From a distance this spreading beauty looks almost pure white, a color that will definitely get your attention especially in a shady spot. As you come closer to take a look you’ll see that it is actually a series of variegated silvery-white leaves with green margins grouped tightly along trailing stems. ‘White Nancy’ forms a perfectly beautiful groundcover that spreads by stolons and is aggressive while not being invasive. It’s one of the easiest, most rewarding long season color plants for partial to full shade you can grow and even has a pleasing, mint-like, pure white bloom that first appears in late May and early June. It tolerate virtually any well-drained soil and will take a shearing if you feel it is misshapen or growing too aggressively, and come back even stronger and more beautiful than before. ‘White Nancy’ is extremely hardy and deer resistant so feel free to plant it in large groups or even in mixed containers for a shady patio or deck that could use its great color and great vigor.
Bring unique drama to your landscape with the spiky flowers and upright habit of this perennial. Bright orange flowers are produced over grass-like foliage.
An absolute must for moist, sunny landscape areas and perfect for using around or in water features in the landscape, this Iris puts up with all the moisture and still provides a stunning show of flowers in the early summer months as sizable blue-violet flowers with white markings unfold above boldly veined sword-like foliage in late June. These flowers can further enliven the garden with the occasional hummingbird looking for nectar and by providing great cover for an assortment of colorful wetland creatures and colorful insects like dragonflies.
Dark violet buds open to clear purple blooms that change to white, then gold in the center. A favorite of many gardeners. Tolerant of partial shade and moist soils. Blooms in July.
Possibly the best, most stately vine available! Slow growing when young, more rapid as it ages, this Cary Award winner will grow over and cover any structure with ease. Deep, dark foliage, excellent exfoliating bark, and immensely showy, 6-10″ diameter white flowers in late June. A real beauty!
An eye-catching hosta with green margined leaves and centers, which change from chartreuse in spring to creamy white by mid-summer. Pale lavender flowers on 35″ scapes from mid-July to mid-August. American Hosta Growers Association 1999 Hosta Of The Year.
This close relative of ‘Francee’ shines like a beacon in dark, shady areas with bold white margins surrounding deep green, heart shaped foliage. Spectacular color, great mounding form, and lavender flowers that rise above the foliage on long stalks in August complete a beautiful picture.
One of the first and most famous Hosta hybrids, ‘Frances Williams’ is still a landscape gem with big, round heavily corrugated blue-green leaves with striking golden borders. This colorful mound of foliage gives rise to tall spikes peaked by white flowers that open in early August.
A super tight, mounding habit and luminescent plum-purple foliage color highlighted with silver veining make this plant some serious garden eye candy. White and pink flowers are held on airy flower stalks in mid-June adding to this plant’s charm. Perfect for edging beds and borders. Also makes a colorful addition to the rock garden. Attracts butterflies.
Be dazzled by this cross that features the native Heuchera villosa to bring incredible garden strength to its constitution. Of course, you might not even think about that easy care bonus when you first spy this plant that features sharply edged, maple-like folige in a strinking pink-purple shade with darker venation. The foliage is held upright to form a dense mound that spreads aggressively to add outstanding color to any sunny to partially shaded garden. Tall spikes of light pink flowers that rise above the foliage from late May through July and wave in the breeze just add to this plant’s allure.
Selected for superior vigor over all other “black” Heuchera. Grows larger mounds and more textured foliage along with pleasing sprays of cream-colored flower spikes in mid-summer. Excellent vigor, good tolerance of heat as well as sun or shade, make this a “grow anywhere” perennial.
You’ll smell the carnival midway when you catch your first glimpse of this 5″ diameter clear pink bloom with red eye zone and green throat and, like cotton candy, once you see one bloom, you’ll crave more. It’s a good thing this mid-season blooming selection is so prolific because you’ll have weeks of flowers in July and August to whet your appetite. Flowers are borne on thick, 24″ stalks above dense, deep green foliage that is attractive even without this fantastic bloom.
It’s not often you find a plant that revolutionizes gardening but ‘Stella D’Oro’ is one of those seminal plants that has changed how people look at Daylilies. Its lightly fragrant, bright yellow, star-shaped flowers that constantly cover this daylily from May until July and its short dense, carefree stature have all contributed to this selection being the most widely known, widely used Daylily in history. Incredibly adaptable to poor soil and viscious landscape spots that would make other plants fade away, ‘Stella D’Oro’ performs like a champ with attractive foliage forming a tight clump that serves as a perfect backdrop for a seemingly ceaseless stream of flowers stalks that rise above the plant. Group this plant is any sunny or shady location with great results. It even performs splendidly in a container!
Outstanding Hellebore selection bred by British plantsman David Tristram. Forms a mound of leathery evergreen leaves, veined in silver. Charming, mid-spring display of reddish-pink buds that open into upfacing creamy-white flowers flushed with pink and green. Excellent groundcover, borders, containers and rock gardens.
This lovely garden plant has violet-blue saucer-shaped 2″ flowers. ‘Rozanne’ has a spreading compact habit with deep green, slightly marbled foliage. Adrian Bloom says this is one of the best geraniums he has ever introduced! The flower period is from mid-June to October. 2004 Hardy New American Garden Plant.
If only every plant was this easy to grow. ‘Max Frei’ is such an easy care plant thriving in any well-drained, moist soil in a full sun or partial shade spot. Even better, it blooms continuously throughout the summer with cup-like, magenta-pink flowers that contrast sweetly against the backdrop of finely divided, deep green foliage that forms a dense, spreading mound in the garden. Grouping a few in the front of a planting will guarantee interest and bloom action in that garden from June through late August.
An attractive, evergreen groundcover that saves its best show for fall and winter with red-tinged, dark green foliage and an outstanding display of large red berries that are both persistent and edible. Dense, compact and hardy.
Small, delicate looking green foliage belies the toughness of this resilient groundcover that thrives in shady, moist areas. Tiny white flowers engulf the plant in May and June while its fragrant foliage has herbal and potpourri uses giving it an incredible amount of usefulness for one little plant!
Deep green, thick, serrated foliage forms a dense basal mound of leaves in the garden that gives rise to sturdy flower stalks in mid-June topped by big, squat buds. Buds unfurl in late July producing big, 3-4″ diameter, white rayed daisies with a big, bulbous center cone that puts on a garden show that you and the local butterflies will appreciate throughout the summer bloom season that stretches into early September. ‘White Swan’ loves a full sun spot and puts on a fantastic show in well-drained soil planted in a group.
You’ll find it hard to find anything you won’t like about this long blooming, extremely hardy perennial and the same goes for a multitude of landscape critters! ‘Ruby Star’ forms a tall, narrow upright profile in the garden that is perfect for the middle or back of any garden that grows in full sun. Flower buds begin to form in early July and, by later in the month, you’ll be enthralled by the big, carmine red daisies that emerge. Enjoy their fragrant beauty in the garden or in a vase but be willing to share because native bees and butterflies cherish this plant’s nectar while sparrows, finches, cardinals, and others will gorge themselves on its seed. ‘Ruby Star’ blooms into early September and is an absolute must for your American Beauties garden.
