pollinator plant

Symphyotrichum elliottii

Elliott’s Nest

It’s hard to resist posting photos of the late-flowering, Southeast US native, Symphyotrichum (Aster) elliottii. It’s namesake was SC Natural History and Botany Professor, Steven Elliott (1771-1830). After most of the garden has shut down for fall, this amazing and exceedingly vigorous aster bursts into flower, quickly becoming a landing pad for an array of

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Eurybia hemispherica 'Baby Blues'

The Aster hemisphere

Eurybia hemispherica ‘Baby Blues’ (southern prairie aster), formerly known as Aster hemispherica, is a little-grown South Central US (Kansas south to Florida) native aster that’s thrived in our full sun garden since 2011. This Van der Giessen Nursery collection of this little-known mesic (moderately moist) to dryland species hails from the Black Belt region of

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Echinacea 'Sombrero Tres Amigos'

Tres Amigos

Echinacea, commonly called coneflowers, are easy-to-grow, drought-tolerant, summer-flowering perennials that attract both butterflies and hummingbirds. We love echinacea as an addition to a butterfly garden or when used in a mixed-perennial border. Looking lovely in the garden this week is the dazzling coneflower, Echinacea ‘Sombrero Tres Amigos’. You’ll almost need some infrared glasses for these

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Seseli gummiferum

Launching Moon Carrots

Although our focus is primarily on longer term perennials, we just can’t resist growing and sharing one of the coolest plants we know, moon carrot. Seseli gummiferum hails from Crimea, Turkey, and the Agean Islands. This crazy plant has silver grey foliage that resembles an artemisia, but the spikey carrot-like flowers, just opening this week,

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Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

NC’s State Butterfly Nectaring Exotic Plants; Photos Show!

North Carolina’s official state butterfly, the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly has been photographed nectaring non-native plants (otherwise known as exotic-plants). It’s not clear if there will be an uprising to renege its status as NC’s state butterfly, replacing it with another species of butterfly which only visits native plants. Gardeners on the other hand can

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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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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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It’s time for snow….roses

It’s time for the start of Christmas rose/snow rose season to begin. We were delighted to find our clump of the Balkan native, Helleborus niger ‘Jesko’ in full flower. These are always exceptional honeybee favorites, as well as being great evergreen perennials for the winter season. We find that light shade to a couple of

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Are you hungry enough to Munch on Your Jacket

We recently caught this Chinese praying mantis munching down on the native yellow jackets that have been feasting on our flowering specimen of Hedera rhombea ‘Cheju’. I guess this looked like a horticultural food truck to them. Evidently, they aren’t effected by the toxin in its sting. It’s truly an insect eat insect world out

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