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If there’s a sedge worth screaming about, it may just be ‘Ice Cream’.This garden confection’s winning recipe features minty green stripes alternating with creamy white stripes. Its neat, mounded, spherical habit completes the picture.But don’t keep it in a bowl. Serve it up in a decorative container, or sprinkled generously around the border. ‘Ice Cream’ stands a tidy 12” tall, and is hardy in Zones 6 – 9. And it won’t melt in sun or part shade.Order up a heaping helping of this cool Carex. No n

Echinacea purpurea and hybridsOf all the native plants that have gone from America’s prairies to the world’s gardens, few have a history to rival that of the purple coneflower.For many years gardeners had two choices: Pinky-purple, and Not-quite-white. Then came 2002, when breeder Jim Ault of Chicago introduced the first orange and yellow hybrids. That was the genus’s Big Bang, and like the universe, it’s still expanding.Now, you can have your “purple” coneflowers in myriad hues, solids and bi c

Talk about intoxicating beauty! Spirits and flowers go together like, well, like wine and roses. Here’s a round of some of our favorite ornamental grasses. All share their names with fancy adult beverages. Miscanthus sinensis var. condensatus ‘Cosmopolitan’The Plant:Beautiful broad blades with longitudinal striping. Creamy white margins surround rich green centers. This is an impressive specimen, reaching up to nine feet in flower. Hardy in Zones 5 – 10.The Beverage:Every bar and bistro has its

Talk about intoxicating beauty! Flowers and spirits go together like, well, like wine and roses. Here’s a round of some of our favorite adult-beverage-inspired perennials.Achillea millefolium ‘Moonshine’ and Little MoonshinePP28179The Plants:‘Moonshine’ is a legacy plant from the famed English plantsman Alan Bloom, standing 18 – 24”. Little Moonshine is a Dutch-bred hybrid very much like its namesake and male parent, only less so: Similar bright yellow flowers and gray-green foliage, but in a sm

April showers bring May flowers.Mayflowers bring Pilgrims.Winter production brings April liners.April liners bring spring and summer profits. Our prolific production teams kept the beat going all winter. Now, with spring in the process of springing, you can reap the rewards of their efforts with ready-to-rock perennials and grasses!Grasses du JourPanicum (Switch grass)This indigenous American genus isn’t just for native plant enthusiasts. Tough and carefree, it’s perfectly at home in any su