Debbie's Garden: Perennials


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Plant: Helleborus "Oriental Hybrid"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 1
Planted: 9/16/06
Blooms: Early March g
Notes: Planted in front garden originally. This is a strong, healthy plant. Bloomed for the first time in spring 2008. Moved to the back garden 5/26/08 where it gets more shade and provides a nice evergreen anchor for that area. It is doing very well in its new location. The blooms last for well over a month.


Plant: Helleborus "Double Queen"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/26/10
Blooms: Mid-March
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden in full shade. Doing very well and produced several blooms in 2011 and 2012.

Plant: Brunnera "Looking Glass"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 1
Planted: 9/12/10
Blooms: Late March
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. Doing well. Bloomed for the first time in 2012. The tiny blue blooms stick around for nearly a month and look like confetti when they drop to the ground. This one is a winner.

Plant: Euphorbia "Tiny Tim"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/12/10
Blooms: Early April
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. Doing very well. Nice red tint to the stems. Two of the three plants came back in 2011 and 2012, and they both bloomed in March 2012. Removed the small one and moved the big one to the back garden in 2013. They had both barely survived the winter and consisted only of new growth by mid-May 2013. Moved to the back garden in 2013.

Plant: Hardy Primrose Mix
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 18
Planted: 9/29/04
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. Planted six more on 5/7/05, then six more on 9/27/05. One plant produced yellow blooms September through November 2006. These are mostly evergreen in our area (zone 5) and are thriving. The blossoms are brightly colored. I highly recommend these plants. These were beaten down hard during the drought of 2010, but came back better than ever in 2011. I split a few plants in spring 2011. Moved four yellow ones to the back garden in spring 2012, and a few other colors in spring 2013 since they provide such a nice splash of early spring color.

Plant: White Bleeding Hearts
Source: Frank's, Lowe's, Sundown Gardens, Meijer
Quantity: 6
Planted: Spring 2002
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: Purchased from various places in 2002 and 2003. These are a nice base plant for clematis. Their foliage is pure green, not tinged with red like the pink bleeding hearts. In 2008, they suddenly started to struggle, so I added another from Meijer in May 2008.

Plant: Pink Bleeding Hearts
Source: Van Dyck's
Quantity: 4
Planted: 4/16/04
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: Originally planted in kitchen garden. These come up bigger and stronger every year and are really pretty. In fall 2006, we moved these to the far back garden in the shade where they could take up lots more space, and they transplanted well. They were much happier back there and grew larger each year. Removed them when the evergreens in the far back garden grew enough to need the space, but two came back strong in 2009 anyway so we moved them to a mostly shady place in the back garden in spring 2009.

Plant: Tiarella "Candy Striper"
Source: Wayside Gardens
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/9/06
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. This plant has very cool coloring on its foliage and tiny white-pink blooms. One died and I moved the remaining two from back to kitchen garden 7/8/06 where it has a cooler location and seems quite happy, as evidenced by the fact that it bloomed for several months. I really like this plant. One wasn't doing well after a particularly wet 2009 spring, so I removed it to make room for the mouse plants. The remaining one was struggling and getting overrun by the mouse plants, so I moved it to the back garden in spring 2011 where it has more room and a little more sun, and is finally thriving.

Plant: Pulsatilla vulgaris (Pasque flower)
Source: Wild Ginger Farm
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/29/09
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: Planted in back garden by tree peony. Doing very well. Bloomed for the first time in 2010 and gets better every year. This is a pretty little plant with an awful name, so I bought a couple more types. In 2013, it barely came up at all, so maybe it has come to the end of its run.

Plant: Pulsatilla vulgaris "Alba"
Source: High Country Gardens
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/29/11
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: Planted in the back garden. Still small but bloomed in 2012. Moved to a better location in the back garden in 2013.

Plant: Pulsatilla vulgaris "Rote Glocke"
Source: High Country Gardens
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/29/11
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. Bloomed in 2012.

Plant: Trillium
Source: Lowe's, Henry Field's, Pinetree Garden Seeds
Quantity: 8
Planted: Fall 2003,
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: We planted two white trillium and two red trillium from Lowe's in fall 2003 and spring 2004. Only one of the plants developed a flower bud in 2004, then again in 2005, but both times, the bud withered. In 2006, one of the red ones finally bloomed! I planted three more from Henry Field's in spring 2006 (white, purple, and yellow) and the white one never came up. Eventually figured out that the purple ones are the same as the rose ones purchased elsewhere. Transplanted red ones to a different section of the spa garden in 2008, 2009, and 2011. Split one large red chunk into 9 individual rooted plants in 2013.

Plant: White Trillium
Source: American Meadows
Quantity: 9
Planted: 6/2/08
Blooms: Early April
Notes: Planted 3 in spa garden. Planted 2 more on 9/24/09. Unfortunately, one turned out to be a red trillium so I moved it. One of them bloomed in 2010 and three bloomed in 2011. After a week, the blooms start turning pink. These are beautiful. Planted 2 more white trillium from Henry Fields in the back garden in 2011. Planted 3 more from American Meadows on 4/27/13.

Plant: Yellow Trillium
Source: American Meadows, Pinetree Garden Seeds
Quantity: 5
Planted: 6/2/08
Blooms: Early April
Notes: Planted 4 in spa garden. Three were from American Meadows and one was from Pinetree Garden Seeds. Planted 2 more from American Meadows 9/24/09. Unfortunately, one has already turned out to be a red trillium. Three of them bloomed in early April 2010 for the first time. By 2013, I had five plants with 2 - 5 stems each in the spa garden. These are the strongest bloomers of all my trillium. Planted two more yellow (lemon) trillium from Henry Fields in the back garden in 2011, and then moved them to this group in 2013.

Plant: Red Trillium
Source: American Meadows
Quantity: 6?
Planted: 6/2/08
Notes: Planted 3 in spa garden. As other colors of trillium turn out to actually be red, the red trilliums are slowly taking over.

Plant: Rose Trillium
Source: American Meadows
Quantity: 11
Planted: 6/2/08
Notes: Planted 3 in spa garden. Planted 2 more on 9/24/09. Two of them bloomed for the first time in 2013. Planted 6 more from American Meadows on 4/27/13. These are basically the same color as the red ones, except their bloom is prettier and held on a tiny stem that points the blossom down.

Plant: Painted Trillium
Source: American Meadows
Quantity: 11
Planted: 9/24/09
Notes: Planted 6 in spa garden. Only 4 came up, and the three that have bloomed have all turned out to be red trillium, like I don't have enough of those. Planted 6 more from American Meadows on 4/27/13 because I naively hold out hope that this plant actually exists.

Plant: Geum "Flames of Passion"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/27/09
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: Planted in side garden. Bloomed for the first time in 2010. One plant was struggling so it is smaller than the other two, but all three were doing well by 2010. Nice, consistent plant that handles all weather conditions well.

Plant: Salvia "May Night"
Source: Sundown Gardens, Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 10
Planted: 4/16/03
Blooms: Late April
Notes: Planted four plants from Sundown Gardens. Was eaten alive by slugs before we learned to control them. It is thriving in a full sun location. I shear off the flower stalks several times a summer and it immediately reblooms so it is bloom all summer long. Planted six more 4/25/05 from Bluestone Perennials which exploded into huge, healthy plants, but removed them in fall 2006 to make room for new plants. Moved the original plant to the far back garden and split it to make two plants, but gave the smaller of the two to my cousin in May 2009.

Plant: Polemonium "Stairway to Heaven"
Source: Spring Hill Nurseries
Quantity: 2
Planted: 6/18/07
Blooms: Late April
Notes: These plants were sent as a substitution of "Brise D'Anjou." I'm not a big fan of substitutions, but the plants are healthy. New foliage has a pink tinge, which is pretty. Blooms are tiny, pale blue.


Plant: Columbine "Biedermeier"
Source: Allisonville Nursery, Menards, Meijer
Quantity: 4
Planted: 4/3/04
Blooms: Late April
Notes: Biedermeier columbine come in a variety of colors, so we weren't sure what to expect when we bought the first four from Allisonville Nursery. The flowers turned out to be a mix of pale, light, and medium pink, and light blue. We've added two more from Menard's and tend to have 4 - 6 at any given time. In 2005, one of the varieties had the tiniest blooms I've ever seen on a columbine, but it didn't come back. I replaced it with another one with small blooms from Meijer. Since I love the small purple variety the most, I deliberately let those blooms go to seed and deadhead the others. Moved these to the back garden when we redid the front garden in July 2009, but there are seedlings coming up in the old spot and I'm letting them stay. Moved one plant with solid navy blooms to the back garden in spring 2012.

