Archive for the ‘Perennials’ Category

Six Perennials To Include In Your Garden

I continue to report to you on plants that perform. I am quick to eliminate plants that don’t live up to expectations.Here are six topnotch perennials you will enjoy in your garden for many years. Arkansas bluestar (Amsonia hubrichtii) grows into a 2-3 feet tall arching clump of soft, feathery green leaves. Blue starry flowers […]

Tall Stonecrops (Sedums)

Stonecrops (Hylotelephium spectabile) are tall clumping sedums. They are frequent seen in their habitat growing on rocks or stony ledges. Also written as Sedum spectabile, many varieties grow 1.5 to 2 feet high. Approximately 33 species of these drought-tolerant herbaceous perennials are found to Asia, Europe and North America (USDA hardiness zones 3-9). Stonecrop make excellent […]

Perennial Favorites For The Summer Garden

If someone was to create the Garden Performance Hall of Fame for summer flowering perennials, I would nominate this list of ten (10). I have had experience growing many of them in my Northeast Tennessee garden (USDA hardiness zone 6-b). In a few instances, I have selected a variety that grows in friends’ or a […]

Six Flowering Perennials For Downtown Areas

Here is what some downtown areas in the Southeast and Midwest U.S. were planting this spring: Rudbeckia lacinata ‘Herbstonne’ aka ‘Autumn Sun’ is a long-blooming butterfly favorite with clusters of bright yellow ray flowers with large green cones from mid to late summer. Leaves are large, glossy, deep green, deeply cut along the stems. Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida […]

Three High Performance Coneflower Series

Coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) are very popular perennials (USDA hardiness zones 4-9). Their colorful flowers will attract a multitude of beneficial pollinators to your garden. Some cultivar series come in a myriad of colors. For the best and biggest flowers, coneflowers perform at their best in full sun and in well-drained soils. After planting echinaceas grow […]

Attractive Butterfly Weed

Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), aka milkweed, is a long-lived summer blooming perennial. In the wild milkweed may be found growing in dry/rocky open woodlands, prairies, farm fields, and along roadsides in the southeastern U.S and mid-western U.S. and Canada (USDA hardiness zones 3 -9). Established plants typically grow as a clump to 2- 3 feet high and 1 […]

Grow Crocosmias In Your Summer Garden

Crocosmias are bulbous summer blooming flowering perennials that are closely related to gladiolas, also called montbretia and sword lilies. They’re actually corms, not bulbs, and are indigenous to South Africa (USDA hardiness zones 5b to 9). Crocosmias enjoy lots of sun, soil moisture, and hot temps to produce flowers. Plants prefer nutrient-rich, slightly acidic, moist, […]

Arborvitae Fern

Arborvitae fern (Selaginella braunii) is native to China (USDA hardiness zones 6-9). It is not a fern at all, but a Lycopod or “club moss”, a descendant of ancient spore-producing plants which date back to the Carboniferous and Permian Ages. Its small club shaped cones give it the plant moniker – ”club moss”. Arborvitae fern is a slowly creeping […]

Sacred Lily (Rohdea)

Sacred lily (Rohdea japonica), aka nippon lilies, are native to Japan and China. Rohdeas are truly collector’s plants (USDA hardiness zones 6-10). In the Orient these lovely shade perennials are highly revered. In traditional Japanese horticulture, sacred lilies (known as o moto) came to be associated with long life and good fortune. Containers are planted […]

Black Mondo Grass

Black mondo grass or black lilyturf (Ophiopogon planiscapus) is sold as a number of cultivars – ‘Arabicus’, ‘Black Dragon’, ‘Nigrescens’, or ‘Ebony Knight’. This stoloniferous grass-like perennial belongs to the lily family (Liliaceae) (USDA  hardiness zones 6-9). Its blackish-purple foliage (3/16 inch wide leaf blades) forms lush arching clumps. For the patient gardener, know that […]