(Smooth Oxeye)

It's all about the foliage! Loraine Sunshine smooth oxeye is a compact, clump-forming perennial with beautifully variegated lance-shaped leaves of ivory with striking dark green veins. Large, golden yellow daisies appear from midsummer to fall. These attract bees and butterflies and are great for cutting.

Smooth oxeye is trouble-free and easy to grow. It prefers full sun and average soil with moderately good drainage. Drought tolerant once established, it is at home in sunny perennial borders,...

(Hybrid Lenten Rose)

A group of hybrids of the Lenten rose, Helleborus orientalis, these semi-evergreen herbaceous perennials make outstanding additions to the perennial garden. From winter into spring they bear rounded, buttercup-shaped flowers above substantial clumps of shiny, leathery, hand-shaped compound leaves. The Royal Heritage™ series includes selections with pink, green, pale yellow, maroon, or purple flowers. Some have spots, contrasting margins, or other color patterns.

Hellebores prefer a rich, loamy,...

(Black-Eyed Stella, Daylily)

Like the ever-popular 'Stella de Oro', Black-eyed Stella daylily is a highly ornamental dwarf that is everblooming but with exceptional tolerance for winter cold and brutal summertime heat. This perennial has neat clumps of bright green strap-like leaves that appear in mid-spring. Its single, lily-like flowers of gold have a whide band of magenta and a nearly black eye deep in the throat. The blooms first appear in late spring atop leafless stems. These are mildly fragrant and attractive to many...

(Daylily, Pandora's Box Daylily)

Pandora's Box daylily is a highly ornamental compact perennial. Neat clumps of bright green strap-like leaves appear in mid spring. Its single, lily-like flowers of cream have purple eye and green throat and appear in early summer atop leafless stems. They will rebloom later in the season with care. Daylily flowers are lightly fragrant and attractive to many pollinators.

This plant is easy to grow if provided with full to part sun and fertile to average, well drained soil. Daylily clumps slowly...

(Coralbells, Vanilla Spice Coralbells)

The pretty ‘Vanilla Spice’ is a hardy perennial that is grown for its pretty mounds of foliage and tall wand-like panicles of tiny white flowers. Throughout the growing season it produces dense, basal clusters of lobed leaves that are cream and palest green with pale burgundy veins. In summer, tall leafless stems lined with many white bell-shaped flowers appear. These should be cut immediately after blooming to keep the foliage looking clean and pretty.

Like most Heuchera, this is...

(Hybrid Hardy Hibiscus, Kopper King Hibiscus)

What a beautiful hardy hibiscus! Kopper King is a semi-woody perennial with an upright, shrubby habit. It has deeply lobed, copper-colored leaves that are almost maple-like in appearance. These contrast nicely with its large, disc-shaped flowers of pale pink with striking red centers and venation. Plants bloom with regularity from summer to fall.

Kopper King hibiscus are late to emerge in the spring but thrives in the heat of the summer. It grows best in sites with full sun, and most soil types,...

(Scarlet Rosemallow)

Scarlet rosemallow is a woody perennial native to wetlands in the extreme southeastern United States with large, deep red flowers noted for their very distinct separated petals. Plants are sturdy yet slender and can grow well over head-high. Attractively lobed leaves and stems have blushes of red and burgundy.

Scarlet rosemallow performs best in fertile moist to wet soils in full sun or partial shade. In cold winter region this perennial will be root hardy and slowly re-emerge in late spring as...

(Fire and Ice Plantain Lily, Hosta, Plantain Lily)

Arguably, there is no better perennial for shade. Fire and ice plantain lily is a clump forming, shade tolerant, herbaceous perennial that is primarily grown for its ornamental foliage. In spring, it produces a small clump of heart-shaped, wavy, twisted leaves of dark green with shocking white variegated centers. In midsummer, upright, sturdy stems of trumpet-shaped, lavender flowers appear. This hosta prefers part sun to part shade and fertile, well drained soil. It is widely used in mixed perennial...

(Hosta, Plantain Lily, Variegated Undulate Plantain Lily)

Arguably, there is no better perennial for shade. Undulate hosta, or plantain lily, is a small clump forming, shade tolerant, herbaceous perennial that originates from eastern Asia. It is primarily grown for its ornamental dark green, wavy-edged, broadly lance-shaped foliage that has white or yellow interior markings. In early summer, it produces upright, sturdy stems of lavender-pink, funnel-shaped flowers. This hosta prefers part sun to part shade and fertile, well drained soil. It is widely used...

(Perennial Candytuft)

The bright white blooms of perennial candytuft add old-fashioned charm to spring borders. Narrow, evergreen foliage of dark green covers it throughout the year and adds textural interest in winter. This crucifer hails from warm, dry locations across the Mediterranean, so it is also quite drought tolerant and tough.

Perennial candytuft is technically a subshrub, which means its stems are semi-woody and do not die back in winter. The low, mound-forming plant spreads over time slowly to form sweeps...