Jim Dandy is a compact cultivar of our native deciduous winterberry hollies. In the wild they are found in swampy sites and stream margins in the eastern United States. Jim Dandy is a slow grower to about 6 feet high and 8 feet wide. It is the male cultivar for the female Berry Heavy and Berry Nice cultivars and must be planted within 50 feet of those plants for effective pollination. Prune in …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Renowned for its healing powers, common St. Johnswort is now found in most parts of the world. It has been used as a sedative, a treatment for malaria and depression, and a salve for wounds, burns, and insect bites. Its name is derived from a belief that its healing powers were enhanced by smoking it on the eve of St. John’s Day, June 24th. A shrubby perennial growing 2 feet tall, common St. …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Rhododendron ‘Vallya’ produces a profusion of light pink flowers on an upright semi-deciduous plant. Bred for hardiness and disease resistance, it nevertheless needs soils amended with peat moss and/or treatment of the soil with powdered sulfur to survive long term in our heavy alkaline clay soils. Best grown in light shade and despite the need to keep the root constantly moist, the plant does …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Shining sumac has an exotic compound leaf that is quite shiny and is distinguished by a leafy ridge running along the midrib. Growing to 12' tall or more with a spread equal to its height, shining sumac forms dense thickets. It is a large spreading shrub for mass planting in open space. Give this plant lots of space as it spreads aggressively by underground stems. The greenish-white flowers are …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
'Husker Red' is one of the most popular Penstemon varieties because of its bronze-red emerging foliage. The foliage retains its red coloring in bright sun but will fade to bronze-green in partial shade. Either way, the mounded foliage is a dramatic backdrop for the tall stems of clear white tubular flowers in the early summer garden. If the seeds are left to mature, the plant will self-sow. …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Arabesque is a Kurt Bluemel eulalia grass introduction with a compact form. Its mature size is a clump 4 to 5 feet high. This ornamental grass begins blooming in August and has fluffy silver pink plumes. The foliage turns tan in the fall and remains decorative through winter. The dry winter foliage should be trimmed back in the spring before new foliage emerges to avoid damage to the new leaves. …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Graziella maiden grass is hardy in USDA zones 5-9. It prefers full sun and flowers in August. It has large silver inflorescences that mature to white. The foliage is green, fine textured, and turns a rich copper red to orange color for fall. ‘Graziella’ reaches 6 feet high and 4 feet wide at maturity, with an upright arching form. The dry foliage is decorative throughout the winter, but should be …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Variegatus Japanese silver grass is hardy in USDA Zones 5 to 9 and prefers full sun to partial shade. The foliage is a lush green with long creamy white stripes. The maximum size is an upright clump 7 feet high by 4 feet wide. The inflorescences emerge in red-tinted white in September and mature to fluffy plumes. The dry fall foliage and flowers are attractive through the winter, but should be …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
Red Charm peony ( Paeonia ‘Red Charm’) grows up to 2.5 feet high and is covered with deep-red, ruffled, double flowers from the end of May through the first part of June. Like other herbaceous peonies, it prefers a sunny position and constant moisture during the growing season but is otherwise free of pests and diseases. The plants produce additional "eyes," or growing points, turning a single …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
'Chewground' rose is an OSO EASY® Fragrant Spreader. It's what's often called a landscape rose, just 2 feet high, but 5 feet wide, making it ideal for mass plantings or covering sunny slopes and banks. Clusters of small pink and white single roses appear in profusion from mid-June through frost on a rose that needs little to no care. No pruning. No spraying. No deadheading. No winter protection. …
Type: Garden Guide Plant
