Caryopteris – Blue Spiraea This Blue Spiraea is another one of the good, Fall blooming plants. It is shrubby in nature, growing from 3 feet to 4 feet tall with small leaves and clusters of small, rich lavender-blue flowers. It begins blooming in September and continues until cut by the frost. The flowers are arranged in whorls at the axils […]
Centaurea – Knapweed, Hardy Cornflower, Perennials Guide to Planting Flowers
Centaurea – Knapweed, Hardy Cornflower, Hardheads, Mountain Bluet The Centaureas are some of the most graceful flowers to grow in any garden. The flower heads are like showy, ragged thistle blooms of bright red, deep purple, golden yellow and blue. They grow from 2 feet to 3 1/2 feet tall and bloom during the Summer months. SPECIES. The Golden Knapweed […]
Planting Colorful Chrysanthemums for Your Garden
Beautiful hardy Fall Chrysanthemums October and November are the months which marshal in the Chrysanthemums and if these months be cold and rainy, the flowers do not develop well, but if the days are warm and the nights frosty, but not freezing, these flowers are in the height of their glory. “All through the budding Springtime, All through the Summer’s […]
Arabis – Rock Cress, Wall Cress, Perennials Guide to Planting Flowers
Arabis – Rock Cress, Wall Cress The Rock Cress is a small, white, four-petaled flower, and its masses of snowy bloom early in the Spring contrast beautifully with the Basket of Gold (Alyssum saxatile compactum) and the blue False Wall Cress (Aubrietia). It blooms very soon after the snow disappears and the flowers are so numerous that when a plant […]
Asphodel – King’s Spear, Perennials Guide to Planting Flowers
Asphodel – King’s Spear The classic Asphodel is rarely seen in gardens although its interesting, tall and stately spikes of yellow and white flowers are of interest to garden lovers. The Asphodels are variously cataloged as Asphodeline and Asphodelus; the former genus is erect and has leafy stems, the latter is stemless. In Asphcdeline lutea the flowers are sweet scented […]
Aubrietia – Purple Rock Cress, False Wall Cress, Perennials Guide to Planting Flowers
Aubrietia – Purple Rock Cress, False Wall Cress – Arabis Early in the Spring, our eyes search for color in the garden. We grow the Rock Cress (Axabis) for white, Golden Alyssum for yellow, and Aubrietia for purple, rose, and lavender. But, few people have grown the Aubrietias because they have not known of them although the catalogs list the […]
Cactus, Hardy – Opuntia, Echinocactus, Perennials Guide to Planting Flowers
Cactus, Hardy – Opuntia, Echinocactus The Cacti, as everyone knows, are plants with thick, fleshy stems covered with spines, for usually there are no leaves. The Opuntias, which are perhaps the most common ones grown in the northern states, have large and flat branches. They have many colored spines and exquisite flowers. The spines are black, brown, purple, yellow or […]
Digitalis – Foxglove, Perennials Guide to Planting Flowers
Digitalis – Foxglove, Witches’ Thimbles A well grown Foxglove in full flower is a plant of dignity and beauty. The long flowering spikes grow from 3 to 6 feet tall, rising high above large clumps of broad, downy leaves. Upon the flowering stalk, the flowers open slowly as the impulse to bloom moves upward. This tends to lengthen the blooming […]
Scabiosa – Pincushion Flower, Perennials Guide to Planting Flowers
To those persons who are familiar with the annual sorts of Scabiosa, we need only say that the perennials resemble the annuals, except that the perennials have shorter florets at the center, while in the annual sorts the flowers are made up of florets of more uniform length. Scabiosa caucasica is the commonest perennial with flowers either light lilac-blue or […]
Lythrum – Purple Loosestrife, Perennials Guide to Planting Flowers
Lythrum – Purple Loosestrife, Black Blood The common Purple Loosestrife (Lylhrum Salicaria) grows from 4 feet to 6 feet tall and blooms during the months of July and August. Banned by most States in the United States. The foliage is willow-like and the tall, erect, graceful spikes produce brightly colored reddish-purple flowers. The Rose Loosestrife (L. roseum superbum) has a rose-colored […]