Perennials

Lesser Calamint is a blooming powerhouse, covered with delicate light blue flowers from June to October. The foliage is attractively aromatic, releasing a minty scent when touched. This hard-working perennial is a reliable source of nectar for butterflies and bees, so it’s always busy with insect life. Calamintha performs best in well-drained sites with good air flow, and is neatened up by a haircut in mid-summer. An excellent filler around leggier perennials, and the 2021 Perennial Plant of the Year.

Wine Cups or Purple Poppymallow is a native groundcover which forms a wide sprawling mat of green dissected leaves. The large magenta-purple cup-shaped flowers appear from late spring through summer, and are especially showy on sunny days. Callirhoe involucrata produces a deep tap roof, which makes it tolerant of dry conditions but difficult to move. Host plant for Gray Hairstreak. The sprawling habit would make Wine Cups a good candidate for walls and rock gardens.

'Freya' Clustered Bellflower is covered with purplish lilac star-shaped flowers in May and June. The foliage is green and somewhat pubescent, and is almost completely covered by the flower display for almost 4 weeks. An introduction from Arie Blom of the Netherlands.

'Iridescent Bells' ('Irbella') Bellflower blooms in June and July, with light lavender bell-shaped flowers which emerge from eggplant purple buds.  The green foliage is clean and Campanula 'Iridescent Bells' has an upright habit, displaying the hanging flowers nicely.  If deadheaded after blooming this Bellflower reblooms in the late summer and early fall.  A Burpee Introduction which has been praised by the Royal Horticultural Society.

'Kent Belle' Canterbury Bells is a long blooming beautiful perennial which produces 2" violet blue hanging bells from June through August. The flowers are produced in quantity, bending the stems over with their weight at times. Campanula x 'Kent Belle' spreads slowly to make a good sized clump, and is very attractive in both sunny and shady mixed perennial beds. The long stems make lovely cut flowers. An introduction from England.

'Pink Octopus' Bellflower has very unusually shaped blooms which actually look like pink Octopuses.  The hanging bright pink petals are very narrow and long, and are carried above fuzzy dissected leaves.  Campanula x 'Pink Octopus' spreads rapidly in average soil, making a showy groundcover when in bloom in June and July.

'Sarastro' Bellflower is a hybrid from Sarastro Nursery in Austria, producing a neat green clump with beautiful dark purple downward facing bells held on 18" spikes.  Campanula x 'Sarastro' is a cross between C. punctata and C. trachelium, hybridized by Christian Kress.  Most Campanulas need cool summer temperatures to thrive, but 'Sarastro' Bellfloower is much more heat tolerant, which makes it a good candidate for mid Atlantic perennial gardens.  Use as a slow groundcover, or naturalized on the edge of the woods.

Ceratostigma plumbaginoides is a Leadwort or Plumbago with cobalt blue flowers in late summer. The green foliage turns a reddish purple in the fall. The new foliage appears late in the spring.

Our native Turtlehead is a wonderful plant for wet sites and rain gardens. In late summer Chelone glabra produces tall spikes of white flowers which are thought to look like the heads of turtles (use your imagination). The green foliage is clean and disease-resistant. Butterflies love its flowers, especially the Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly.

‘Black Ace’ Turtlehead does extremely well in moist and wet locations, as it is usually found in swampy sites. The white flower spikes look like clusters of snapdragons, carried on dark green to blackish stems and leaves. The blooms appear in mid to late summer, and are an important nectar source for butterflies and other pollinators. Since Chelone glabra ‘Black Ace’ spreads by stolons, it eventually makes a large clump and can be used to stabilize pond and stream edges. Selected by Craig Moretz.

'Hot Lips' Turtlehead has clear pink flowers in July, shiny green foliage, and is wet site tolerant. It spreads slowly to make a large patch eventually, so it can be used as a tall groundcover. This is a wonderful introduction selected by Native Plant guru Dale Hendricks, which he named after a co-worker as a nickname.

