(Aspen Fleabane)

Aspen fleabane is a clump-forming, herbaceous species native to the northwestern United States and Canada. This perennial is valued for its showy summer display of lavender to purple, yellow-centered daisies. The flowers bloom on tall, slender stems rising from low clumps of lance- or spoon-shaped foliage, and are attractive to butterflies. This species has yielded many cultivars, including those with double or more deeply colored flowers.

Easy to grow, this perennial prefers full sun and moist,...

(Loquat)

(Sulphur-flowered Buckwheat)

This beautiful perennial from mountains and high valleys of western North America is an excellent plant for dry upland gardens. It typically forms carpets of small spoon-shaped evergreen leaves that give rise in summer to upright woolly calf-high flower stalks topped with tight rounded clusters of light yellow blooms. A few variants of this plant grow as small upright shrubs. The flowers are a favorite of butterflies. The leaves are usually olive- to bright-green above and gray and felted underneath....

(Sulphur-flowered Buckwheat)

This beautiful mat-forming perennial from mountains and high valleys of western North America is an excellent plant for dry upland gardens. Its carpets of small spoon-shaped evergreen leaves give rise in summer to upright woolly calf-high flower stalks topped with tight rounded clusters of creamy yellow blooms. The flowers are a favorite of butterflies. The leaves are olive- to bright-green above and gray and felted underneath.

This plant does best in full sun and very well drained, relatively...

(Rocketsalad)

Long cultivated for its piquant leaves, arugula is a cool-season annual from the Mediterranean region. In spring and early summer it produces upright rosettes of lobed oblong leaves that make a sophisticated and zesty addition to salads. Later in the season it sends up a tall central stem topped with clusters of creamy-white flowers that are also edible. Plants will reseed unless flower stems are promptly removed. The variety sativa is the form usually grown.

Sow arugula as soon as the...

(Arugula, Garden Rocket, Jamba, Rocketsalad)

Long cultivated for its piquant leaves, arugula is a cool-season annual from the Mediterranean region. In spring and early summer it produces upright rosettes of lobed oblong leaves that make a sophisticated and zesty addition to salads. Later in the season it sends up a tall central stem topped with clusters of creamy-white flowers that are also edible. Plants will reseed unless flower stems are promptly removed. The variety sativa is the form usually grown.

Sow arugula as soon as the...

(Alpine Seaholly)

Thistle-like leaves and steel blue stems and flowers makes the alpine seaholly a favorite perennial for gravelly gardens. Eryngium alpinum is a hardy herbaceous perennial native to dry rocky mountain slopes of southeastern Europe, including the Alps. It has a dense basal rosette of heart-shaped, course, spiny dark green leaves. In summer it produces plume-like flowers with a barreled cluster of fertile, tiny white or blue flowers surrounded by many spiny bracts (modified leaves) of silvery...

(Alpine Seaholly)

Thistle-like leaves and steel blue stems and flowers makes the alpine seaholly a favorite perennial for gravelly gardens. Eryngium alpinum is a hardy herbaceous perennial native to dry rocky mountain slopes of southeastern Europe, including the Alps. Selection 'Superbum' is particularly vigorous in growth and form and has a dense basal rosette of heart-shaped, course, spiny dark green leaves. In summer it produces plume-like flowers with a barreled cluster of fertile, tiny white or blue...

(Pyrennes Seaholly)

Thistle-like leaves of green and silver, gray-violet stems and silvery blue flowers makes Pyrennes seaholly a refined perennial for gravelly gardens. Eryngium bourgatii is a hardy herbaceous perennial native to dry rocky mountain slopes of the Pyrennes in Spain. It has a basal rosette of rounded, lobed, coarse, spiny dark green leaves with silvery white veins. In summer it produces plume-like flowers with a rounded cluster of fertile, tiny gray-green or blue flowers surrounded by many spiny...

(Miss Willmott's Ghost, Seaholly)

Thistle-like leaves and blue flowers with starry collars of silvery green makes Mrs. Willmott's ghost, or seaholly a favorite perennial for sunny gardens. Eryngium giganteum is a hardy herbaceous biennial native to the moist, well-drained soils of Iran and the Caucasus of extreme westcentral Asia. It has a dense basal rosette of heart-shaped, coarse, spiny and teethed green leaves iwth white edges and veins. In summer it produces starry flowers with a barreled cluster of fertile, tiny blue...