Description
Opposite leaves grow up the foot-tall stems forming a ladder to the tops where sprays of five-petaled lavender-blue bells with bright yellow stamens, bloom in spring. Repeats if deadheaded and may self-sow if not cut back.
Opposite leaves grow up the foot-tall stems forming a ladder to the tops where sprays of five-petaled lavender-blue bells with bright yellow stamens, bloom in spring. Repeats if deadheaded and may self-sow if not cut back.
Opposite leaves grow up the foot-tall stems forming a ladder to the tops where sprays of five-petaled lavender-blue bells with bright yellow stamens, bloom in spring. Repeats if deadheaded and may self-sow if not cut back.
OUT OF STOCK
Outfacing, white, waxy cup-shaped flowers resembling single roses in late winter, evergreen leaves.
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.
Fast-growing, pyramidal-shaped deciduous conifer. The orange to brown trunk base tapers and thickens with up to a dozen large buttress-like root flares extending several feet up the trunk. Feathery, fern-like, soft foliage emerges light green in spring, and turns red-bronze in fall before dropping. Its branches are well-attached and make excellent climbing.
Size: 70-90’ x 15-25’
Care: sun in moist to moist well-drained, slightly acid soil
Native: Szechuan China
Awards: Royal Botanic Garden Award of Garden Merit, Yew Dell Botanical Gardens’ Theodore Klein Plant Awards & Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Gold
From fossil records, dawn redwood is known to have existed as many as 50,000,000 years ago. However, it was not until 1941 that dawn redwood was first discovered growing in the wild near the town of Modaoqi China by Chinese forester, T. Kan. Seeds collected from the original site were made available to the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1947. Seedlings grown therefrom were planted in front of the Lehmann Building at MBG in 1952 where they have now developed into large mature trees (70’+ tall). Dawn redwood is a deciduous, coniferous tree that grows in a conical shape to 100’ tall. It is related to and closely resembles bald cypress (Taxodium) and redwood (Sequoia).
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.
OUT OF STOCK
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 1st collected for gardens by John Bartram (1699-1776). Offered for sale in Bartram Garden’s 1783 Broadside, America’s 1st 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.