well-drained soil - moist in spring & dry in summer
Native: Eastern Canada to Florida, west to New Mexico, Wisconsin native.
Wildlife Value: Provides rich, early spring nectar for bumblebees, bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Buntings and finches eat seeds. Sole food source for Columbine duskywing caterpillar.
Awards: England’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.
Seeds are fragrant when crushed, used by Omaha, Ponca and Pawnee as perfume. Pawnee used the plant as a love charm by rubbing pulverized seeds in palm of hand and endeavoring to shake hand of desired person. Crushed seeds also used to cure fever and headaches. Cherokee made a tea for heart trouble. The Iroquois used the plant to cure poisoning and to detect people who were bewitched. Grown by Tradescant the Elder in England in 1632. He may have received it from France. Cultivated by Washington & Jefferson. Grown at America’s 1st botanic garden, Elgin Botanic Garden 1811.
OUT OF STOCK
Lemon yellow silky petals bloom late spring to early fall on this tough-as-nails native
Size: 9-18” x 12-15”
Care: sun in well-drained soil, drought tolerant
Native: Great Plains: Central Canada to TX, Michigan to Montana, WI native
1st described in 1818 by Thomas Nuttall, English planthunter who collected hundreds of “new” plants in North America. Caly is Greek for calyx; lophos for “the back of the neck; crest of a hill or helmet” serrulatus means “minutely serrate” or “saw-toothed” describing the leaf margins.
The description in the Chiltern Seeds catalog cannot be improved: “This is the most elegant and refined of the North American prairie grasses …the finest texture composed of the thinnest of thin, thread-like, glossy green blades,.. in autumn turning deep orange before fading to a light copper for the winter. In late summer the plants bear, on very slender stalks high above the foliage, unbelievably delicate, graceful flower panicles, excellent for cutting. ”One of internationally known garden designer Piet Oudolf’s 100 “MUST HAVE” plants, Gardens Illustrated 94 (2013)
Size: 2’ x 2’
Care: Full sun in well-drained soil
Native: from Canada in the north to Texas in the south, Wisconsin native
Wildlife Value: seeds are food for birds
Awards: Missouri Botanic Garden Plant of Merit & Great Plants for Great Plains Grass of the Year.
Sporobolos is Greek from sporo meaning seed and ballein meaning to cast forth because the seed readily falls from the flower (or dropseed, the common name). Ojibwa “Medicine Society” used roots to cure sores & “remove bile.”