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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

Geography Lessons in the GardenA good mixed perennial garden can be a trip around the world – or at least across a continent or two. Today’s tour involves a plant whose name sounds deceptively like a land it did NOT come from. Nepeta kubanica Neptune (‘Bokratune’ PP29556)Is that a funky way to spell Cuba, land of cigars and Castro? Nyet! The specific epithet refers to “big-leaf catmint’s” ancestral home on the Kuban Peninsula in Southern Russia, on the Black Sea. This particular beauty was bred

About the Rock Star AwardOur Rock Star award honors ECG employees who demonstrate a sustained high level of performance and inspire others. This month, put your hands together for Alysia Reed.Alysia started with Emerald Coast Growers back in 2006. She will have been with us for 15 years this Spring.Among Alysia’s nominators was Vice-President of Sales and company co-owner Cheri Markowitz. As for her job title, Cheri rattled off “Account Receivables/Credits & Claims Processing/Customer S

When the color experts at Pantone announced their Color of the Year for 2021, they gave us a rare double-header. Illuminating is a cheerful yellow. Ultimate Gray is exactly what it sounds like. They complement one another beautifully: Yellow for sunny optimism, gray for rock-solid reliability. We looked at gray last time, so let’s get sunny and optimistic again! In this episode, we shine an Illuminating beam on the golden blades of two grasses and a Carex (a grass like sedge, not a tru

When the color experts at Pantone announced their Color of the Year for 2021, they gave us a rare double-header. Illuminating is a cheerful yellow. Ultimate Gray is exactly what it sounds like. They complement one another beautifully: Yellow for sunny optimism, gray for rock-solid reliability. We looked at yellow last time, so let’s go gray again!Obviously, gray – even Ultimate Gray -- is not sexy. Let’s call it silver. Either way, there’s a place for it in nearly every border. Colors