Plant: Columbine "Blue Star"
Source: Sundown Gardens, Wood's Edge
Quantity: 2
Planted: 5/10/03
Blooms: Early May
Notes: What a lovely flower. These are the tallest of our columbines and one of my favorites. The first two plants did not come back in spring 2005, so we replaced them with two more from Wood's Edge on 4/30/05. I let them go to seed to encourage new plants, but they got mowed over by the highly aggressive Scarlet Flame phlox planted nearby. Planted two packets of seeds in back garden 4/26/09 and have two large plants now. I let them go to seed and collected quite a bit in 2010 and 2011, so I hope to keep these going forever.

Plant: Columbine "Remembrance" or "Swan Violet and White"
Source: Avon Gardens, Vail Villager, Greenwood Nursery, Diane's Flower Seeds, Oak Creek Growers, Spring Valley Farms
Quantity: ?
Planted: 4/10/04
Blooms: Early May
Notes: These plants are dark violet and white. They are extremely beautiful and difficult to find. The original four plants from Avon Gardens didn't come back in spring 2006, so I replaced them with three more small plants from Vail Villager through eBay that were doing well until an intense heat wave hit. I planted seeds from Vail Villager in spring 2007 and let the few blooms we got go to seed, since I can't bear to not have these in my garden. I bought four large plants from Greenwood Nursery in 2008 and planted them in two additional locations. The plants arrived in terrible condition with rotted blooms, leaves, and stems, one died within a few weeks, two died the following spring, and one produced pale lavender blooms instead of dark purple. Moved the last remaining plant up front to join the one in the kitchen garden on 3/22/09. As of August 2009, only one sickly plant survived and it didn't last long. Planted seeds from Diane's Flower Seeds in kitchen garden several times in 2010 in two places and had two flowering plants in 2011. Planted 3 plants from Oak Creek Growers in the back garden and 3 plants from Spring Valley Farms in the kitchen garden in spring 2011, and all six are doing well.

Plant: Columbine "Maxi Star"
Source: Swallowtail Garden Seeds
Quantity: 2 packets seeds
Planted: 4/1/10
Blooms: Early May
Notes: Planted in back garden. Doing very well. Has beautiful large yellow blooms with long spurs. I've collected and spread the seeds, so now it is multiplying.

Plant: Columbine "Little Treasure"
Source: High Country Gardens
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/26/11
Notes: Planted in back garden. Very tiny foliage and very pretty blossoms.

Plant: Columbine "Chrysantha"
Source: High Country Gardens
Quantity: 2
Planted: 5/26/11
Notes: Planted in far back garden. Doing well.

Plant: Columbine "Swallowtail"
Source: High Country Gardens
Quantity: 1
Planted: 6/20/11
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. Was sent the wrong plant at first but then they sent the correct one. The spurs on this beauty are nearly 4 inches long.

Plant: Columbine "Dwarf White"
Source: Swallowtail Garden Seeds
Quantity: 2 packets seeds
Planted: 4/1/10
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden originally. One seedling is coming up very slowly. Moved to back garden in spring 2012 when it was blooming for the first time. I let it go to seed and added another packet of seeds in 2012, but I haven't seen any seedlings in 2013.

Plant: Lupine "Blue"
Source: Meijer, Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 6 packets
Planted: 4/12/07
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: Planted two packets of seeds in back garden. None of the seedlings came back in 2008. Planted two more packets of seeds in spring 2008. Added three Russell's Hybrids blue shades plants from Bluestone Perennials on 6/2/08. Planted a flat of seedlings started indoors 4/18/09. Bloomed for the first time in 2009, and comes back consistently now that I let everything go to seed.


Plant: Lupines "Russell Hybrids Mix"
Source: Van Bourgondien, Altum's, Meijer, Spring Hill Nursery, Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 12
Planted: 4/10/06
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: I purchased six from Van Bourgondien and one from Altum's in 2004, but they didn't survive. Planted six from Meijer, six from Spring Hill, and three packets of seeds. One plant returned in 2007 but died in 2008. One seedling form 2007 survived the winter. Planted another two packets of seeds in spring 2008. Added three plants from Bluestone on 6/2/08. A record eight plants survived the winter. It's a Lupine Miracle! Planted a flat of seedlings started indoors 4/18/09. Colors include white/blue (Governor), white/pink, red/pink, peach/pink, and purple. I let a few of these go to seed for next year, but their peak year was 2010.

Plant: Lupine "Scarlet"
Source: Meijer
Quantity: 5 packets
Planted: 4/12/07
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: Planted two packets of seeds in back garden in 2007. Not doing well but one plant came back in 2008. Planted a packet of seeds in May 2008 in the side garden, and moved the one remaining plant there too, but only the plant survived the winter. Planted a flat of seedlings started indoors 4/18/09 and some are still alive. I think these are Lupine Gallery Red, but the Meijer seed packets didn't identify them by name. Planted about 30 seeds of Lupine Gallery Red from Swallowtail Garden Seeds in March 2010, so we'll see if they match. Moved four small plants farther away from the Japanese maple. Some were producing blooms but didn't handle the transplant well. However, they did fine in 2011. Planted a packet of Lupine Red Flame in March 2011 to see if they match, and ended up with a couple of random blue lupines instead. Argh.


Plant: Lupine "Russell's Hybrids Yellow Shades"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 6/2/08
Blooms: Late May
Notes: Planted in far back garden. Only the biggest one survived the first winter. I think these might be Lupine Chandelier. Planted about 30 seeds of Lupine Chandelier from Swallowtail Garden Seeds in March 2010, so we'll see if they match. The original plants were dead by late 2010. Planted a packet of Lupine Chandelier in March 2011 even though there were lots of seedlings from last year starting to grow. I'm expecting to have a lot of blooms in 2012 if all of the seedlings live. Several of the seedlings bloomed at the end of the summer of 2012, and they were all variations of pink. Yeah, pink. Yay.

Plant: Lychnis "Flora Pleno"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/20/07
Blooms: Late May
Notes: Planted in back garden by Iris Sugar Blues. Doing well, but rabbits keep eating the flower buds its first year. Two didn't survive the winter of 2008 but the third is healthy and bloomed for the first time in 2009. The blooms are bright pink and very eye-catching. Moved it to a new location in the back garden where I had an open space and it is doing well. The baby rabbits love eating the stems.

Plant: Penstemon "Red Rocks"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/6/07
Blooms: Early June
Notes: Planted in far back garden. Started blooming two weeks after it was planted. One didn't survive the first winter, but the other two are healthy. The rabbits don't eat this and it's a pretty little plant, so it's a keeper. This one inspired me to try a couple of other cultivars -- one successful, one not. Moved to back garden in 2010 where it has plenty of room and looks fantastic. It tends to flop after hard rains, but bounces back quickly.

Plant: Veronica (Speedwell) "Royal Candles"
Source: Lowes
Quantity: 3
Planted: 7/19/09
Blooms: Late May
Notes: Planted in back garden. These are larger than Veronica "Giles Van Hees" but I love them just as much. They look gorgeous in front of Echinacea "Pink Double Delight." Doing great.

Plant: Veronica (Speedwell) "Giles Van Hees"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/6/07
Blooms: Early June
Notes: Planted in back garden. Started blooming two weeks after it was planted. A few of the blooms in 2008 had split tops which were interesting. This blooms all summer and the bees really love it. This is my favorite of my Veronica plants.

Plant: Veronica (Speedwell) "Goodness Grows"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/6/07
Blooms: Early June
Notes: Originally planted in back garden by flowering almond bush, but the tulips planted under them blocked their sun early in the season so they got leggy. Moved them a few feet over to their own little plot of land where they don't have to share their dirt, then moved them again in August 2008 into the kitchen garden where they won't be sitting right next to the blue balloonflowers, which are the same height and same color. Only one struggling plant was left in 2009. I cut it back hard in May 2010 to encourage it to bush out instead of flop and by August, it was finally looking good. I had to do the same thing in 2011, and in 2012, I didn't even bother. It still looks pretty sickly. Someday, I'll snap and remove it.

Plant: Daylily "Happy Returns"
Source: Sundown Gardens
Quantity: 8
Planted: Spring 2002
Blooms: Early June
Notes: These are terrific, reliable plants. They bloom forever and produce many flowers. This is a larger, paler offspring of "Stella d'Oro." They were our first daylilies and paved the way for the others we have.

Plant: Daylily "Little Business"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 3
Planted: 3/29/04
Blooms: Early June
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. These are a nice, compact daylily with loads of color, like a red version of "Stella d'Oro." They're probably my favorite daylilies since they bloom the earliest in the season. Removed two in 2010 to make room for other plants.

Plant: Daylily "Stella d'Oro"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 5
Planted: 3/29/04
Blooms: Early June
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. These are very small, but great bloomers all summer. Removed two in 2010 to make room for other plants.

