(Twinspur)

Cordate twinspur is a low-growing perennial to tender perennial that is native to South Africa. Its blue-green, heart-shaped, small leaves often have a gray tint. This everblooming plant bears loose spiky clusters of dark pink flowers that have two spurs, thus the common name twinspur. These spurs contain oils that attract bees and butterflies.

A preferred location for cordate twinspur is a full to partial sun exposure in humus-rich, crumbly, well-draining soil. It performs best where summers...

(Twinspur)

This floriferous wildflower is native to the mountains of southern Africa and the Cape of South Africa. It is an evergreen perennial with an upright but spreading habit and thin wiry stems covered with small, linear, green leaves. Upright clusters of charming, delicate pink flowers are borne in summertime, but plants will refrain from blooming if temperatures become too hot. Each small, lavender-pink flower is tubular and has two spurs in the rear, which is why it is commonly called twinspur. Each...

(Hybrid Bleeding Heart, King of Hearts Bleeding Heart)

The hybrid bleeding heart, ‘King of Hearts’, has lovely ferny, blue-green foliage and produces exquisite heart-shaped flowers in spring. It is a complex hybrid between the Japanese bleeding heart Dicentra peregrine and two western American species, D. formosa ssp. oregona and D. eximia. The result is a small, floriferous, mounding perennial with delicate foliage that maintains its beauty into late summer, unlike many other Dicentra.

The rosy-red flowers...

(Fringed Bleeding Heart)

Fringed bleeding heart is a wonderful herbaceous perennial native to the eastern United States. Starting in spring - and continuing all summer in cooler climes - clusters of dark pink, heart shaped flowers are displayed above the grayish-green fern-like foliage. Several excellent selections and hybrids are available, including the white-flowered 'Snowdrift'.

Fringed bleeding heart is happiest in a moist shady site, where it will self-sow and naturalize. Use it in a woodland or shady mixed border.

(Fringed Bleeding Heart, White Bleeding Heart)

Fringed bleeding heart is a wonderful herbaceous perennial native to the eastern United States. Starting in spring - and continuing all summer in cooler climes – this selection, ‘Alba,’ bears heart-shaped, pendent, white flowers in single file at the ends of slender, arching stems that overtop the deeply divided grayish-green, fern-like leaves, which gather in a mounded clump.

Like all fringed bleeding hearts, ‘Alba’ prefers moist, humus-rich soil and partial to full shade. When happy, it self-sows...

(Fringed Bleeding Heart)

Fringed bleeding heart is a wonderful herbaceous perennial native to the eastern United States. Starting in spring - and continuing all summer in cooler climes - clusters of dark pink, heart shaped flowers are displayed above the grayish-green fern-like foliage. Several excellent selections and hybrids are available, including the white-flowered 'Snowdrift'.

Fringed bleeding heart is happiest in a moist shady site, where it will self-sow and naturalize. Use it in a woodland or shady mixed border.

(Firecracker Flower)

Clusters of tubular, multi-colored flowers on a tall, thin stem in early summer is firecracker flower's claim to fame. An herbaceous perennial that grows from a corm (a rounded storage root), it is native to the coastal grasslands and woodland edges of northwestern California and southwestern Oregon. After flowering it needs a warm, dry period for its corms to harden and then foliage to go dormant.

The foliage is yellow-green to medium green and strap-like grassy in form. In late spring to midsummer,...

(Silver Dichondra, Silver Ponysfoot)

Dichondra is a low-maintenance, creeping or trailing plant native to the southwestern United States. It is an evergreen perennial in warm climates but is often used as an annual in frost-prone climates. The flowers are small and insignificant. The leaves are heart-shaped to kidney-shaped and attached to long, trailing stems. This vigorously fast growing plant can grow very long in just one season.

Dichondra is very heat and drought tolerant and requires well-drained soil and full sun. Use it...

(Dichondra, Silver Falls Dichondra, Silver Ponysfoot)

Dichondra is a low-maintenance, creeping or trailing plant native to the southwestern United States. It is an evergreen perennial in warm climates but is often used as an annual in cooler, frost-prone climates. The flowers are small and insignificant. The leaves of 'Silver Falls' are heart-shaped, covered with soft, silver hairs and attached to long, trailing stems. This vigorously fast growing plant can grow very long in just one season.

Silver Falls dichondra is very heat and drought tolerant...

(Blue Evergreen Hydrangea, Chinese Quinine, Fever Flower)

This less common member of the hydrangea family produces lovely clusters of pink or blue summer flowers followed by magnificent blue berries. As its name suggests, evergreen blue hydrangea is a fully evergreen shrub, though it has been known to get nipped back by light winter freezes. This tropical to subtropical plant hails from southern Asia, from China and India southward to Indonesia, where it naturally inhabits damp, shrubby areas and forest margins.

Its long, oval leaves are medium green...