Veronica spicata Speedwell Z 4-8

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

  Outfacing, white, waxy cup-shaped flowers resembling single roses in late winter, evergreen leaves.

  

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  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.

• Penstemon hirsutus Downy penstemon Z. 3-9

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  Lavender-Pink outside and white inside funnels in June

  Size: 20” x 12-24”
  Care: sun in well-drained soil
  Native: northeast North America
  Wildlife Value: attracts Baltimore butterfly and feeds the Rusty patched Bumble Bee

  Penstemon is named for its five stamens, penta meaning “five” and stemon meaning “stamen” in Greek.  Penstemons are “handsome and deserving,” Bailey.  P. hirsutus sent from America to England in 1758.

• 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.

  

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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. 

• Sempervivum tectorum Hens and chicks Z 3-10

  Rosettes of succulent leaves

  

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  Rosettes of succulent leaves

  Size: 4” x 4”
  Care: sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil
  Native: Alps & Pyrenees Mountains

  Grown in gardens for thousands of years.  Sempervivum means “live forever.”  Romans planted Hens and chicks on their roofs to ward off lightening.  As a succulent it holds water and is probably more difficult to catch fire.  “This practice was preserved for historians when Charlemagne (720-814), first Holy Roman Emperor and unifier of a large part of northern Europe, o:rdered that all villagers within his crown lands plant houseleeks on their roofs He decreed: “Et ille hortulanus habeat super domum suam Iovis barbam. (And the gardener shall have house-leeks growing on his house. Capitulare de villis, about 795,  LXX.)”