Evergreen Perennials

Are you a blue fan?

No, we’re not talking about your favorite football or basketball team, but the amazing blue Mediterranean fan palm. Here’s our oldest (16 year) specimen in our alpine rock garden this week. Chamaerops humilis is a Southern Europe native that’s marginally hardy in our region, but the blue form, know as var. cerifera (or var. argentea).

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Upside down Spider Fern

Arachnioides standishii is one of our favorite garden ferns. This particular collection comes from Japan’s Mt. Daisen. The common name is Upside down fern since the leaves appear to be attached inverted. Production is always challenging since spore don’t ripen until after Christmas. The foliage remains evergreen until temps drop below 10 degrees F. Hardiness

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Upside down in Dry Shade

At our home, we have a very wide overhang which never sees any moisture, so we were looking for plants that would stay low, ideally evergreen, and would tolerate seriously dry shade. The answer was Echeveria ‘Topsy Turvy’. These patches of the Northern Mexican succulent, with blue-green foliage, have absolutely thrived here. While they probably

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Helleborus x ballardiae – Helen’s legacy

The late English gardener, Helen Ballard, carried the title, Queen of the Hellebores from the 1960s until her death in the mid-1990s. Although she worked primarily with Helleborus x hybridus, she also was one of the first people to cross Helleborus niger with Helleborus lividus. Those crosses, formerly known as Helleborus x nigerliv, now officially

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