Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Lathyrus vernus Blue

Family: (Fabaceae)

(P) to 12″.  Blue Spring Pea.  Europe.  Blue, pea-like flowers in many racemes, bloom in profusion on this low-growing spring treasure.  Foliage is pinnate, providing an almost ferny effect.  Lovely and rare.  Partial shade.  2B & 3 & T2

This seed is either sold out or unavailable

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Yucca smalliana

Family: (Asparagaceae)

(P) to 4′.  Bear Grass Yucca. Southern North America.  This Yucca is similar in many ways to the more popular Adam’s Needle (Yucca filamentosa), however smaller in stature.  Also, the leaves are finer, flatter, and narrower with smoother leaf margins, except for the occasional thread-like fibres.  The flowers are opalescent white and may at times have a light pink-tinge.  Yuccas will form a small colony over time from basal offsets.  Well-drained soil.  Sun.  3 & T2

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Cenolophium denudatum

Family: (Apiaceae)

(P) to 3′.  Baltic Parsley.  Europe and Asia.  A lovely, hardy, Queen Anne’s Lace relative.  Abundant, five-inch, flat-topped umbels of creamy white flowers on branching red stems, float atop mounds of dark-green, fern-like foliage.  Blooms mid-summer to mid-autumn.  Attractive to many beneficial insects, especially butterflies.  Adds a delicate airiness to the summer border.  Full sun and well-drained soil.  3 & T1

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Oenothera glazioviana

Family: (Onagraceae)

(B) to 4′.  Redsepal Evening Primrose.  Northwest Europe.  This Oenothera is roughly hairy in texture with wrinkled basal leaves up to six inches long.  The inflorescence is a showy spike, attractive in both bud and bloom.  The calyx surrounding and protecting the bud is comprised of four, showy red sepals which open, bending fully backwards to reveal four, bright, lemon yellow petals up to two inches long.  The petals fade with age from orange to red, along with the fallen red sepals, making a colourful display. The fruit is a one-inch long, lance-shaped, ridged capsule.  Sun.  3 & T2

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Catananche caerulea ‘Alba’

Family: (Asteraceae)

(P) to 2′.  Mediterranean.  A lovely white form of Cupid’s Dart.  Clumps of short, grey-green, grass-like foliage put up multiple branching, wiry stalks topped with white, cornflower-like blooms.  The dark markings at the base of each notched, ray floret create a central dark-eye.  The flowerhead is subtended by an involucre of multiple papery, scale-like bracts.  Starting in early summer, these long-lasting blooms make worthy cut flowers.  Sun.  Well-drained soil.  3 & T2

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Cuphea salvadorensis

Family: (Lythraceae)

(TP) to 5′.  Salvadoran Cigar Flower.  Central America.  A large, shrubby perennial producing tubular, red-orange flowers with green tips that attract hummingbirds.  Overwinter indoors.  Ours reliably goes out every year planted in the Order Beds.  Blooms summer into fall.  Sun to part shade.  Moist, well-drained soil.  4 & T3

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Salvia forsskaolii

Family: (Lamiaceae)

(P) to 3+’. Indigo Woodland Sage. Balkan peninsula, Bulgaria to Turkey. This plant was named after Finnish explorer Peter Forsskål, a student of Carl Linnaeus.  Large basal clumps of textural green foliage give rise to long, branched flowering stems with whorls of showy, bi-lipped, violet-blue flowers with white streaks on the lower lip.  A great Salvia for open woodland plantings.  Blooms summer into early autumn.  Full sun to part shade.  Moist, well-drained soil. 4 & T3

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Callicarpa dichotoma var. albifructa

Family: Lamiaceae

Hardy shrub to 6′.  China and Korea.  White Fruited Beauty Berry.  Callicarpa dichotoma is, according to Dirr, the “most graceful and refined of the species.”  It is also the most cold-hardy.  This variety has white berries instead of typical purple and may get a bit taller than the typical form.  Sun to partial shade.  PC- 4 weeks, 3 & T1

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Diervilla sessilifolia

Family: Caprifoliaceae

Hardy shrub to 5′.  Southern Bush Honeysuckle.  Eastern North America and southwards to Alabama.  A charming, tough, native shrub.  Opposite leaves with veins flushed red and a reddish tinge to the stems.  The flowers are sulphur yellow, tubular, and split halfway into five equal petals that curl outward.  These grow in bunches from the axils of the topmost sets of leaves, much like the true honeysuckles.  Blooms summer to early fall.  Sun.  3 & T1

This seed is either sold out or unavailable

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Hornungia alpina (syn. Hutchinsia alpina)

Family: Brassicaceae

(P) to 3″.  Chamois Cress.  South and central Europe.  This charming little creeper forms neat spreading mats of bright green, pinnate, fern-like foliage, topped with dense clusters of tiny, four-petalled, white flowers from spring to autumn. Even out of flower, this Cress makes a sweet impression. Sun and well-drained soil. 3 & T2