POLYGONATUM
SOLOMON'S SEAL
PICTURE |
NAME |
DESCRIPTION |
#EACH |
|
 |
POLYGONATUM COMMUNTATUM | 3.0 to 3.5 feet leaning stems with 6” alternating leaves, small creamy green to yellowish green pendant flowers. Prefers fertile soil, light shade to partial shade, moist, not wet soil. Colonizes over time by rhizomes. Good complement to astilbe plantings and shade and hosta gardens. Hummingbirds enjoy them, deer eat them. | $10.50 | |
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POLYGONATUM HUMILE | Native to eastern Europe and western Asia. Some market this as Korean Solomon's Seal or Dwarf Solomon's Seal. Same description as communtatum except 6"-8” tall. Works well in rock gardens and along stone walkways and walls where light requirements prevail. Divides in spring and fall. |
$10.50 |
PULMONARIA
Keep an eye on this section over coming years. Gail has decided she has interest in pulmonarias as a complement to hostas and other shade and woodland plants. In the meantime, try this one.
PICTURE |
NAME |
DESCRIPTION |
$ EACH |
|
| Pulmonaria 'E.B. Anderson' | Bright violet blue blooms above narrow, spotted leaves with more upright growth. Great spring color! Plant in dappled shade and don't worry about the deer with pulmonarias. 14" tall | $10.50 |
RODGERSIA
Here's another large plant if you are contemplating new woodland or shade gardens. If you thumb through good garden books, you will always see rodgersias in a variety of uses. Although some gardeners think they are too coarse for their gardens, big architecture demands big plants with texture and color. The large leaves make an immediate visual impact and as a chestnut tree leaf look-alike, they catch attention. Some leaves are smooth, some toothed and some ridged.
The thick stems are fibrous and the flower scapes stand up tall with creamy whites, pinks, pale yellows and dusky rose-reds. We're just getting back into rodgersias and should have 5 varieties for sale in a couple years. George's plan is to have some nice swaths of the different varieties in the new shade garden.
Remember that with even moisture and organic soil, rodgersias will do very well. Space appropriately when planting as they need room and over time will show their beauty! English gardening sites show many varieties making their way here as they become better known and used. Combine with ligularias, aruncus, actaeas and hosta.
PICTURE |
NAME |
DESCRIPTION |
$ EACH |
|
 |
Rodgersia aesculifolia |
Large leaves and creamy white to pink flower scapes lasting after frost to accent the first winter snows. 42"-48" tall | $15.50 | |
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Rodgersia pinnata 'Elegans' | Large, deeply divided, bronze toothed leaves and creamy to dusty rose flowers through season. 36" accent plant for the woodland border. | $15.50 |
TIARELLA
Around Memorial Day here in Marshfield, the woods and log roads abound with foamflowers, the native tiarellas which are so abundant here. This show continues for a good two weeks unless the weather turns hot. This is Tiarella cordifolia, a simple plant that serves as a visual benchmark for me. When I see its color flowing through the woods I am reminded that the snow is gone, warm weather is approaching and the black flies will be biting any day soon.
George Aiken was a famous Vermonter who played a big part in Vermont and US politics. As a US Senator, he was attributed with saying that America should declare that we won in Viet Nam....and then get out. This wasn't really what he said but that's a memory that is shared with his name. It was still a good idea.
Senator Aiken is on my list of "Who I would like to meet". He was a serious gardener, owned a wildflower nursery in Putney, Vermont, and wrote a book named Pioneering with Wildflowers. I have an autographed copy of his original book as well as a subsequent reprint. Neither book leaves the house.
Aiken wrote about our native tiarella and as tribute I want to quote him. We don't sell the wild flower he mentions but may some day.