Plant: Daylily "Destined to See"
Source: Van Dyck's
Quantity: 3
Planted: 5/1/04
Blooms: Mid-June
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. These do not have the purple edging or the purple color shown in the catalogs, but they are beautiful anyway. They are more of a maroon-pale peach combination. The plants and blossoms are large. Removed two in 2010 to make room for other plants.

Plant: Stokesia "Mary Gregory"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 1
Planted: 9/16/06
Blooms: Early June
Notes: Planted in the back garden. Very healthy plants. The butterflies love this one, and so do I. The blooms are nice and big and the plants are sturdy. Moved one plant in August 2008 to give it more room. These are spreading by underground runners and I'm trying to keep them under control.

Plant: Stokesia "Purple Parasols"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/6/07
Blooms: Mid-June
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. The rabbits leave these plants alone, and the blooms are big and pretty.

Plant: Sempervivum "Brauni"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/27/09
Blooms: Early June
Notes: Planted in back garden. Doing well and producing baby plants. Shocked me by blooming their second season -- teeny tiny blooms on top of an 8 inch stalk that telescoped out from one of the larger bunches. Their third season, they produced 8 bloom stalks. They're spreading quickly, and anything that goes out of bounds gets replanted nearby, so it's filling out its area nicely.

Plant: Astilbe White
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 2
Planted: 3/29/04
Blooms: Early June
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. Purchased as part of a color mix, but separated into different categories here to show the difference in colors. Nice, reliable plant.

Plant: Astilbe Red
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 1
Planted: 3/29/04
Blooms: Mid-June
Notes: Originally planted in kitchen garden. Purchased as part of a color mix. Moved to back garden in spring 2008. This is a very healthy, easy-care plant.

Plant: Astilbe Pink
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 1
Planted: 3/29/04
Blooms: Mid-June
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. Purchased as part of a color mix. Moved to the corner of the kitchen garden in July 2008. Yes, the dreaded corner where things go to die. My hope was that this plant is healthy enough to handle the lousy conditions there and it is doing well.

Plant: Echinacea "White Swan"
Source: Lowe's
Quantity: 1
Planted: 7/19/09
Blooms: Mid-June
Notes: Planted in back garden by columbine. Doing well. The golden finches love the seeds on this one. Had to move this to a quarantine pot in 2011 when the horrible anemone plants next to it had to be eradicated, then put it back into the ground a month later, and when it bloomed, it was pink and doesn't look at all like this photo. I'm baffled.

Plant: Echinacea "Razzmatazz"
Source: Wayside Gardens
Quantity: 1
Planted: 9/21/05
Blooms: Mid-June
Notes: Planted one in back garden in spring 2005. The roots were rotten when we planted it and it died immediately. Call me stupid, but I tried again in the fall and ordered another one, which is doing much better. I'm very pleased with it. The blooms last for well over a month and it blooms through fall. It is more established now but it still gets floppy in the rain and is very susceptible to some sort of powdery disease. Doing very well despite it.

Plant: Echinacea "Pink Double Delight"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/27/09
Blooms: Late June
Notes: Planted in back garden by blue lupine. Doing well. This is described as being like Echinacea Razzmatazz except better, so I was interested, but when this one came along, Razzmatazz retaliated by having its best season ever. These are still better, though.

Plant: Calamintha "Nepetoides"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/17/09
Blooms: Mid-June
Notes: Planted in back garden. Arrived containing tiny blooms. This would be a fairly boring plant except for the fact that bumblebees are crazy for it, so at any given time in the late summer, you can find dozens of bees happily feasting on the tiny blooms. Removed two plants since they are so large, and moved one other to the side of the house where it has more room. It looks absolutely majestic and survives both drought and storms well.

Plant: Campanula "Blue Chip"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 6
Planted: 4/10/04
Blooms: Late June
Notes: Planted in front garden where they are thriving. These provide great color in the summer. There was one rogue white plant in the mix, but we removed it when we moved them from the front garden to the side of the house in fall 2006. They spread well, so they're now in a location where they can sprawl out without smothering plants nearby. Note that I don't consider them invasive -- they just sprawl well. Only three plants survived the transplant but they are doing very well now.

Plant: Campanula "White Clips"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 21
Planted: 9/17/09
Blooms: Late June
Notes: Planted 3 in back garden in fall 2009. Planted 18 in front garden in spring 2010. Moved three to the back garden in summer 2011.

Plant: Ligularia "The Rocket"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 1
Planted: 6/2/08
Blooms: Early July
Notes: Planted in back garden. Doing well but didn't bloom in 2008. It did very well in 2009 and bloomed for the first time. This is a terrific shade plant because it produces such bright blooms and looks nice when it isn't in bloom.

Plant: Filipendula "Kahome"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/26/10
Blooms: Mid-July
Notes: Planted in back garden. Doing fine but growing slowly. Bloomed for the first time in 2011. The leaves burn easily during drought so it spends most of the time in my garden looking sickly. I will probably keep it until 1) it blooms, or 2) 2014 comes, whichever happens first.

Plant: Rudbeckia "Gold Drop"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/20/07
Blooms: Mid-July
Notes: Planted in back garden among Allium Globemaster. Doing very well despite being completely smothered by the Globemaster foliage in the spring. The Globemaster foliage is completely gone by the time these start to get large.

Plant: White Baneberry
Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/25/07
Blooms: Mid-August
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. Very healthy upon arrival and doing well in a nearly full shade location. The flower stems are several feet long. It dies back each winter and comes back stronger every year. The leaves are prone to burning in extreme heat or drought.

Plant: Aster "Snow Flurry"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/18/04
Blooms: Late September
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. It got eaten by rabbits its first year, but did well after that.

Plant: Christmas Fern
Source: Van Dyck's
Quantity: 2
Planted: 9/18/04
Notes: Planted in total shade in kitchen garden. They took several years to get established, but they're doing very well now. Boring and a little scary looking when the first hairy monkey paws unfurl into fern fronds, but dependable.

Plant: Japanese Painted Fern "Pictum"
Source: Dutch Gardens
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/28/06
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden, next to Christmas fern and hostas. These are thriving and are quite pretty. It completely dies back in the winter. In the spring, the unfurling foliage is dark red and blends into the surrounding soil, so you just have to have faith that it is coming back even if you can't really see it. By late April, it starts to change color and become visible.

Plant: May Apple
Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds, HCMGA
Quantity: 2
Planted: 5/25/07
Notes: Planted one from Pinetree in shady part of far back garden. Arrived in perfect condition and thrived until it died back in mid-August as expected. Sprouted again in mid-April. Added a second, two-stem plant from Hamilton County Master Gardeners Association in May 2008, and both are doing very well. They're very clearly two different types because of the differences in foliage. In 2010, I added a third that I dug up from our neighborhood forest after a day of forest cleanup. The forest has dozens of these each year and they look fantastic in a large group. I figure my garden will look like that in about 20 years. The two newer ones bloomed in 2011, and all three had become two plants each. They're now starting to spread quickly.

Plant: Asarum europaeum (European Ginger)
Source: Wild Ginger Farm
Quantity: 2
Planted: 4/29/09
Notes: Planted in full shade part of kitchen garden. Doing poorly. One has died and the other hasn't done anything at all. Moved the remaining one to the back garden in spring 2012 hoping it will do better.

Plant: Cimicifuga (Bugbane) "Racemosa"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/26/10
Notes: Planted in far back garden. Doing okay but hasn't bloomed yet.

Removed or Disappeared

Plant: Lupine "Tutti Frutti"
Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds, HCMGA
Quantity: 8 packets
Planted: 3/23/07
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: Planted two packets of seeds in far back garden. Doing very well and two bloomed for the first time in 2008. Planted three more packets of seeds in spring 2008. Added a small plant from Hamilton County Master Gardeners Association in May 2008. Continued to bloom into late June. Planted two more packets in April 2009 and planted another packet in March 2010. I've gotten variations on purple and pink, but got white blooms for the first time in 2011. Removed them reluctantly in 2013 to make room for the growing evergreens behind them.


Plant: Lupine "Governor"
Source: Swallowtail Garden Seeds
Quantity: 1 packet
Planted: 3/26/10
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: This was my second try at growing this plant (see first attempt further down this page). Planted a packet of seeds in March 2010, but then my Lupine Red Flame finally bloomed and turned out to be Governor instead. So, I moved a handful of Red Flame seedlings to a different location (hoping they'll actually turn out to be Red Flame) and moved my Governor seedlings to join the existing Governor plant. Planted a packet of seeds in March 2011 even though there were lots of seedlings from last year starting to grow. Removed these in 2013 to make room for the growing evergreens behind them.


Plant: Iberis "Autumn Beauty"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/6/07
Blooms: Mid-March
Notes: Planted in back garden by dwarf Oriental lily Miss Birma. Only one survived its first year but it slowly spread and did very well. I removed it when I simplified my garden in 2013 because it was spreading into the surrounding plants and had a bad habit of holding on tight to fallen leaves in the fall and spring.

