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Looking to add some stellar selections to your perennial lineup? You’re in the right place. These proven all-stars always come shining through. Echinacea purpurea Ruby Star A superior, classic, large-flowered selection. Carmine-red petals remain horizontal, not reflexed, for a more colorful show than the straight species. “Purple coneflower” is beloved by birds, bees and butterflies. Goldfinches especially love to perch and dine on the spiky central seed cones after the petals drop. Hei

Kilkenny, Ireland is a destination city, famed for arts, crafts, music festivals, ancient castles -- and modern Carex! The breeders at Fitzgerald Nursery have struck Celtic gold with this great group of sedges.These well-behaved sedges form sturdy, compact, uniform mounds of glossy blades in a nifty range of easy-to-use sizes and colors. One variety, ‘Everillo’, has solid-color blades; the others are striped.Carex morrowii ‘Everglow’ PP30466 Rich green central stripes flanked by orange margins

Our latest “little bluestem” marks our tenth offering in this increasingly-popular group. And every one of them is the 2022 Perennial Plant of the Year: For just the second time in that award’s 32-year history, the Perennial Plant Association has bestowed it upon an entire species including all its cultivars.‘Twilight Zone’ PP27432 lights up the border with a unique, almost glowing, silvery/mauve cast to its mature foliage. As the season progresses, the silver persists even as the mauve tones se

Amsonia x Butterscotch™ brings a fresher, richer, healthier glow to a famous native perennial genus. Like Amsonia hubrichtii, Butterscotch™ is in constant graceful motion in the slightest breeze. It, too, has starry blue flowers in spring. And like its more famous sibling, its billowy masses of fine, rich green foliage segue to a beautiful golden autumn color. So how is it different? Let us recount the ways:■ Leaf Color: Butterscotch’s slim leaves take on a deeper, richer golden hue in fal

Remember that old comedy team, the Smothers Brothers? At some point during their TV show Tom would glare at Dick and blurt, “Mom always liked you best!”In “side-oats grama,” we have a long-suffering, attention-deserving American native grass unfairly eclipsed by its better-known sibling, the lovely, scheming B. gracilis ‘Blonde Ambition’. B. curtipendula is a charming, versatile, self-sufficient warm-season grass. Dense clumps of slender bluish-gray blades stand two feet tall. Small but attrac