Fig trees grown in frost free climates can produce two crops of fruit a year. Provide a very sunny location with average soil, water and fertilizer. The straight species is not hardy in Chicago and is best grown as a large container plant that can be moved indoors to avoid the worst winter freezes. The leaves are also used as a wrapping for steamed or cooked foods. Small wasps are the pollinators …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Green Flutter daylily has miniature 3-inch canary-yellow flowers with a pea green throat. With slightly ruffled petals, it blooms in early to mid-summer. In milder climates the foliage is green all year long. Although each flower lasts only one day, there are multiple buds on each stalk and several stalks on each plant. The buds open in series, so a single plant will continue to bloom for 2 weeks …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Suzie Wong daylily has pale yellow flowers with ruffled edges. The blooms measure 4 inches and appear very early in the season. They are attractive to hummingbirds. Although each flower lasts only one day, there are multiple buds on each stalk and several stalks on each plant. The buds open in series, so a single plant will continue to bloom for 2 weeks or more. It is easy to grow and does well …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Bronze Wave Alumroot is a great plant for fall flowering and shady areas. A large Heuchera villosa selection with white to tan flowers and bronze to dark green foliage. The foliage is strong, shiny, maple leaf like, and creates a crisp mound about 18 inches tall and wide, the prolific flower scapes appear in late summer, increase the height and had create a hallo effect of tiny bell flowers. Best …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Lustrous dark green leaves contrast with the lighter color of the new growth on this hardy groundcover. In harsh winters with no snow cover the leaves will be burned but will flush new growth in the spring. English ivy can become invasive if allowed to climb up trees or walls. At a certain height the growth changes from juvenile to mature and the plants begin to flower. The rounded balls of fetid …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
This 4½-foot tall beauty produces long-stemmed dark purple flowers from midsummer through the first hard frost. Unique to this cultivar are the slightly pointed tips of the flower petals. Introduced in 2010 by Swan Island Dahlias, it flowers best in full sun and well-drained, moisture-retentive soil. This dahlia is insect and disease free. Plant tubers or potted plants outdoors after the danger …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Gitty Up Dahlia, introduced in 2012, is a novelty or anemone-type dahlia. The pincushion-like flowers have numerous crimson petals with orange tips, with a ring of drooping pale orange petals. It has a bushy habit, reaching over three feet tall with numerous branches. Dahlias like warmth and can be planted when all danger of frost has passed. They can be started indoors in pots to achieve earlier …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Tall majestic spikes of pure white flowers accentuated with a tangerine-red beard are of classic tall bearded iris form. A additional benefit is the delicate fragrance that most tall bearded iris possess. Bearded irises do best in full sun, well drained soils in Chicago area landscapes. Typically a planting will need to be divided every 3 to 4 years to provide enough fresh soil to support the …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Lithops are among the world’s most extraordinary plants. In their native conditions, they survive in desolate wastelands by living mostly underground, exposing only the flattened tops of their leaves and displaying an extraordinary ability to camouflage themselves as stones. Native to South Africa, Lithops pseudotruncatella was one of the first Lithops discovered. It is a clump-forming succulent …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
'Alba Suavelens' is an antique climbing rose that was already well established in European gardens by 1750. Its white, semi-double flowers have the fragrance old-fashioned roses are prized for. There's no repeat bloom, so no need to deadhead, with the result you'll get you'll get bright red rose hips come fall. It's self-supporting, disease-resistant, and best of all, tolerates some shade. In …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
