long blooming perennials

Berlandiera pumila 'Chocoholic'

Free Chocolate

One of the finest, and most floriferous perennials we grow is the amazing Berlandiera pumila ‘Chocoholic’. The flowering season is just beginning as you can see in the recent image below. For us, it flowers pretty much non-stop until frost. In early morning, and later in the afternoon, the flowers smell exactly like milk chocolate

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Alstroemeria 'Indian Summer'

Indian Summer in Spring, Summer and Fall

The advancements plant-breeders have made in developing garden-worthy Alstroemeria (princess lily or Peruvian lily) is truly amazing. Modern introductions such as ‘Indian Summer’ bloom from mid-spring through fall, perhaps slowing down a bit if summer is exceptionally hot and dry. The planting of ‘Indian Summer’ in the photograph is in a small island bed (the

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Heliotropium 'Augusta Lavender'

There’s Hope for Heliotrope

We just can’t say enough good things about the amazing Heliotropium ‘Augusta Lavender’. Heliotropes were confined to an old fashioned pass along plant until modern plant breeders got a hold of them and created plants of which we can only dream. This amazing perennial, that’s often sold as an annual, flowers non-stop for us from

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Epimedium wushanense 'Sandy Claws'

A Fluttering of Fairy Wings

We were late wading into the epimedium craze, and without the assistance of epimedium guru, Darrell Probst, still might not have done so. Up until the mid 2000s, we had avoided epimediums, due to both their confusing taxonomy as well as the lack of many showy garden forms. Early introductions such as Epimedium x rubrum,

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Smart as a Blue Oak

Looking great well into December is the North American native, Salvia chamaedryoides, known as Blue Oak sage. This evergreen, dryland native hails form 7,000′ to 9,000′ elevation in the Chihuahuan Desert of northern Mexico. For us, it flowers heaviest in spring and fall, with dark, cobalt blue flowers. It’s one of the few silver leaf

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Let’s Twist Again, Like we did Last Summer

Our title is obviously borrowed from the 1961 Chubby Checker song, which few people reading this, probably remember. Abutilon ‘Twister’ is looking absolutely elegant now in the fall garden. This amazing flowering maple hybrid from the folks at California’s Monterrey Bay Nursery, has thrived here since 2005, enduring several single digit F. winters. For us,

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A Grape Sensation

The beautiful Gaillardia aestivalis var. winkleri ‘Grape Sensation’ is still in full flower as we approach the end of October. This amazing, but quite rare blanket flower is only found in a small area of the East Texas pineywoods region. Although it’s currently listed as a variety of Gaillardia aestivalis, we feel it deserves to

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Cigar plant is the Bees Knees

We just love this surprisingly winter hardy cuphea (cigar plant). Cuphea cyanea, a North American native, looks so delicate, but it’s rock hardy here in Zone 7b. Our original plant came from Asheville gardeners, Peter and Jasmine Gentling, where it survived fine in Zone 6b/7a. Our plant continues to be in full flower in mid-October.

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Ramble On — A Native Groundcover with Year-round Interest and a Pollinator Smorgasbord

Over a decade ago I decided to try planting the native Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) in the maritime grassland exhibit at the South Carolina Botanical Garden. To my amazement, this species that I knew of from the fringes of saltmarsh in the Lowcountry thrived in both wet and dry soils of the upper Piedmont of South

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