Lilium lancifolium Tiger lily, in Japan called “oniyuri” Z 2-7

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  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.

  

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  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.

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

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  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.

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  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.

• Lilium superbum Meadow lily Z 4-8

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  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.

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  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 1^st 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.”