Plant: Lupine "White"
Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds
Quantity: 5 packets
Planted: 3/23/07
Notes: Planted a flat of seedlings started indoors on 4/19/09 in the back garden. Planted in back garden. I think these might be Lupine Noble Maiden, but Pinetree didn't specify the name. Planted about 30 seeds of Lupine Noble Maiden from Swallowtail Garden Seeds in March 2010, but by August 2010, both old and new seedlings were dead, victim of a two-month heat wave. Planted a packet of Lupine Noble Maiden in March 2011. By spring 2012, I had exactly one plant, but at least it bloomed. I got three seedlings in 2013, but by then, I had grown weary of try to get these to thrive, so I pulled them.


Plant: Columbine "Music Mixed"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 9
Planted: 4/27/06
Blooms: Early May
Notes: Planted in side garden originally. The plants are small and the stems are short, but the blooms are large and beautiful. This mix contained blue/white, red/white, pink/white, and red/yellow flowers, and the blue/white blossoms are the earliest. In 2008, we moved them to the back garden and they eventually died out due to the evergreens towering over them.

Plant: Agastache Rugosum
Source: High Country Gardens
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/29/11
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. Doing very well but then half of it wilted in June 2013, so out it came. It was a little boring for my taste.

Plant: Pyrethrum "Robinson's Red"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/12/10
Notes: Planted in far back garden. Only one plant survived the winter of 2010 and it is still very, very small because it gets eaten by baby rabbits every year. It finally produced blooms in 2012 but they were eaten immediately. I finally wised up and put a tiny decorative fence around it and it rewarded me by blooming in 2013. Unfortunately, the blooms were on 18" stems that flopped over after a rain, so I decided it wasn't worth the space, the fence, and the effort, and out it came.

Plant: Penstemon "Electric Blue"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/27/09
Blooms: Late May
Notes: Planted in back garden. No blooms in 2009, but it did fine after that, producing lots of small bright blue flowers. Unfortunately, it didn't come back in 2013.

Plant: Bergenia "Perfecta"
Source: Seasons Nursery
Quantity: 3
Planted: 10/9/05
Blooms: Early April
Notes: This plant's nickname is pig squeak, because of the sound the leaves make when rubbed. We do love the colorful foliage and the fact that the foliage remains all winter. This didn't produce any flowers in 2006, probably because it was in a full sun location. Moved to a shade location in fall 2006, and it rewarded me by blooming very well in spring 2007. Only three bloom stems appeared in 2008, but it did well again every year after that. Moved to the far back garden in August 2009, and split these into 10 different plants that all thrived. Removed them in 2013 when the pine trees next to them needed the space to grow.

Plant: Mouse Plant (Arisarum proboscideum)
Source: Van Dyck's
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/26/05
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: Two plants appeared to die fairly quickly, because they were planted in the kitchen garden in an area with heavy clay soil and lousy drainage. The remaining plant was moved to a better location on 6/25/05, but didn't survive. However, the two plants that seemed to die right away sprouted again in 2006, three sprouts appeared in 2007, and a bunch of sprouts and a couple of blooms appeared in 2008. The blooms are incredibly tiny and adorable -- a 1/2" half-cream, half-brown ball with a 3" long brown tail.The blooms appear at the same time as the leaves. These had formed a thick 12" mat by May 2009, so I split them into a much larger area covering the kitchen garden's dead zone and they filled in well, but they were covering a three foot area by 2013, so out they came. I loved these but wish they didn't spread so quickly.

Plant: Blueberry "Northland"
Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds
Quantity: 2
Planted: 5/8/08
Notes: Planted in spa garden. Started to bloom within a week of planting but rabbits or chipmunks got to them before berries formed in 2008. These two are the largest and healthiest of my blueberry plants. Blueberries were ready to eat in late June 2009 and we got to eat six delicious berries before the animals got to them. The animals got to them in 2010. Moved to the back garden in 2011 where it could get more sun, but it didn't help and the rabbits continued to feast on it. I was tired of being sad everytime I looked at it, so I pulled what remained of it in 2013.

Plant: Blueberry "Duke"
Source: Lowe's
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/8/10
Notes: Planted in spa garden. This plant was already taller than our two-year-old blueberry plants when we bought it. No berries yet. Moved to the far back garden in 2011 where it would get more sun, but the baby rabbits chewed it to the ground in 2012. After a season protected by a wire basket, I realized that it was just plain dead. I will never attempt to grow blueberries again. Ever.

Plant: Tricyrtis "Blue Wonder"
Source: Lowe's
Quantity: 1
Planted: 9/24/09
Blooms: Mid-September
Notes: Planted in back garden. Was two feet tall its second season. The blooms are very tiny and tend to go unnoticed. It's not an attractive plant at all, especially when it gets floppy after a hard rain, so I removed it in 2012.

Plant: Strawberry "Ruegen Improved"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/26/10
Notes: Planted in side garden. Doing very well. These are fantastic plants - they look good, are very hardy, and spread well. The strawberries are very tiny, but are ripe immediately and taste great. I split the original three into a dozen plantlets from the original plants and seedlings came up all over, so I had strawberry plants everywhere and finally decided that my fear of being invaded was stronger than my love of tiny strawberries. There are hundreds of seedlings in 2013, so I'm doing my best to pull them all.

Plant: Lingonberry "Red Pearl"
Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds
Quantity: 4
Planted: 4/26/07
Notes: Planted 3 in back garden in 2007. They were extremely small plants, so Pinetree issued a credit and a note that they were smaller than they were expecting -- how nice! Unfortunately, the chipmunks kept digging them up, so we had to keep replanting them. I finally pronounced the last one dead in July 2008. Planted one more from Pinetree in spring 2008, and it is much larger than the previous year's plants and is thriving. First blooms and offshoots appeared in August 2009. Snipped the offshoots in April 2010 and planted them one foot to the left to create new plants. The blooms rarely turn into viable berries - they either shrivel up once they are almost red, or they rot before that point. Got two actual berries for the first time in 2010, and a few more in 2011, but none in 2012, so I snapped and removed it.

Plant: Blueberry "Patriot"
Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds
Quantity: 2
Planted: 5/8/08
Notes: Planted in spa garden originally. I tried to keep these doused in a very foul-smelling rabbit repellant until I decided I'd rather have a nice-smelling garden and buy blueberries from the store. Started to bloom within a week of planting but rabbits had gotten to the berries before they finished forming. Same story in 2009 and 2010. Moved to the back garden in 2011 where it got more sun, but that didn't help. Eventually, they died, putting all of us out of our misery.

Plant: Tradescantia "Sweet Kate"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/16/06
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: Planted in far back garden. Strong, healthy plants. The foliage is bright lime green, and the blooms are bright purple. One didn't survive the winter of 2007 - 2008 and I pulled another in spring 2009 when the evergreens behind them grew over them. The remaining plant is big, healthy, and more than willing to create new baby plants. Moved to a new location in May 2010 since the trees behind them were encroaching on their space. These bloom all summer long. Removed in 2012 when it got too big for its new space and when it flopped hard after a severe drought. It keeps sending up new plants, so it may be a while before it is completely eradicated.


Plant: Anthemis "E.C. Buxton"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/12/10
Blooms: Early June
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. Doing well and spreading quickly, but the baby rabbits love to nibble the blooms and stems. They spread much, much faster than I would like, and they just kind of lay there and look dumpy, so I removed them in 2012.

Plant: Sidalcea "Brilliant"
Source: Spring Hill Nurseries
Quantity: 5
Planted: 9/26/06
Blooms: Mid-June
Notes: This is billed as a minature hollyhock. Planted in back garden. Was doing very well before the rabbits started eating the leaves, which ended up killing one of them but the rest recovered. In 2008, they started strong again and the rabbits attacked them again. They were finally filled in and good-sized in 2009. These create hundreds of seedlings each year and flop during drought and storms. They look wonderful for the two weeks that they are blooming (provided it doesn't rain hard), but to me, they're just not worth the maintenance and floppiness so out they came in 2012. Seedlings are everywhere in 2013, so I'm doing a lot of pulling.


Plant: Platycodon "Sentimental Blue"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/16/06
Blooms: Mid-June
Notes: Planted in back garden. These don't appear in the spring until early April so it's easy to pronounce them dead prematurely. All of the plants grow to nearly two feet tall so I had to cut them back before they bloom to keep their size in check, and even then, they'd get floppy after a hard rain. I pulled them in 2012 when I tired of the maintenance and floppiness.


Plant: Agastache (Hyssop) "Purple Pygmy"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/17/09
Blooms: Early July
Notes: Planted in back garden among scilla siberica alba. One plant was struggling because it was overwhelmed by the scilla in the spring of 2010. I pulled it and one other because the third plant had grown to a full-fledged shrub by August 2010. In 2011, I moved it to the far back garden where it would have more room to spread out, but it didn't survive the transplant. The butterflies absolutely loved this plant.

