… Iris ‘Breakers’ is a bearded iris that stands 3 feet tall and blooms midseason (it may re-bloom later in the … uniform blue with wavy petals. A single stem will have four branches with a total of eight to ten buds. It is attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds, and resistant to rabbits and deer. The flowers are excellent for …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… Iris 'Scamp' is a dark reddish-violet with large orange-yellow signals. It stands 42 inches tall and blooms in mid to late season. This is a Louisiana iris hybrid, native to the bayous and wetlands of the Gulf Coast. They thrive in moist soil and partial shade and are …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… This species is named for the large leaves, shaped like arrowheads. The species name, sagittata , references … flowers have protruding stamens and are appreciated by hummingbirds. Arrow Leaf sage is native to the Andes Mountains of Ecuador and Peru. It requires full sun to flower, but tends to sulk on hot, humid days. This perennial is not hardy in the Chicago area, …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… This tree is called a Green Giant because it can grow three or four feet in a year and reach sixty feet tall and eighteen feet wide. It is adaptable to a wide range of conditions and is very hardy so is a very popular tree for hedges and screens. Green Giant has a pleasing pyramidal form when allowed to spread so allow at least six feet between trees and consider planting a double row to give …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… until August, with 3-inch spheres of starry pink flowers. The structure of the tiny flowers is complex, with 5 reflexed pink sepals and 5 forward-pointing petals. Each petal has a hood at … giving the flower the appearance of a crown. The fruit is a soft, warty pod that splits open to disperse little brown seeds attached to white silky tufts of hairs that become airborne in the wind. The thick, unbranched stems are …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… Solanum betaceum. It's a tree...in the tomato family. The oval fruit is about the size of a Roma tomato, and it has a recognizable tomato taste, though it's somewhat … fruit can be yellow, purple, orange, or red depending on the tree. While the tomato tree seems to have originated in the Andes, it's now grown widely in South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia as a food source. The skin is quite thick, so to eat it fresh you have to scoop out the flesh. It can also be cooked as a vegetable side dish, …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… Azure monkshood ( Aconitum carmichaeli ) is a favorite of gardeners and florists. Native to China, this 5-foot-tall perennial is topped by … conditions. In its native range, Aconitum is disliked by herders because of its toxicity to livestock (which avoid it assiduously). Medicinal (and poisonous) uses of this plant date back …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… has green foliage with silver undersides instead of artemisia's usual silvery green, grows to heights of 4 to 6 feet. Use it in the back of a sunny perennial bed. Wonderful, creamy white flowers appear in … can persist until fall. It makes a bold statement in the garden. Native to western China, it is one of the tallest species of artemisia. Unlike its cousins, it is grown for its showy flowers …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… When this plant bears pale pink flowers in the summer months it is often when we are happy to be outside. Maybe that's why it's called Happy Face® Pink Paradise potentilla? This potentilla grows two to three feet tall and wide and is a long-flowering small rounded shrub bearing pale pink …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
… an upside down bunch of grapes, hence the name Grape Hyacinth. A single bulb may produce up to 3 scapes and a single scape will have more than 20 flowers. Plant it in full sun to part shade. It is resistant to deer and is hardy in zones 4 – 8. 'Valerie Finnis' is a cultivar, the species …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
