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Hosta
Hosta (Hosta) can be a beautiful addition to your garden if you don’t have it already. Hostas are herbaceous perennial plants that are native to China, Japan, Korea and the Russian Far East. They produce attractive clumps of leaves each summer which are topped with blooms that are either white or lavender. But a word…
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Lobelia inflata
Incredibly tiny flowers that grow on slightly hairy stems. At just 1/3 inch long the flowers would be perfect for a dollhouse. Lobelia inflata flowers are a beautiful shade of pale blue-purple. Native to eastern North America. A bit of conflict on the Internet regarding whether Lobelia inflata is poisonous or not. More sites say…
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Gray-headed Coneflower
July, and the hillsides that are my gardens are brilliant with the happiest of yellow thanks to Gray-headed Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata). Native to central and eastern North America. A herbaceous perennial plant that can be as tall as four or five feet, and quite narrow. Tall and spindly. But in a mass planting they’re a…
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Yarrow
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium). The temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere in Asia and Europe and North America claim Yarrow as a native herbaceous perennial flowering plant. It’s blooming right now in this area, looking a bit like Queen Anne’s Lace because of the large clusters of flowers atop the plant’s stems. But those clusters of flowers…
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Common Blue-eyed Grass
A clump of grass in early spring becomes green streaks, highlighted with six pointed dots of cheery blue. Common Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium) is native to the eastern two thirds of the United States and Canada. Though “grass” is in the common name, it is not a grass at all but is in the iris…
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Golden Alexanders
A favorite of mine, late May trailside. Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea). The color might be the catch for me. Or perhaps it’s the tiny flowers arranged in flat-topped umbels. A short-lived herbaceous perennial that enjoys moist soil, and full sun to part shade. I tried once, long ago to add it to one of my…
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White Turtlehead
I’ve only ever seen the caterpillar of the Baltimore Checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton). Never the adult. That one sighting was an hour from my cabin at Buck Hollow in Shenandoah National Park. Since that brief observation I’ve learned that the main larval host plant of the beautiful Baltimore Checkerspot is White Turtlehead (Chelone glabra). I’ve learned…