Bill Cullina from the New England Wildflower Society brings a lasting legacy to the partially shaded garden with this woodland wonder that you won’t be able to resist. First you’ll notice this plant’s outstanding foliage with its deep green color and clear white variegated edging that forms a dense neat foliage clump early in the spring that stays clean and bright throughout the summer. As it emerges in April, the foliage center yields a stem that rise above the plant with buds that open to a long, narrow pyramid of deep purple-blue flowers that last into May and will become a favorite nectar source for native bees and butterflies. Plant this easy to grow, long-lived perennial in masses at the front of gardens for a show that is impressive and colorful year after year.
Very compact form of balloon flower only growing 6-8 inches. This perennial is forms into balloon like puffs before bursting into bell-shaped flowers. It is a very compact habit, making it great for outside, or inside. Works well in a rock garden, as a border front for beds or patio containers, and is easy and fast to grow!
A compact, pyramidal spruce that is very slow-growing. It is widely used in the landscape because of its low maintenance, slow growth habit and rugged dependability.
This brilliant new creeping Phlox is a hybrid that behaves like a Phlox subulata, but with a much more intense flower color that you’d expect. Violet purple flowers are aglow from mid to late spring, and the notched, upturned petals look like tiny pinwheels, especially with movement from the wind. ‘Violet Pinwheels’ grows more closely to the ground, and spreads more slowly than other varieties.
Plant a few of these pure white blooming beauties together in the garden and you’ll experience a cloud cover of flowers throughout the summer months. Fragrant cones of white flowers top stocky, heavily branched plants and nearly obscure the nice green, highly mildew tolerant foliage starting in July.
Volcano Ruby’ is the latest addition to this popular series of mildew-resistant Garden Phlox that debuted in 2004. This great new color blooms with plum-red flowers that have an electric effect on the garden… the color has to be seen to be believed! This Volcano, like all previous varieties, offers the same great compact growth habit, fragrance, long bloom and extreme tolerance for the powdery mildew that plagues most phlox. Because it’s lower growing and compact, it won’t flop when in bloom or after it rains, meaning it is a low maintenance star. Plant ‘Volcano Ruby’ in full sun to partial shade in fairly fertile, moist, well-drained soil, then stand back and enjoy the show.
You’ve seen Volcano® Phlox, sold Volcano® Phlox, grown Volcano® Phlox- but you’ve not yet experienced the pure sweetness of this brand new cultivar, Lilac Splash. Just colorful enough, and just soft enough to add light and to a landscape with its white and lilac bi-color blooms. Bred for superior sturdy stems and high levels of natural disease tolerance, Lilac Splash will stand out with masses of super fragrant, billowy flower clusters from June to September.
You’ll find yourself checking the weather for snow when this selection blooms in late April because it blooms so heavily that it looks like a drift of snow left from the winter’s cold. Bloom continues through May on this easy care, very hardy, very tolerant plant that deer avoid.
It’s hard to take your eyes off this flashy bloomer in late April when it loads up with deep, dark magenta-red flowers forming a mat of color that gives any landscape a blooming jumpstart. Along with amazing flower power, this deer resistant plant is a breeze to care for, tolerating full sun and poor, dry soils.
This plant is not picky, it just needs to be noticed. You’d have to be pretty oblivious not to notice it starting in late April through May when its dense, ground hugging form and dark, needle-like foliage are obscured by medium blue flowers putting on a memorable show. ‘Emerald Blue’ loves well-drained soil, tolerates poor fertility well, and is deer resistant.
Sometimes gardeners think that the only good plant is the newest plant from the hottest breeder. ‘Blue Moon’, a superb native plant discovered by Bill Cullina at the New England Wildflower society, shows you that tremendous plants can come from anywhere. ‘Blue Moon’ emerges early in the season to form a loose, tumbling, trailing mass that covers itself with buds by early April and bloom by late April. And what a bloom!! Profuse numbers of deep violet-blue flowers conceal the foliage they are so numerous creating a cloud of color well into May. Add in this plant’s tremendous flower scent and the fact that ‘Blue Moon’ is absolutely perfect for semi-shaded and shaded areas and you have a tough yet tender early spring bloomer that will charm you every year.
