Jan 21
Caryopteris is a compact late-flowering shrub prized for clouds of intensely blue flowers that appear just when much of the summer garden is beginning to slow down. From late summer into early fall, its slender stems become lined with fuzzy-looking blue, violet-blue, or lavender flower clusters that attract bees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects. The …
Jan 21
Balloon flower is a long-lived summer perennial known for one of the most unusual flower buds in the garden. Before opening, each bud swells into a round, inflated shape resembling a tiny hot-air balloon. The bud eventually unfolds into a broad, star-shaped bell in shades of blue, violet, pink, or white. The botanical name is …
Jan 21
Heuchera is one of the most useful foliage perennials for adding color to garden beds without depending on flowers. Also known as coral bells or alumroot, Heuchera forms compact mounds of scalloped leaves in an extraordinary range of colors, including green, silver, purple, burgundy, nearly black, caramel, peach, orange, lime, chartreuse, and combinations of several …
Jan 20
Joe-Pye weed is one of the most impressive native perennials for a late-summer garden. Tall stems topped with enormous domes of dusty pink, mauve, or purple flowers can rise well above surrounding plants, creating a dramatic display while attracting bees, butterflies, moths, and other pollinators. Rather than referring to a single species, Joe-Pye weed is …
Jan 20
Toad lily is one of the most unusual perennials for a shade garden. Just when many woodland plants are finishing their growing season, its arching stems begin producing small, intricately spotted flowers that look almost like miniature orchids. The botanical genus is Tricyrtis. Several species are grown ornamentally, including Tricyrtis hirta, commonly called Japanese toad …
Jan 19
Helenium is one of the best perennials for carrying a sunny garden from midsummer into fall. Its daisy-like flowers appear in warm shades of yellow, gold, orange, copper, bronze, and red, often changing color as the blooms mature. At peak flowering, a well-grown clump can be covered with dozens of richly colored flowers just as …
Jan 18
Few perennial flowers can match a delphinium in full bloom. Tall spikes packed with blue, violet, lavender, pink, or white blossoms can rise several feet above a border, creating the kind of vertical color usually associated with cottage gardens and formal perennial displays. The genus Delphinium includes hundreds of species, but many of the dramatic …
Jan 17
Springbeauty is one of the quiet treasures of the early woodland garden. Long before most summer perennials have begun growing, its narrow green leaves emerge from the soil and delicate white-to-pink flowers open above them, each petal marked with fine pink or reddish veins. The botanical name is Claytonia virginica, commonly called Virginia springbeauty, eastern …
Jan 16
Lungwort is one of the most useful early-flowering perennials for a shade garden. Its clusters of pink, blue, violet, or white flowers appear in spring, often before many other woodland perennials have fully awakened, while its silver-spotted foliage can remain attractive long after the flowers have faded. The botanical genus is Pulmonaria, a group of …
Jan 16
Columbine is one of the most graceful flowers of the late-spring garden. Its nodding blossoms seem to float above delicate blue-green foliage, with distinctive backward-pointing spurs that give each flower an unmistakable shape. Depending on the species or cultivar, flowers may be blue, violet, purple, red, yellow, pink, white, or beautifully bicolored. The botanical genus …
