Rudbeckia laciniata ‘Herbstsonne’ ’is a huge plant that is perfect for the back of a perennial bed. It flowers in late summer providing a great splash of yellow for a long time. Unlike your typical yellow daisy it is quite unique with its large flared-back petals.
Ornithogalum candicans, is a tall, regal summer-flowering bulb that is little known in gardens. You might recognize it as Galtonia candicans. This plant was reclassified in 2004 when all of the Galtonia species were moved into the Ornithogalum genus, which I think is a shame since some of this genus, like star-of-Bethlehem, are garden thugs. O. candicans seeds very little and only at the base of the parent. It is no thug.
Caryopteris divaricata ‘Snow Fairy’ is an elegant plant that requires almost no maintenance, has few if any pests and looks good most of the year. It should be in every garden where it is hardy.
Mertensia virginica is a delightful spring ephemeral with soft blue flowers. Easily grown in shade or part shade, and requires no effort from the gardener. Plant and forget it. You don’t even have to clean up the foliage as it just disappears under other garden stars that grow later in the year.
Iris ‘Katharine Hodgkin’, the orchid iris, is one of the best reticulata-type early spring flowering iris. It makes a great show every year and multiplies quickly to form a good sized clump. The flowers are short, but wider than other similar types. To be honest, I don’t like pale colors in the garden but I’ve fallen in love with this one.
Berberis thunbergii ‘Concorde’ adds great color to a larger rock garden. It looks good from spring to fall and can be pruned to any height that suits its location. The flowers are insignificant, but the foliage steals the show.
Prosartes maculata is a rare beauty for the shade garden. It’s flowers face down similar to hellebores, so you have to lift the flowers to really enjoy them but they do flower early in the year after most daffodils and before the big show of iris and peonies.
Carl Linnaeus, famous for developing the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature, received some incorrectly labeled seeds that turned out to be Corydalis nobilis. Decedents of these plants can still be found today in his preserved garden. In fact it is an early example of a non-native plant escaping from a garden and becoming naturalized in its new home. It is believed that all of the wild Corydalis nobilis growing in Finland and Sweden are escapees from Carl Linnaeus’ garden.
The Stinking Hellebore! With a name like that, you just have to have one in your garden.
Hornungia alpina ‘Icecube’ is a darling plant for the rock garden that is not very well known, especially in North America.
Violets are darling little plants for the spring garden, but some are little devils that seed all over the place and become a weed. Viola ‘Dancing Geisha’ is not a devil. I find no seedlings in my garden.