The perfect addition to a garden in hot, dry areas. Lacy-like, bright sky blue flowers are held on amethyst calyxes, with strong stems and an upright habit. The beautiful color will last a long time!
The vine of choice for university buildings! A quick grower that adds a look of stateliness wherever it grows. Very similar in habit and growing conditions as quinquefolia with the same excellent fall color and bird attracting fruit.
Here’s a vine that has so much to offer the landscape yet few people know about it. Virginia Creeper is easy to grow and is a perfect plant for sun or partial shade on a trellis, rock wall, or any other sturdy structure. It displays a unique, 5 leaflet palmate, dark green foliage that looks beautiful throughout the growing season and provides great bird and mammal cover and a great food source for the caterpillars of some of our favorite butterflies. This plant’s inconspicuous spring flowers produce a multitude of deep bluish-purple berries that birds find quite attractive. This functional, easy to grow plant also puts on a crimson-red fall foliage show that would make this American Beauties selection worth growing even if the landscape critters didn’t love it!
Some of the sweetest looking plants seem to go undiscovered as is evidenced by this charmer. ‘Goshiki’ is a dense growing, pyramidal shaped evergreen with cut, prickly, holly-like foliage that will mesmerize you with its heavy dose of gold flecked variegation that turns cream as the leaves age. New foliage has a distinct reddish-bronze cast, adding to the attractiveness of this easy care plant that thrives in sun or part shade.
Blue Wonder’ is a fragrant, low, soft green/grey silvery foliaged selection that forms a spreading mound that will be smothered with larger than usual lavender-blue blossoms in summer, from May to July. Shearing off the spent flowers will promote rebloom on this tough, tolerant, deer resistant, drought resistant selection. Its shorter stature makes it suitable for the front of the border, for use as a groundcover and makes it perfect for underplanting large shrubs. ‘Blue Wonder’ is a great plant that you’ll love almost as much as your cats, that crave its scented foliage, and your local moths and butterflies that flock to it for its nectar.
This first class selection keeps its tiny, dense, rounded shape all season long. Small, grey-green, aromantic leaves are topped with well-branched stems carrying spikes of sky blue flowers. Ideal for border, mass planting, containers or edging. Bright blue flowers attracts butterflies. To encourage more flowers prune back to half its size after initial bloom. ‘Cat’s Meow’ is a durable plant that perform well in average soils in full sun.
Wine red flowers open from buds that resemble raspberries. A stunning and long flowering perennial that makes a great cut flower and the petals are edible. The flowers’ sweet nectar attracts scores of hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees to the garden. The aromatic foliage smells like mint when crushed and is often used to flavor teas. Attractive, dark green foliage exhibits excellent mildew resistance.
Those wet landscape spots sure can be difficult to make beautiful. It’s a good thing that native plants like Blue Cardinal Flower are around to fill and beautify spots that could be such eyesores without them. This selection has vigor that belies its tough growing conditions with strongly upright plants sporting medium green colored, long, lance-like foliage. Plants continue to grow upward as summer approaches, topping themselves with numerous long flower stalks. The buds on these stalks open in early summer revealing prominently lower lipped blue blooms that are striking to you and to all the butterflies and hummingbirds that will visit for a nectar snack. This selection will bloom throughout the summer and will thrive along streams and ponds even if their feet stay a little wetter than most other plants can tolerate. Why such a strange species name you might ask?? This native was used in years past as a folklore venereal disease cure giving it its unique species name!
You’ll find this classic American Beauties plant growing naturally in moist, swampy areas, but with a constantly moist soil it will thrive in your landscape and put on a stunning summer show. Plant it toward the back of the garden or around wetland features and in groups to put on the best show as this plant forms a dense clump of upright stems crowded with almost fleshy, medium green foliage. Buds form at the tops of these stems and give rise to a profuse amount of scarlet-red, two lipped tubular flowers in late July continuing right into September. Humming_birds find these flowers an irresistible source of nectar as do colorful butterflies like swallowtails, while spent flower heads and stems provide nesting to birds and cover for small native animals and insects.