Plant: Anchusa "Feltham Pride"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/12/10
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: Planted in far back garden. Only one survived in 2011, but it didn't last long.

Plant: Solidago "Little Lemon"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/27/09
Blooms: Mid-August
Notes: Planted in back garden by blue lupine. Doing well. This was a gorgeous plant with very bright color, but I removed it in 2011 and can't remember why. It was probably diseased or floppy or disappointing in some way, but I didn't make a note then and time has passed. Oh well.

Plant: Echinacea "Primadonna"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 6/2/08
Blooms: Mid-June
Notes: Planted in back garden. Doing well. Often needs staking. When the evergreens behind them started to encroach in 2010, we moved the largest of the three to the far back garden and removed the other two. They barely came up in 2011, and there was no sign of them in 2012.

Plant: Lupine "Lulu"
Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds
Quantity: 10 packets
Planted: 3/23/07
Blooms: Late May
Notes: Planted two packets of seeds in far back garden at the start of a week-long rainfall, hoping the moist soil would help the seeds germinate. They did fairly well since this area doesn't get as much afternoon sun, but only four plants came back in 2008. I planted three more packets of seeds in spring 2008, but only one plant survived. Planted two more packets in April 2009, and two more in July 2009, and let every bloom go to seed, but there were no signs of seedlings in 2010. In spring 2010, seedlings started to appear and I planted another packet of seeds in March 2010. No matter what I do, I never seem to be able to have more than one plant thriving at a time. They're finally gone now.


Plant: Achillea "Snow Sport"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/12/10
Blooms: Early June
Notes: Planted in back garden. These turned out to be much taller than the 16" described in the catalog. They are very large, so I pulled two and moved the third to a different location, then removed it when it got floppy after rainstorms. It's just not pretty enough to put up with floppiness.

Plant: Arabis "Snowcap"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/26/10
Blooms: Early April
Notes: Planted in far back garden under magnolia tree. No blooms in 2010 but bloomed well in 2011 and 2012. I wish I liked groundcover plants better, but I just don't, so I removed it in 2012 to make room for stuff I like.

Plant: Asperula "Odorata"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/26/10
Blooms: Early May
Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. Did very well but spread very, very quickly, so out it came in 2012.

Plant: Viola "Comte de Brazza"
Source: Select Seeds
Quantity: 3
Planted: 5/13/09
Blooms: Early April
Notes: Planted in far back garden. It's supposedly only hardy to zone 7, so should be an annual in my zone 5b garden, but it survived its first winter and bloomed for the first time in 2010. One didn't survive 2010, one didn't survive 2011, and I pulled the third little sickly one in 2012. It was cute while it lasted.

Plant: Lavender "Hidcote"
Source: Lowe's
Quantity: 6
Planted: 7/4/07
Blooms: Early June
Notes: Planted in back garden. I've tried lavender before with disastrous results, but I had better luck this time. They grew quickly and so are the thuja and Norway spruce behind them, so I moved one to a different location in 2009 and removed the rest in 2008, then removed the last one in 2012 because I didn't like it well enough for the space it took up.

Plant: Liriope
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 6
Planted: 9/18/04
Blooms: Mid-August
Notes: Planted three in kitchen garden. Planted three more on 10/16/05. The rabbits like to eat these so these plants took forever to get established. but in fall 2006 they started to do well. Bloomed for the first time in 2007. It's pretty invasive because it spreads by underground runners so we had to move it to a larger location in the far back garden in spring 2008. We dug up runners in the old location for a year. Finally removed it from the far back garden as well, when the spruce trees behind them started to grow over them.

Plant: Lupine "Rose"
Source: Meijer
Quantity: 6 packets
Planted: 3/23/07
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: Planted two packets of seeds in back garden in 2007. Only one plant came back in 2008 but it didn't bloom. Planted two more packets of seeds in spring 2008, but again, only one plant came back in 2009. Planted a flat of seedlings started indoors 4/18/09. Finally, in May 2009, these bloomed for the first time and they were definitely worth the wait. They're gorgeous and perfect in every way. I think these are Lupine Chatelaine, but the seed packet didn't identify them by name. Moved to side garden in May 2010 against their will, but they were getting so big, they were blocking the view of all the other plants. I know, I know, how strange to be complaining that my lupines are too healthy. Planted a packet of Lupine Gallery Red with these in March 2011 to see if they match, and by the end of 2011, I have a grand total of zero of either, so lupine karma has come back to bite me again.


Plant: Echinacea "After Midnight"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/27/09
Blooms: Late July
Notes: Planted in back garden by Muscadet lily. Did okay the first season, but disappeared by 2011.

Plant: Penstemon cobaea
Source: Wild Ginger Farm
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/29/09
Blooms: Late May
Notes: Planted in far back garden in front of bay magnolia. This has thick, glossy leaves. No blooms in 2009, but bloomed in 2010. Needs a lot of support, unfortunately, so it just looks like a spindly mess. Out it went.

Plant: Cerastium "Silver Carpet"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/26/10
Blooms: Early May
Notes: Started blooming almost immediately. It spread extremely quickly by shallow runners so I had to remove it because it was overtaking the plants around it. It makes a great ground cover, but I'm not a fan of plants that spread quickly.

Plant: Eupatorium "Wayside"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 6
Planted: 4/26/10
Notes: Accidentally ordered 6 instead of 3, so planted 3 in back garden and 3 in side garden. These are like very tall perennial ageratum plants. They seemed to move by spreading from their original locations, and I don't really like them, so I'm removing their sprouts from wherever they're appearing which is pretty much everywhere. It's taking a combination of Roundup and hand-picking to get rid of the sprouts.

Plant: Delphinium "Knights of the Roundtable"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 11
Planted: 9/18/04
Blooms: Early June
Notes: All six came up in fall 2004, but only two returned in spring 2005. Added two more purchased from a nursery, and both did well. Planted 3 more from Spring Hill on 9/17/05, but none of those came back in spring 2006. More flower stalks appear in August and September. Moved the remaining two plants to the back garden where they get more sun on 9/2/07, since the magnolia next to them was overpowering them, but only one survived the transplant/winter. So, after all that, I had one blue plant, but it is did very well in 2008 - 2010. I let it go to seed each year, but nothing came back or sprouted in 2011.

Plant: Hostas
Source: Sundown Gardens
Quantity: 5
Planted: 4/25/04
Blooms: Late July
Notes: Planted in spa garden, then moved to kitchen garden in summer 2005. Only one of the original five has done very well so we removed the weakest one and moved the other four to a cooler part of the yard where they are a featured dish on the rabbit buffet, so they finally gave up and stopped coming back.

Plant: Shasta Daisy "Fiona Coghill"
Source: Park's Gardens
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/23/07
Blooms: Late June
Notes: Arrived as an 8" stick without any leaves, but slowly grew leaves and produced one lovely bloom in 2007. I found these at Lowe's in early July -- huge specimens in full bloom in gallon containers for just a few bucks more than I paid for this. Originally planted in far back garden. The blooms are quite pretty, but the plant wilts easily in afternoon 90 degree heat, so I moved it to the kitchen garden with morning sun instead. The plant was large and healthy enough to split into three plants when I moved it in spring 2008. Split and moved again in late 2009 to the far back garden. They did well, but they are so floppy that they look terrible if they aren't staked and I'm tired of it so out they came.

Plant: Santolina "Ericoides"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 6/1/06
Blooms: Early June
Notes: Very healthy plants. The foliage on this plant is very finely detailed and quite interesting. The blooms are even better -- they start out as tiny yellow pinpoints at the tip of each tiny branch, but they slowly expand over many weeks into dime-sized yellow blooms in the shape of half a pompom. The plants got so large in one year that we moved them to a different location in the far back garden. Their second year, they got pummeled by rain and looked really floppy instead of globe-shaped. Discarded two and moved one to a less-crowded part of the far back garden in 2008 where it is very happy. Removed when I got tired of it getting floppy after a rain.

Plant: Eryngium (Sea Holly) "Blue Hobbit"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/27/09
Notes: Planted where Eryngium Sapphire Blue was last year. Doing very well. There are a few little leaves from last year's Eryngium popping up in the middle of these three. The bees absolutely love this plant. At any given time, I can count nearly a dozen types of bees and flying insects feasting on the blossoms. Sadly, like my other Eryngium, this one only lasted one season.

Plant: Thalictrum "Glaucum"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/27/09
Blooms: Early June
Notes: Planted in far back garden. This was tiny and sickly looking when it arrived but recovered quickly and was a foot tall its first year. It's second year, it quickly grew to five feet tall as expected. Bloomed for the first time its second year but I just didn't really like it for the amount of space it took up, so I removed it.

