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): Echinacea pallida

Family: (Asteraceae)

(P) to 3′.  Central and eastern United States.  An ethereal form of the Purple Coneflower with thinner, languid, elongated petals of the softest pale pink.  Sun.  4 & T2

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Agastache nepetoides

Family: (Lamiaceae)

(P) to 5′.  Yellow Giant Hyssop.  South Canada to Southeast US.  Whorls of tiny, greenish-yellow flowers closely packed into five-inch terminal spikes appear on stiff, square stems. Toothed, arrowhead-shaped leaves are up to five inches long. Whilst the leaves lack the strong smell like other species in the mint family, the bitterness of its leaves make it deer resistant.  Tolerant of summer heat and humidity, this late summer bloomer is a favourite of bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.  Grows best in rich, open woodlands. Sun/partial shade.  4 & T2

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Ixiolirion tataricum subsp. pallasii

Family: (Ixioliriaceae)

Hardy bulb to 16″.  Lavender Mountain Lily.  Asia minor, Afghanistan and Syria circa 1821. This deer- and-rodent resistant naturalizer has slender stems topped with loose umbels of a dozen or so flowers that range from light to deep violet-blue flowers with paler mid-veins and grass-like foliage. They start funnel-shaped and then open into large star-shaped flowers. It makes a terrific cut flower.  Sun, well-drained soil.  A star at the Order Beds.  Blooms late-spring.  3 and 40º for 2-3 months, then T1

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Euonymus europaeus

Family: (Celastraceae)

Hardy shrub to 15′.  Spindleberry.  Europe.  A familiar shrub of British hedgerows.  A vigorous, green-stemmed shrub covered in autumn with scarlet capsules which open to reveal the orange-coated white seeds.  Rather small, narrow leaves with excellent reddish fall colour whilst fruiting.  Sun/partial shade.  3 & 6

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Schivereckia podolica

Family: (Brassicaceae)

(P) to 6”.  Eastern Europe.  A delightful, textured, ground-hugging mound for the rock garden.  Tight rosettes of grey-green, lanceolate foliage producing corymbs of brilliant white, four-petalled flowers.  Sun.  3 & T1

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Euphorbia myrsinites

Family: (Euphorbiaceae)

(P) to 6″.  Southern Europe.  Trailing, robust 12-inch stems with spiraling, blue-green, glaucous foliage.  Stems terminate in large heads of many greenish yellow bracts enclosing tiny, yellow flowers.  A perfect plant for a dry wall or sunny rock garden.  Blooms early summer.  Well-drained soil.  Self-seeds for us.  Sun.  3 & T2

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Hesperis matronalis 'Alba'

Family: (Brassicaceae)

(B/P) to 3′.  A delicate white form of the Dame’s Rocket.  Four-petalled flowers in racemes bloom in early summer then sporadically until frost.  Lightly scented at night.  This plant is crucial to the white garden.  Sun/partial shade.  4 & T3

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Dianthus carthusianorum

Family: (Caryophyllaceae)

(P) to 2′.  Cluster-head Pink.  Native to sunny hillsides and dry meadows throughout central and southern Europe.  Dianthus carthusianorum was named to commemorate the monks of the Carthusian order, founded in the 11th century in the Chartreuse Valley in the French Alps.  Dense, terminal clusters of five-petalled, toothed, pinkish purple flowers on slender, airy stems.  Grassy clumps of narrow, pale grey-green foliage adds to the charm.  Blooms in midsummer.  Well-drained soil.  Sun.  4 & T2

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Amsonia elliptica

Family: (Apocynaceae)

(P) to 18″.  Dwarf Oriental Blue-Star.  China, Japan, and Korea.  Amsonia elliptica makes a bushy mound of tight-clumped, upright stems topped with starry, five-petalled, porcelain-blue flowers in early June. The glossy green, broad, grass-like leaves make an excellent backdrop for other garden plants during the summer.  In fall the foliage turns a glowing yellow to orange.  A great Amsonia for the small garden with a good display of flowers and excellent autumn colour.  Sun/partial shade.  3, 7 for 4 weeks, then T2