'Tiny Toruga' ('Armtipp02') Turtlehead is a compact descendant of 'Hot Lips', with the same deep pink flowers which resemble Snapdragon buds.  The leaves emerge in the spring in shades of bronze and turn to deep green as the flowers emerge in July and August.  Chelone 'Tiny Tortuga' colonizes slowly and loves moist to wet areas.  If you studied Spanish in school, you'll recognize 'Tortuga' as 'Turtle', and get the name pun.

PRN Preferred:  All the great attributes of "Hot Lips" but a more compact form.

'Hillside Sheffield Pink' Hardy Mum has shell pink flowers for a long time in late summer and early fall. This tough perennial has been re-introduced by Fred McGourty of Hillside Gardens. The clumps will get bigger every year and works as an effective groundcover and weed suppressor.

PRN Preferred:  Tons of blooms on a very late blooming perennial. 

'Rustic Glow' Hardy Mum is one of the Global Warning Mum™ introductions.  Like the other excellent Sinclair Adam Jr hybrid Chrysanthemums, it blooms in mid to late fall, adding not only vivid color to the garden, but also much needed food for pollinators.  The daisy-like flowers are bright orange yellow, with multiple blooms per stem.  The foliage is a clean green all summer, and the patch grows wider over time.  We were introduced to this delicate beauty by our friend Nora Sirbaugh, a great and passionate NJ gardener.

'Superstar' Golden Star makes a lovely delicate green carpet in shady and sunny locations. The slightly fuzzy green foliage is studded with lots of bright yellow simple flowers in mid to late spring, with some reblooming when moisture is adequate. Originally named after the American Rock Garden Society's Norman Singer, this native groundcover is both deer resistant and very easy to grow. 'Superstar' was renamed to reflect the fact that the foliage is significantly cleaner and more vigorous, remaining attractive long after the vivid flower display finishes. James Brown, the Carex King of New Moon Nursery, says it's his favorite Chrysogonum.

‘Gold standard’ Tall Tickseed blooms in mid summer and is covered with bright yellow daisy-like flowers with black cones. This selection was introduced by the Mt. Cuba Center in 2015, when its performance topped their Coreopsis trials for habit, disease resistance and long bloom period. Coreopsis ‘Gold Standard’ came from seed collected in Alabama, and was named by Mt. Cuba. Since ‘Gold Standard’ spreads by rhizomes, this very tall perennial performs well as a wild looking groundcover or as an addition to tall meadows.

'Moonbeam' Threadleaf Tickseed has pale yellow flowers and is an excellent repeat bloomer. For best performance, deadhead after first flush of blooms. 1992 Perennial Plant of the Year.

'Zagreb' Threadleaf Tickseed has gold flowers, an upright habit, and forms a large vigorous mat eventually. Blooms June to August, especially if deadheaded.  2020 PHS Gold Medal Plant!

PRN Preferred:  Very disease resistant foliage, does not flop.

‘Mercury Rising’ Tickseed is another exciting result of hybridizer Darrell Probst’s work, with wine red daisy like flowers on a cold-hardy plant. A cross between C. grandiflora and C. verticillata, ‘Mercury Rising’ blooms throughout the summer on a broad mounding habit. The yellow centers are particularly striking in the surrounding velvety petals. Deadheading after the first flush of flowers makes the rebloom showier.

The deep yellow petals of 'Jethro Tull' Tickseed are fluted like little tubes, providing a long blooming summer show. Another winner from the people who brought you the Big Sky™ series of Coneflowers.

‘Spanish Ballerina’ Montbretia blooms in mid summer, producing tall arching stems with beautiful orange and yellow star-like flowers. The foliage is sword-like and the flower panicles are displayed well above the leaves. When the blooms are finished, the stems of seedheads continue to be interesting. Crocosmia x ‘Spanish Ballerina’ grows from corms similar to Gladiolus, and benefits from being divided every 3 to 5 years.