Astilbe are a popular choice for shady gardens, where they perform well if given a rich, moist soil and regular watering. This midsized selection features linen white plumes, over a compact mound of elegant, lacy bronzy-green leaves. Also thrives in tubs, and mixed containers. Excellent for cutting. Seed heads may be removed, or left on the plant for winter interest. Will tolerate full sun, in cool summer regions. USPP#18955, CPBRAF: unlicensed propagation prohibited.
Serbian bellflowers have an easy, undemanding habit. Creating a stream of lavender blue, the 1-inch-diameter star-shaped blossoms bloom reliably from late spring to early fall. The foliage remains evergreen in mild winters and needs to be sheared only once in a while to keep its appearance tidy. ‘Blue Waterfall’ flows beautifully along bed edges and through rock gardens in full sun to partial shade.
Cheerful spikes of pink snapdragon-like flowers over spreading plants. Ideal middle-of-the-border plant for contrasting color and foliage among dwarf shrubs. Thrives in shaded settings and prefers moist conditions. Herbaceous perennial.
Chelone lyonii, commonly called turtlehead, pink turtlehead or Lyon’s turtlehead, is an upright, clump-forming, rhizomatous perennial in the figwort family which typically grows 2-4’ tall on stiff, square stems. It is native to wet woodland areas and streams in the southern Appalachian Mountains from Virginia to South Carolina and west to Tennessee, northern Mississippi and northern Alabama. It has escaped gardens and naturalized in parts of New England and New York. Hooded , snapdragon-like, two-lipped, pink flowers (to 1” long) bloom in tight, spike-like terminal racemes from late summer into fall (late July to September). Flowers have puffy pink corollas with lower lips bearded with yellow hairs. Flowers purportedly resemble the heads of open-mouthed turtles, hence the common name. Ovate, coarsely-toothed green leaves (to 3-6” long) have slender petioles, rounded bases and pointed tips.
Genus name comes from the Greek word chelone meaning tortoise in reference to the turtlehead shape of the flowers.
Specific epithet honors John Lyon (1765-1814), American botanist, who was an early explorer of the southern Appalachians.
‘Hot Lips’ features rosy pink fall flowers (richer pink than the species), bronze green maturing to dark green foliage (deeper green than the species), and red stems.
Anemone ‘Wild Swan’ unlike the Japanese hybrids that bloom in fall only, this little beauty blooms from spring until frost. Dainty white flowers, with a blush of lavender/purple on the reverse side, dance above the lovely green foliage.
This introduction is long-blooming and compact in habit. It forms a low mound of green willow-like leaves, bearing clusters of dark-blue buds that open into starry soft-blue flowers in early summer and last for several weeks. Plants are long-lived, idea for massing or growing near the front of the sunny border. Leaves turn buttery gold in the autumn. Easy and carefree. Flower colour is the deepest shade of blue yet found in any Amsonia species or selection. Discovered in a seedling block of Amsonia tabernaemontana at White Flower Farms, but suspected to be a hybrid.
Allium ‘Summer Beauty‘ (syn. A. angulosum ‘Summer Beauty‘). More often appreciated for its glossy deep green foliage in the spring and lilac flowers in the summer, A. ‘Summery Beauty’ can add tremendous color and texture to the winter garden. The straw-brown color and strong vertical nature of remnant flower stems topped with remains of the hemispherical flower umbel, now collapsed and pendulous, reflect what was once from the summer. A member of the Amaryllidaceae, this native of central Europe to northern Asia–from France and Italy to Siberia and Kazakhstan–is at home in the Midwestern perennial garden.
Allium ‘Summer Beauty‘ produced leaves up to 10 in. long with flowering stems of up to 20 in. tall. Plants work well as mass plantings, although individual plants can be slow to establish and take up to three years to begin spreading. A. ‘Summer Beauty‘ also works well in inter-planted combinations with numerous other full-sun perennial plants such as Sesleria autumnalis (prairie dropseed), Salvia nemorosa cultivars, and Stachys officinalis ‘Hummelo’ (betony). ‘Summer Beauty‘ is a sterile cultivar, so unwanted spread by seed-in is not a concern.
Roy Diblik of Northwind Perennial Farm developed A. ‘Summer Beauty‘ based on plant material collected from a Chicago area garden. The cultivar is now widely planted throughout the Midwest and Northeastern regions due, primarily, to its resiliency to diseases and pests and, additionally, to its great value as a source of pollen and nectar for honeybees, bumble bees, native bees, and butterflies.
Alchemilla mollis, the garden lady’s-mantle or lady’s-mantle, is a herbaceous perennial plant native to southern Europe and grown throughout the world as an ornamental garden plant. It grows 30 to 45 cm tall, with leaves that are palmately veined, with a scalloped and serrated margin. The stipules are noteworthy in that they are fused together and leaf like. The chartreuse yellow flowers are held in dense clusters above the foliage. This plant, together with a similar but dwarf variety, A. erythropoda, has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.