"FOAMFLOWER (Tiarella cordifolia) Here is a plant, which, while not strictly a rock plant, as it grows equally well on the forest floor, may be utilized in connection with naturalistic planting among the rocks. Perhaps it is more at home among the rock heaps than it is in the rock garden, for we find it growing beautifully in the tumbled masses of jagged boulders at the foot of the shaded cliffs. It is well to remember that it prefers acid soil. The fluffy white flower heads rise to a height of six to eight inches in May. The leaves remain green all winter and the plant is propagated by means of its runners in the same manner as strawberries reproduce."
Many years ago, Gail got us started on heucheras and then one year, tiarellas started to arrive. At one point I think we had seven varieties but as with some other plants, we tempered our inventory as we prepared to move. In another couple years we'll be back up there because as George Aiken wrote, this is an easy plant with multiple uses. Someplace in our gardens we have Tiarella wherryi, Cygnet,and Crow Feather. The hybrids which Gail stocks for sale include Black Velvet, Iron Butterfly and Spring Sympony. In time I will get them planted along the stone steps and down into the new shade garden. Until then, check out in the shade houses or next to the heucheras. You'll like them, especially in spring as they put up dozens upon dozens of flower scapes which are most appealing just before they open.
PICTURE |
NAME |
DESCRIPTION |
$ EACH |
|
BLACK VELVET |
Velvety green fingered foliage with black centers; clumps quickly. White and pink flowers on 16" stems. Looks very nice in rock wall or along walkway border. 16"-18" tall. | $12.50 | ||
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IRON BUTTERFLY |
Long fingered leaves with lighter green edges and purple-black stripe on each "finger". Nice pinkish-ivory bottle brush flower with limited fragrance if you can get down there to smell it! 16" | $12.50 | |
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SPRING SYMPHONY | Rough edged, fuzzy green leaves with magic marker black blotch that tapers down the leaf fingers. Creamy white to light pink flowers on 12" to 15" stems. | $12.50 |
TROLLIUS
Many, many years ago as I was driving through Old Bennington in southern Vermont, I passed a corner lot with a white picket fence. Most of the front lawn was a sea of trollius in full bloom. I didn't know the flower at the time but as soon as I learned the name, I began to grow it. Today there are many more cultivars than there were then and for me it is a plant that has proven its usefulness here in the east.
Commonly known as globeflower, this buttercup wild flower relative is very easy to grow. It enjoys rich, moist soil but not wet soil. The confusion over optimum planting location may be because many have successfully planted it along streams, ponds and bogs where you might get the impression (wrong!)it can grow in water.
There is quite a bit of height variation from 18"-20" on up to over 36" in height. Above the glossy, dark green, fine cut foliage, bowl shaped, waxy flowers look upward with incurved petals surrounding prominent stamens. This plant grows best in humus rich soil but we have had it growing in full sun in clay and in partial shade in a rock pile well mixed with sodium chloride from the winter's road salting. In all locations it has done well for us.
In about three years a single plant will begin to clump and spread but it won't get out of bounds like wild buttercup. It makes a good cut flower in water for about 4 days and will last another couple days if you sear the ends as soon as you cut it. When the flowers go by, if you cut them off, there will be a second bloom around Labor Day--not lots of bloom but a reminder of how nice a summer it has been. In the past we have had 'Cheddar' and 'Lemon Queen' and someplace here Gail has some 'Alabaster' she is growing on for future sales.
PICTURE |
NAME |
DESCRIPTION |
$ EACH |
|
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EARLIEST OF ALL | Open, delicate, clear golden yellow bloom, 20" tall | $10.50 | |
| FIRE GLOBE | Orange double. 30" tall | $10.50 | ||
| ORANGE PRINCESS | Vibrant 2.5" orange blooms at maturity. Great mixed in hot border. 24"-30" | $10.50 | ||
| PRITCHARD'S GIANT | Dark orange with finely cut, glossy foliage. 30"-36" tall. Early. | $10.50 | ||
| EUROPAEUS 'SUPERBUS' | Sulphur yellow blooms to 3 inches across at maturity. 24" tall. Can handle drier soils. | $10.50 |