Nepeta subsessilis Japanese catmint Z 4-8

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• Platycodon grandiflorus albus Balloon flower Z 3-9

  Balloon shaped buds as though puffed with air, open to white, five-petal bells from mid-summer to early fall.

  

  $10.25/bareroot

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  Balloon shaped buds as though puffed with air, open to white, five-petal bells from mid-summer to early fall.

  Size: 24" x 12"
  Care: Sun to part shade in moist well-drained soil, heat and drought tolerant. Deadhead for rebloom.
  Native: Eastern Asia
  Wildlife Value: attracts hummingbirds, bees & butterflies
  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. 

• Myrica pensylvanica syn. Morella pensylvanica Wax myrtle, Northern bayberry SHRUB Z 3-6

  Green flowers in summer then, “conspicuous in winter when covered with its grayish white fruits which stay on the branches until spring.”  Bailey “The leaves turn a fine brown-purple in the fall, but the berries are the thing – pewter in color, with a texture like those Fourth of July sparklers of childhood memory, they have a delicious fragrance.” Allen Lacy.

  

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  Green flowers in summer then, “conspicuous in winter when covered with its grayish white fruits which stay on the branches until spring.”  Bailey “The leaves turn a fine brown-purple in the fall, but the berries are the thing – pewter in color, with a texture like those Fourth of July sparklers of childhood memory, they have a delicious fragrance.” Allen Lacy.

  Size: 9’ x 10’
  Care: sun in any soil
  Native: Canada to Southeastern U.S. No pruning needed but can be pruned at any time of year, if desired.
  Wildlife Value: Berries relished by chickadees, red-bellied woodpeckers, swallows, Titmouse, catbirds, bluebirds, Northern flicker & yellow-rumped warblers. Bayberry thickets also provide nesting sites for songbirds, offering excellent protection from predators.

  Probably 1^st collected for gardens by John Bartram (1699-1776).  Offered for sale in Bartram Garden’s 1783 Broadside, America’s 1^st plant catalog.  In 1800’s considered “very ornamental in the shrubbery.”  Fragrant leaves used for potpourri, abundant berries used to make candles.  Good road-side plant, salt tolerant.  Berries used to make candles.  Boil berries (drupes) to melt wax coating.  Collect wax from surface of water.   In American Medicinal Plants Charles F. Millspaugh noted that “Candles made from this wax, though quite brittle, are less greasy in warm weather, of fine appearance, slightly aromatic, and smokeless after snuffing, rendering them much more pleasant to use than those made of either wax (paraffin) or tallow (animal fat).” 1892.

• Verbena bonariensis Perennial Z 7-10, colder zones-reseeding annual

  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.

  

  $3.75/pot

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  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.

• Centranthus ruber Jupiter’s beard, Red Valerian, Pretty Betsy Z 5-8

  Clusters of crimson, star-shaped florets atop 2’ stems bloom their heads off ALL summer into fall.

  

  $10.25/bareroot

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  Clusters of crimson, star-shaped florets atop 2’ stems bloom their heads off ALL summer into fall.

  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.”