Plant: Delphinium "Dark Blue"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 4
Planted: 9/22/07
Blooms: Early June
Notes: Planted 3 in kitchen garden. Only one survived the winter of 2007 but it is healthy. Planted three more 6/2/08. Two came back in 2009, and one came back in 2010, but didn't make it.

Plant: Columbine "Dragonfly Hybrids"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 6
Planted: 4/25/05
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: Planted in back garden. The colors are very similar to McKana's giants -- yellow, purple/yellow combination, and orange/yellow combination. No blues at all, which was disappointing. These plants filled in quite well. In summer 2006, I moved the three yellow ones to the kitchen garden where the blooms look more at home and discarded three plants due to lack of space and interest. In 2008, the two plants left created many seedlings, but I foolishly pulled them all thinking these two plants would last forever and now they're gone.

Plant: Echinacea "Coconut Lime"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/27/09
Blooms: Late June
Notes: Planted in back garden by Easter lily. Did fine in 2009 but seemed to be hit by some sort of disease in 2010, so I'm not sure if it will survive. Nope. Dead.

Plant: Blueberry "Bluecrop"
Source: Meijer
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/24/08
Notes: Planted in spa garden. The rabbits got to the single branch the first day it was in the ground, so never grew to be much more than a stick. Replaced it in May 2010 with a much larger blueberry plant.

Plant: Veronica (Speedwell) "Icicle"
Source: Lowe's
Quantity: 6
Planted: 7/4/07
Blooms: Mid-June
Notes: Originally planted in kitchen garden. They're very healthy plants and seem to tolerate heat and drought quite well. They bloomed all season and they turned into giant plants their second year. Moved to the back garden in August 2008 where they make a nice contrast to the colored flowers around them. They're really healthy and flower vigorously but they're tall and floppy and I hate that so I removed them.

Plant: Potentilla "Monarch's Velvet"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/6/07
Blooms: Early July
Notes: Planted in far back garden in front of Iceberg roses. Only one survived the fist winter, but I suspect chipmunks instead of the weather.The rabbits nibble on it occasionally but graciously allow it to bloom. The blooms are tiny -- less than an inch across -- and appear to last only a day or two, so it's really pretty boring. Removed it in 2009 to make room for more interesting plants.

Plant: Campanula persicifolia "Alba"
Source: Spring Hill Nurseries
Quantity: 6
Planted: 9/26/06
Blooms: Late May
Notes: Sold as Ivory Peach Bellflower. Planted in far back garden near the lilacs. Doing very well, but can't bloom because the rabbits keep eating the flower buds. The first actual bloom that the rabbits didn't eat appeared in July 2008 for one day only. The same thing happened in 2009, so after four seasons with only one bloom, I removed them.


Plant: Feverfew "Virgo"
Source: Select Seeds
Quantity: 3
Planted: 5/13/09
Blooms: Late June
Notes: Planted in back garden. These require staking. They're nice but a little boring and I hated having to stake them to get them to stop laying down on the ground after every rain, so out they came.

Plant: Daylily "Lavender Deal"
Source: Sundown Gardens
Quantity: 3
Planted: Summer 2003
Blooms: Late June
Notes: These were planted in a full sun location in the back garden. They had the largest blooms and were the tallest plants of of all of our daylilies. They served us faithfully for six years, getting larger every year, until I removed them to plant smaller plants in their location.

Plant: Salvia nemorosa "Plumosa"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/27/09
Blooms: Late June
Notes: Planted in back garden by blue lupine. These have dusty purple blooms. I don't like them because they are messy and floppy and boring, so I removed them after one season.

Plant: Grape "White Niagara"
Source: Meijier
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/25/09
Notes: Planted by lilac bushes in back corner garden. This poor thing was half price at Meijer, but the existence of one live leaf inspired me to take it home, where I did some reading on grapes. Apparently, this little guy was going to be pretty high maintenance. The rabbits ate the leaves as fast as they were produced for three months, then they finally severed the vine at the base and I gave up.

Plant: Columbine "William Guinness"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/18/06
Blooms: Early May
Notes: Planted in front garden. These are more purple than burgundy, which suits me just fine. The stems are very long but the blooms face down and are smaller than the purple blooms of Columbine "Remembrance." By 2009, only two seedlings survived and I removed them when we redid the front garden in 2009.

Plant: Columbine "Songbird Dove"
Source: Sundown Gardens, Wood's Edge
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/18/04
Blooms: Early May
Notes: Planted three plants from Sundown Gardens. These have cream and white blooms. Their blooms are the largest of all of our columbines, but they are the shortest plants. Only one plant came back in 2005, so we added another one from Wood's Edge on 4/30/05. Only one came back in 2006, but it succumbed to heat in mid-summer. I bought some seeds from eBay to sow in 2007 but didn't get any seedlings. Bought three from Meijer 5/17/08 and planted them in the far back garden but none of them survived the Great Columbine Die-off of Spring 2009.

Plant: Columbine "Songbird Cardinal"
Source: Avon Gardens, Menard's, Meijer, Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: ?
Planted: 4/10/04
Blooms: Early May
Notes: Planted three plants from Avon Gardens. These have striking dark reddish-pink and white blooms. One plant didn't come back in spring 2005 so we replaced it with another from Menard's on 4/30/05. Neither came back in 2006, so we replaced them with two large ones from Meijer and three small ones from Bluestone Perennials. They're in a brutal location (in a hot, dry corner with concrete on two sides) so we lose a few plants each year. Planted three more from Bluestone Perennials on 4/28/08 in the far back garden where I'm certain they'll do much better; moved them a little further back 8/30/08 so they don't get crowded by the evergreens around them. Moved the last two remaining plants up front to join the three in the back on 3/22/09, but only one or two survived the earwigs and rotting of spring 2009 and those were gone by summer.

Plant: Dianthus "Cherry Red"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/20/07
Blooms: Late May
Notes: Planted in back garden. Bright pink plant that I finally decided I didn't like enough to devote valuable garden space to it, so out it went in August 2009.

Plant: Dianthus "Firewitch"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 3
Planted: 10/29/05
Blooms: Early May
Notes: Planted in front garden. Only one tiny plant came up in 2006 and it wasn't really growing, but we discovered a rabbit den a few feet away and rabbits like dianthus. It slowly recovered once the baby bunnies moved on. Moved a few feet over in fall 2006 since the Scarlet Flame phlox surrounding it really took off, and the remaining plant did very well. Removed it when we redid the front garden in July 2009.

Plant: Creeping phlox "Fort Hill"
Source: Sundown Gardens, Allisonville Nursery
Quantity: 8
Planted: 4/19/03
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: This is a pink plant which spread and thrived. It looks good all winter, too. Planted four in spring 2003 and four in spring 2004. These are the most vigorous of our phlox plants and spread the most quickly. Removed in July 2009 due to several years of getting hit by fungus.

 

Plant: Creeping phlox "Candy Stripe"
Source: Sundown Gardens
Quantity: 4
Planted: 4/19/03
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: This is a white phlox with a pink stripe down each petal. Tom insists on referring to these as red and white, and when confronted with the actual plant, he defends himself by saying "Well, they're light red and white." That's when I explain that light red is actually referred to as pink. Removed in July 2009 due to fungus.

Plant: Creeping phlox "Emerald Pink"
Source: Sundown Gardens
Quantity: 6
Planted: 4/19/03
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: These were eaten by rabbits in 2003 and didn't grow as well as our other phlox, but they came back strong in later years. Planted four in spring 2003 and two in spring 2004. Removed in July 2009 due to fungus.

Plant: Creeping phlox "Snowflake"
Source: Sundown Gardens
Quantity: 8
Planted: 4/10/04
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: This is a nice white variety, which we planted in two different areas in the front garden. This is slower to spread and bloom than our other phlox, but they also look nicer when dormant and when out of bloom. Removed in July 2009 due to fungus.

Plant: Phlox "Scarlet Flame"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 6
Planted: 4/18/06
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: Planted in front garden. They were very small plants but are doing well and spreading faster than any of our other phlox. These are just slightly darker pink than our "Emerald Pink" phlox, which was very disappointing. I was expecting this to look much, much darker. It doesn't match the catalog photo at all. The foliage has a red tint to it.

Plant: Creeping Phlox "Emerald Blue"
Source: Park's Gardens, Meijer
Quantity: 3
Planted: 5/23/07
Blooms: Mid-April
Notes: Planted three from Park's Gardens in spring 2007. After five days, two of the three plants were completely dead, but the third survived and is doing fine. Its bloom is pale lavender. Added two more from Meijer in May 2008. Did fairly well but removed it when we redid the front garden.

