Blog

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 nicely: Yellow for sunny optimism, gray for rock-solid reliability. Let’s go gray first. Obviously, gray – even Ultimate Gray -- is not sexy. Call it silver if it makes you feel better. As designers know, there’s a place for it in nearly every border.Magically, colors that clash

The current hunger for succulent plants of all kinds has increased awareness of this tough, fascinating genus. But do folks who’ve recently discovered it realize how long it’s been in cultivation? Mankind’s love for this genus goes back centuries. The name is Latin for “always living,” a testament to its durability. In antiquity, it was used in medicine and magic. Its juicy flesh was said to heal stings and sores, much like Aloe.Some say only two things can kill a Semp: Shade, and poor drai

That which we call a weasel snout, by any other name...Lamiastrum ‘Herman’s Pride’ is a lovely ground cover that excels even in one of the toughest landscape niches: The dreaded dry shade.Colorful and sturdy, it spreads slowly, clump by clump, to colonize tricky slopes and other barren places. Hardy in Zones 4 – 8, it stands about a foot tall when in bloom.This interesting, useful plant has two common names. Both are interesting, but only one is useful. “Yellow archangel” resonates at retail: An

A rhinoceros with an elephant?A Heuchera with a Tiarella?Let’s answer the second question first: Those two North American native genera pulled off a trick that’s pretty rare in the plant kingdom.Heuchera (Coral bells) and Tiarella (Foamflower) crossed to form the intergeneric hybrid xHeucherella. The first known example was the work of matchmaking French breeder Emile Lemoine in 1912.There’s nothing unusual about species within the same genus getting together to form new hybrids. With or without

Salvia nemorosa May Night ranks among the most famous names in all perennialdom. But that well-known name isn’t its real name: Technically, it’s ‘Mainacht’, which means the same thing in German.In either language, it’s prized for its long-flowering stands of deep purple-blue spikes. Way back in 1997 it won the prestigious Perennial Plant of the Year award from the Perennial Plant Association. May Night loves to flower so much, it demands extra attention in propagation to root and branch – an iss