Category: Rarium | Sub-Category: Perennials for Sun
Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Amsonia rigida
Family: (Apocynaceae)
(P) to 2′. Stiff Bluestar. Southern Georgia and Northern Florida. A smaller Amsonia with a distinctive, dark reddish purple colouration to its emerging stems contrasting beautifully with the shiny, leathery, elliptical leaves. Loose cymes of light blue, starry flowers. The outer flower tube is flushed a darker hue giving it more pizzazz. Surprisingly hardy given its southern origin. Moist, well drained sandy soil. Sun/partial shade. 3, 7 for 4 weeks, then T2
Category: Rarium | Sub-Category: Perennials for Sun
Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Angelica polymorpha
Family: (Apiaceae)
(P) to 6′. China. Exquisite, airy umbels of small, creamy white flowers and attractive lobed leaves. The flowering umbels look like a perfect firework display. A choice plant. Sun. 3 & 6
Category: Rarium | Sub-Category: Perennials for Sun
Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Cephalaria gigantea
Family: (Caprifoliaceae)
(P) to 6′. Giant Yellow Scabious. Caucasus to Siberia. Magnificent clumps of distinctive foliage, divided into oblong spear-shaped leaflets producing tall, wiry branching stems ending in masses of delightful primrose-yellow pincushion blooms. Blooms July to August. Moist, well-drained soil. Sun. 3 & T2 & Δ
Category: Rarium | Sub-Category: Perennials for Sun
Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Echinops tjanschanicus
Family: (Asteraceae)
(P) to 5′. A tall, imposing Globe Thistle from Kazakhstan and the mountains of Central Asia. A vigorous, erect, clump-forming, architectural perennial with spiny, deeply-divided, grey-green leaves, white beneath, and rounded, thistle-like, violet-blue flowerheads in summer. Both Echinops make great cut flowers. Sun. 4 & T2
Category: Rarium | Sub-Category: Perennials for Sun
Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Helianthus mollis
Family: (Asteraceae)
(P) to 4′. Ashy Sunflower. Tallgrass prairie, Michigan to Ohio. The dense, soft hairs that cover the stems and clasping, broadly ovate leaves, give the whole plant an attractive, ashen grey appearance. The large individual blooms are a rich buttercup yellow, appearing from midsummer into early autumn over open, somewhat wide and spreading clumps. A widespread and drought tolerant native for a wild garden or an informal planting. Sun. 3 & T3
Category: Rarium | Sub-Category: Perennials for Sun
Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Isatis glauca
Family: (Brassicaceae)
(B/P) to 3-½’. Woad. Asia Minor to Iran. A lovely, short-lived perennial with dense panicles of large, golden yellow, four-petalled flowers atop glabrous, blue-green, basal foliage. Attractive blackish bronze, dangling, persistent, papery fruits to follow. This plant was once the ancient world’s only source of blue dye. Late spring/early summer. Self-sows. Well-drained soil. Sun. 3 & T1
Category: Rarium | Sub-Category: Perennials for Sun
Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Lithospermum erythrorhizon
Family: (Boraginaceae)
(P) to 2.5′. Chinese or Red-rooted Gromwell. East Asia. A bristly or coarsely hairy, upright perennial with greyish green, lanceolate leaves. Terminal clusters of numerous, small, five-petalled, white flowers in midsummer are followed by white, shiny fruits along the dark stems. Very cool. The dried roots produce a purple dye and the entire plant has been used since ancient times for burns, cuts, and skin conditions in Chinese herbal medicine. Moist, well-drained soil. Sun/partial shade. 3 & T2 & Δ
Category: Rarium | Sub-Category: Perennials for Sun
Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Paeonia daurica subsp. mlokosewitschii
Family: (Paeoniaceae)
(P) to 3′. Affectionately known as ‘Molly the Witch’. This robust, herbaceous peony from the Caucasus makes a fine garden specimen. In spring it bears large, single, cup-shaped, lemon-yellow, five inch-wide flowers – the ovary pubescent, the two to four carpels white, pink or yellow, and the stamen filaments yellow-green. Flowers in May. Rare and very choice. Well-drained soil. Sun/partial shade. 3 & 6A
Category: Rarium | Sub-Category: Perennials for Sun
Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Ratibida pinnata
Family: (Asteraceae)
(P) to 4′. Grey-headed Coneflower. Central North America. Tall, branched flowers stems are topped by yellow-rayed blooms resembling badminton shuttlecocks. The short, rounded, central cone of each long-lasting flower begins a greyish green and ripens to chocolate brown. The handsome pinnate leaves adorn only the lower half of the flower stems and form a tidy, bushy clump. A much underused, long-blooming and carefree plant. Sun. Well drained soil. 4 & T2
Category: Rarium | Sub-Category: Perennials for Sun
Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Sisymbrium luteum (syn. Hesperis lutea)
Family: (Brassicaceae)
(P) to 4′. Japan and Korea. Forms a bushy clump of coarsely pilose, pinnate, grey-green foliage that freely produces dense, elongated racemes of four-petalled, pale yellow flowers in summer. Good for cutting. Well-drained soil. Sun/partial shade. 4 & T3