Plant: Tradescantia "Blushing Bride"
Source: Spring Hill Nurseries
Quantity: 2
Planted: 6/14/07
Notes: I ordered this from Van Bourgondien in Spring 2006, but five months after placing my order, they finally notified me that it was out of stock. Planted two plants from Spring Hill in fall 2006, but they didn't survive the winter. So, I tried a third time. The 2007 shipment from Spring Hill looked much larger and healthier than the 2006 shipment. Foliage doesn't appear until late May. There is almost none of the pink foliage that makes this so attractive in the catalogs, so this is nothing more than a boring ground cover and you know how I feel about boring ground cover. Out it came in July 2009.


Plant: Lily of the Valley (White)
Source: Frank's, Menard's
Quantity: 4
Planted: Spring 2003, 2004
Blooms: Early May
Notes: Planted 20 in 2003 and 2004. Moved four surviving plants to the spa garden with the pink lily of the valley on 5/30/04. One of the plants bloomed for the first time in 2006. These spread very quickly once they were finally established and were taking over the spa garden so we removed them in 2009, but one or two show every spring and have to be removed.

Plant: Lily of the Valley "Rosea"
Source: Brent and Becky's Bulbs, Van Dyck's
Quantity: 8
Planted: 4/21/04
Blooms: Early May
Notes: Planted 5 from Brent and Becky's Bulbs in the spa garden in spring 2004. Planted 3 more from Van Dyck's on 4/26/05. One of the plants bloomed for the first time in 2006. Bought two plants from Van Bourgondien in 2006, but was shipped two dried twigs a month and a half late. By 2008, these were starting to fill in fairly well. I've transplanted several sprouts to other places in the spa garden to help protect the blueberry plants from the rabbits, because the rabbits won't touch them. I gave some to my cousin in May 2009 and still had plenty left because these spread insanely quickly, and finally removed them because they're so invasive.

Plant: Columbine "Spring Magic Rose and White"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 6/2/08
Blooms: Late April
Notes: Planted in back garden. Arrived in bloom and continued to bloom. I love Bluestone Perennials. Started out doing fairly well in 2009 but the earwigs feast on the leaves of all my columbines in 2009 and a particularly wet period in the spring rotted many of the plants, so I pronounced it dead in June 2009.

Plant: Columbine "Spring Magic Blue and White"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 6
Planted: 4/28/06
Blooms: Early May
Notes: Planted in front yard. These are beautiful, compact plants. The phlox around them nearly suffocated them and only one remained until the spring 2009 rains rotted it.

Plant: Eryngium (Sea Holly) "Sapphire Blue"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 1
Planted: 9/20/07
Blooms: Early June
Notes: Planted in back garden by Delphinium Knights of the Roundtable. This really is just as blue as described, and the color is really cool. Disappeared at the end of summer 2008 and didn't come back.

Plant: Columbine "Nora Barlow"
Quantity: 3
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Planted: 4/10/04
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: These have a very different type of blossom than all of the rest of our columbines. They face down and have a great pink color. If you look closely at the photo, you'll see that the plant in front has rounded, downward-sloping petals, whereas the other plants have pointed, outspread petals. I'm not sure if these are the same plant or not. After being smothered by cherry tomato plants in summer 2005, only one plant came back in 2006, so I planted six more from Spring Hill on 4/19/06. Only three survived the 2006 heat wave, but they were fine in 2007 and 2008. These died off at the end of 2008, but then one seedling showed up in 2011 and bloomed in 2012. I let it bloom and then removed it because it was getting in the way of the plants who now occupy its old space..

Plant: Armeria "Joystick White"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 6
Planted: 4/25/05
Blooms: Late April
Notes: Planted six in back garden. One died, but the other five thrived. Bloomed again August - December. Very nice, evergreen plant with lots of blooms. Moved to front garden 7/8/06 where a severe heat wave promptly killed three more of them because I was on vacation and didn't water them regularly after transplanting. The two that are left are doing well. Moved to back garden and split the larger of the two to make three separate and similarly-sized plants, but only one survived that ordeal and just barely, so I removed it.

Plant: Sea Thrift "Splendens," "Dusseldorf Pride"
Source: Meijer, Sundown Gardens, Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 9
Planted: 5/02/03
Blooms: Late April
Notes: We bought two "Splendens" plants at Meijer, then five "Dusseldorf Pride" from Sundown Gardens, which is nearly identical but slightly larger blooms. Originally, slugs liked the thin stalks holding up the pink flowers, but we got that under control. Added two more "Dusseldorf Pride" from Bluestone Perennials on 4/25/05. These were really cute and were evergreen throughout the winter. Removed them in April 2009 when the chipmunks built an elaborate series of tunnels under these plants.

Plant: Euphorbia "Tasmanian Tiger"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 1
Planted: 4/30/08
Notes: Hardy to zone 6, but I tried it in zone 5 anyway. Planted in kitchen garden. The rabbits don't eat this one. This is such a beautiful plant that I was happy even having it for one season. No signs of life in spring 2009 unfortunately. Planted another in spring 2010 because they're so pretty.

Plant: Verbascum "Caribbean Crush"
Source: Park's Gardens
Quantity: 1
Planted: 5/23/07
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: Planted in back garden. This was the tiniest plant with one inch leaves when we planted it, but it very quickly grew huge leaves and is absolutely thriving. The colors aren't amazing as the catalogs describe -- the blooms are fairly washed out, but it's still a nice plant for the garden. It came back strong in 2008 but there's no sign of it in 2009. I guess that's why they call them biennial.

Plant: Columbine "Black Barlow"
Source: Van Bourgondien
Quantity: 3
Planted: 6/1/05
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: Planted six in back garden among hibiscus plants. The idea was that they would be tall and flowering while the hibiscus is still dormant in the spring, but instead, they were smothered while they were still trying to get established. Only one plant came back in 2006, so I planted three more from Spring Hill on 4/19/06. They were tiny then but thrived for two years. They didn't return in 2009, but I never let them go to seed since I wasn't that crazy about them.

Plant: Aster "Thyra Viking"
Source: Sundown Gardens
Quantity: 1
Planted: 9/7/03
Blooms: Mid-September
Notes: What's not to love about a bright pink flower named "Viking"? I trimmed these back to half-height in early summer, which seemed to produce a nice rounded plant that isn't too leggy. This was struck by some sort of black blight on its stems in 2006, 2007 and 2008, so I finally gave up on it and all of its fellow asters below.

Plant: Aster "Odin Viking"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 1
Planted: 9/17/04
Blooms: Mid-September
Notes: Planted in front garden. This one wasn't thriving like its Norse friend across the garden, possibly because it sat on top of a group of daffodil bulbs whose foliage doesn't die down until mid-August so it got little sun early in the season. Moved it to a more open space in the front garden in September 2006, and it did much better in 2007 but also suffered from the same blight as the other asters.

Plant: Aster "Alert"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 6
Planted: 9/18/04, 9/15/05
Blooms: Mid-September
Notes: Planted 3 in kitchen garden in 2004, and 3 in front garden in 2005. Did not bloom in 2005 since it is a favorite food for rabbits, but bloomed in both locations ever since. In the front, it's got huge and it created plenty of seedlings, but I removed it when I couldn't get rid of the aster blight.

Plant: Aster "Bonnie Blue"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 6
Planted: 9/18/04, 9/15/05
Blooms: Late September
Notes: Planted 3 in kitchen garden in 2004. This one spread via underground runners but can't seem to get taller than an inch or so because it is constantly eaten by rabbits. Planted 3 in back garden in 2005 which were not faring much better. Combined all six in the back garden to make room in the kitchen garden for other plants, but removed it in 2008 because it never really did much other than sprawl because the rabbits never gave it a rest.

Plant: Aster "Peter Pan"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 6
Planted: 9/18/04, 9/15/05
Blooms: Mid-September
Notes: Planted 3 in front garden in 2004, and 3 in back garden in 2005. Did extremely well in the front where the rabbits seem to leave it alone, but it got hit by aster blight three years in a row.

Plant: Aster "Professor Kippenberg "
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 6
Planted: 9/18/04, 9/15/05
Blooms: Early September
Notes: Planted 3 by magnolia bush in 2004, and 3 in back garden in 2005. It gets eaten to the ground by the magnolia bush, but did fairly well in the back garden in 2005. Moved it to a different location in the back garden to make room for a patio extension but it never got established.

Plant: Aster "Snowdrift"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 3
Planted: 10/16/05
Blooms: Early September
Notes: Planted in back garden. The blooms are smaller than our other asters. This plant really struggled -- one of the original two I ordered died and the other kept getting eaten by rabbits. It wasn't getting any sun, so I moved the surviving plant to a sunnier location in the back garden to help it along, and planted two more to join it on 9/26/06. This spread quickly like a carpet phlox. It was hit by fungus in 2007 and 2008 just before blooming, so I removed it.

