(Short notes from the NHS June 19, 2001 meeting with Dianne Greenfield. Dianne is a professional horticulturalist and lecturer.
Dianne encouraged the audience to try out some new and unusual types of perennials in the garden. She brought numerous plants to show and gave an outline of each perennial growth habit and bloom type. Here are just a few samples:
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Cow Parsnip. Heracleum lanatum Member of the carrot family. Biennial, "show stopper", good specimen plant, grows to 8ft tall. |
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Plume Poppy. Macleaya Cordata - crucial Victorian plant, grow near a building or at back of border |
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Persian Coneflower or Knapweed. Centaurea dealbata.Blooms sporadically all season, deep purple blooms, goldfinches love it, nice combined with irises. Grows to 2 - 3 feet in width and height. |
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Sweet Cicely. Myrrhis odorata.Herb. Up early in spring, licorice scent, use leaves to wrap meat for the BBQ, the seeds are known as "Gramma's Candy". Crushed unripe fruits together with oil can be used to scent and polish oak furniture. |
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Prairie Smoke. Geum Triflorum.According to Canadian lore, as some settlers moved across the prairies they stopped and set up camp one afternoon as they spied smoke on the horizon. That night no glow could be seen where the smoke had been observed earlier. For three days they camped there, observing the smoke in the daytime but no glow in the evening. On the fourth day a runner was sent ahead and he returned telling of the fluffy seed heads of a plant now commonly known as "Prairie smoke". |
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Yellow Loosestrife, Circle Flower. Lysimachia Punctata.Each blossom can be thought of as a Fairy cap! Another plant common in Victorian gardens. Height - about 3 feet. |
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Armenian Basket Flower, Lemon Fluff. Centaurea Macrocephala.Goldfinches love it! Seed heads are great for dried arrangements. Big plant with coarse leaves. Full sun. Height 3 - 4 feet. |
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Globe Thistle. Echinops Ritro.Blue leaves, flowers/seedheads are round bluish globes, likes hot, dry growing conditions. Other varieties: Arabian Thistle: magenta flowers resembling those of the Scotch thistle, huge (2ft) whitish furry leaves, often biennial, seeds available (approx $12 for 15 seeds) Silver Thistle - (Carolina aucalis) - small white flowers open & close, likes dry conditions, seed available from Thompson and Morgan, plants available from Epic or Park |
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Knautia. Knautia arvensis. Native of Macedonia, grows 4-5ft tall, leaves near the bottom with wispy branches of small scabiosa-like flowers in shades of pink and mauve, good near the front of a border as the airy flower stems do not block view of plants behind. |
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Sea Holly. Eryngium sp. Drought tolerant. Great in arrangements. |
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Snowdrop Anemone. Anemone sylvestris Nice with magenta cranesbills or under peonies |
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