Plant: Columbine "Origami Pink and White"
Source: Garden Crossings
Quantity: 3
Planted: 5/11/06
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: Planted in front garden. Plants from Garden Crossings are always large and healthy. This is a small plant with large gorgeous blooms. Unfortunately, they got mowed over by the highly aggressive Scarlet Flame phlox planted nearby so they disappeared by 2008.

Plant: Honeysuckle "Pink Tatarian"
Source: Lowe's
Quantity: 1
Planted: 9/22/06
Blooms: Early May
Notes: Planted in back garden. Clematis Miniseelik was growing through it. Grew very quickly, but did not bloom in 2007, and it developed excessive growth at the ends of each branch which I finally pruned. It bloomed in 2008. After I purchased it, I read that this cultivar is considered to be invasive, so when it started growing far too quickly and too large for the space allotted, I removed it.

Plant: Feather Reed Grass "Karl Foerster"
Source: Bluestone Perennials
Quantity: 3
Planted: 9/16/06
Notes: Planted in the far back garden. Did well. I think it is boring but my husband wanted me to plant ornamental grass, so here it is. After two seasons, I was able to convince him that it wasn't interesting enough to keep around.


Plant: Rose "Iceberg"
Source: Park's Gardens
Quantity: 3
Planted: 6/2/07
Blooms: Early June
Notes: After a full boycott of roses, we planted these at the suggestion of Glenda, a lovely woman we met in New Zealand. Glenda highly recommends this as the rose to try first. The first two plants we purchased in Fall 2006 arrived in great condition with several buds on them, but the rabbits ate the buds before they had a chance to bloom, and neither bush survived the winter. Ordered three more bareroot plants in 2007. One month later, the bushes were covered with leaves and buds. Glenda was right! (Note that my attempts to photograph these have been in vain. Morning, night, sunny, cloudy, flash, it doesn't matter -- I can't get the blooms to appear as anything other than washed out. Trust me, they're pretty.) In 2008, one bush had been attacked by disease and nearly died and we had tired of the thorns, rust spots, and Japanese beetles, so I decided to take these out and replace them with salvia from our front yard for a more consistent look.


Plant: Trollius "Lemon Queen"
Source: Van Dyck's
Quantity: 2
Planted: 4/26/05
Blooms: Late May
Notes: These rebloomed in November 2006. They make a nice cut flower because they have very long stems. I had these in three different locations in the kitchen garden where they did fine but just didn't fit, height- and color-wise. I eventually removed them because they're not that thrilling and I really didn't have anywhere else I wanted to put them.

Plant: Pachysandra
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 6
Planted: 5/8/05
Notes: These were planted in kitchen garden among our oriental lilies. They were doing well and starting to spread, but they were boring and taking up space that I wanted to use for prettier plants. If I had a need for groundcover, I'd use these, but I don't.

Plant: Shasta Daisy "Highland"
Source: Wayside Gardens
Quantity: 2
Planted: 4/25/05
Blooms: Late June
Notes: Planted in side garden. They look like standard Shasta daisies, but they are supposed to have much frillier petals. They bloom well and only get floppy after an extremely heavy rain. They really filled out their second year and were quite pretty, but didn't come through the winter of 2006 very well and finally died during the scorching summer of 2007.

Plant: Firecracker Flower "Pink Diamond"
Source: Van Dyck's
Quantity: 10
Planted: Fall 2003
Blooms: Late May
Notes: Foliage appears in early winter. These looked great just above and behind the purple salvia. They had very long stems that either require staking or the support of another plant the same height. After moving the bulbs in spring 2004, they never recovered.

Plant: Centaurea dealbata (Cornflower)
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 6
Planted: 10/16/05
Blooms: Early June
Notes: Planted in back garden, where they thrived. The foliage and the blooms aren't very pretty, and took up too much garden space for not being a very attractive plant. The foliage on these plants varies from very finely detailed on one to large on another, so it's difficult to believe that these are all the same cultivar. If you like the foliage and flowers, this is a great plant because it grows easily, but I just didn't like it.

Plant: Andromeda "Blue Ice"
Source: Lowe's, Wayside Gardens
Quantity: 12
Planted: 4/3/05
Blooms: Late April
Notes: Planted 10 at base of clematis on trellis to replace the lavender plants that didn't survive last year. Five of those died, and we added two more in September 2005. I finally removed them in September 2006, because they aren't thriving and they're competing with the clematis for soil and nutrients. In the right location, these would be nice little plants to have.

Plant: Lupine "Gallery Blue"
Source: Garden Crossings
Quantity: 2
Planted: 5/11/06
Notes: Planted in back garden. They were large, healthy plants, but their foliage was nibbled by rabbits. One produced flower stalks in 2006, but both died in an intense heat wave in August 2006.

Plant: Daisy "Clara Curtis"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 2
Planted: 4/10/04
Blooms: Late June
Notes: First flower buds spotted 6/6/04.Trimmed them back hard in July 2005 when they got too tall, and they immediately produced a new set of flower buds. This photo shows just one of the plants, which grew and spread extremely quickly. I removed them in February 2006 when they started to spread into my beloved clematis. They're too invasive for my taste, but would be perfect for someone wanting to fill a lot of space quickly and cheaply.

Plant: Lupine "The Governor"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 6
Planted: 4/10/04
Blooms: Late May
Notes: I love these flowers and was thrilled to see them growing wild all over Iceland. They bloomed in 2004 and 2005, but the extreme heat and drought in summer 2005 killed these, unfortunately.

Plant: Coral Bells "Magic Wand"
Source: Sundown Gardens
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/16/03
Blooms: Late April
Notes: This was originally three plants planted in spring 2003. In spring 2004, only two of the plants remained. The third did not survive the late summer transplant. The second plant died in 2004, but the remaining plant was so healthy that we divided it into four smaller plants and replanted in the side garden. Only three of the four survived the winter, so we transplanted them again to the kitchen garden on 5/8/05 where they promptly died. It was a nice plant, and the foliage looked great all season. I would plant these again if I had a better location for them.

Plant: Gaillardia "Burgundy"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 6
Planted: 4/10/04
Blooms: Early June
Notes: These are more reddish-orange than burgundy. These six plants produce dozens of flowers on two foot long stems. Moved several times because they don't match any other flowers in our garden. Finally removed them because they are so large and floppy.

Plant: Peony "Festiva Maxima"
Source: Sundown Gardens
Quantity: 6
Planted: 5/19/03
Blooms: Late May
Notes: These did fairly well in 2003, then came up strong in 2004. After the first two blooms appeared, all other flower buds turned brown and died. Moved to the back garden on 10/15/04. We sprayed them weekly with Bordeaux in spring 2005 and they bloomed very well for a week until the buds started to rot again and we decided to give up.
Plant: Peony "Duchesse de Nemours"
Source: Sundown Gardens
Quantity: 3
Planted: 5/19/03
Blooms: Late May
Notes: We purchased three of these, but they didn't do well in their original location. We moved the three and combined them into two, and neither one is doing very well. Small flower buds started to form, but then died. The foliage looks fine, though. Added a large, blooming plant on 5/31/04, but its buds also turned brown. We sprayed them weekly with Bordeaux in spring 2005 and they bloomed very well for a week until the buds started to rot again.

 

Plant: Canterbury Bells "Calycanthema Pink"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 3
Planted: 4/10/04
Blooms: Early June
Notes: Did not bloom in 2004, but foliage was healthy. It produced large, pretty blumes in 2005, but the plants were so floppy and messy that I pulled them on 6/17/05. Here's another gardening lesson I've learned -- if the plant is described as being perfect for a cottage garden, it's a messy, unkempt plant that will require staking or should be squeezed among other messy, unkempt plants. That doesn't work so well for me.

Plant: Mediterranean Pinks
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 6
Planted: 4/10/04
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: These spread quickly and are covered with tiny pink flowers when they bloom. On 7/25/04, we moved them to a location where spring bulbs were already planted. They turned out to be a little too invasive for my taste, so I trimmed the foliage back to 3 inches and moved the plants to the spa garden where they promptly died like nearly everything else in that garden.

Plant: Columbine "McKana's Giants"
Source: Spring Hill Nursery
Quantity: 12
Planted: 4/10/04
Blooms: Mid-May
Notes: This is supposed to be a mix of colors, but every plant but two was solid yellow. The exception is a purple/yellow combination. In 2005, I removed because I just don't like them. I'm not crazy about the pink/yellow combination, and they're too tall for the places where they were planted. This would be a great, sturdy plant for someone who likes these colors.

Plant: Coreopsis "Sweet Dreams"
Source: Sundown Gardens, Lowe's
Quantity: 6
Planted: 6/14/03
Blooms: Late June
Notes: We purchased four large plants from Sundown Gardens and liked them so much that we purchased two smaller ones from Lowe's later in the season. This plant just bloomed and bloomed but was sometimes bothered by parasites. We moved the plants to the side garden on 5/25/04, but they didn't return in 2005.

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