Three Neat Plants - Early October

Text and photos ©Nancy J. Ondra

I have such a backlog of neat plants to write about that it was tough to choose just three for this edition, but I think I’ve found some winners to amuse and delight. First up is a little cutie: pink knotweed (Persicaria capitata; also known as Polygonum capitatum). I know, I know, knotweeds can be scary with their propensity to spread, and if I lived where this one was hardy (mostly USDA Zones 8 to 11), I doubt I’d find it so cute. But here in mid-Zone 6, it reseeds very modestly, and I count myself lucky to get a few seedlings each year. (more…)

Published in: on October 7, 2008 at 4:00 pm Comments (9)
Tags: ,

Three Neat Plants - Mid-September

Text and photos ©Nancy J. Ondra

How’s that for red? I realize that celosias aren’t among the most cutting-edge plants, but this one really caught my eye this year. In past years, I’ve grown ‘Wine Sparkler’ and liked it very much for its dark foliage and rich crimson-red plumes. For something different, I tried the new ‘China Town’ this year, and wow, what an amazingly intense, clear red. Like ‘Wine Sparkler’, ‘China Town’ has burgundy-blushed to deep purple leaves, and it reached 18 to 24 inches tall for me. If you too are always hunting for great reds for the garden, you can get seeds of this awesome celosia from Park Seed. (more…)

Published in: on September 14, 2008 at 3:30 pm Comments (21)
Tags:

Three Neat Plants - Mid-August

 

Text and photos ©Nancy J. Ondra

I’ll be putting up my Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post up over at Gardening Gone Wild this month, but there’s so much going on outside that I was able to pick out three pretty cool plants for a post here as well. Two of my mid-August picks have great flowers and one has…well, it’s hard to explain why I like it, so I’ll save it for last. (more…)

Published in: on August 14, 2008 at 9:29 pm Comments (11)

Three Neat Plants - Late July

 

Text and photos ©Nancy J. Ondra

First, I’d like to welcome all of the new readers to Hayefield. As some of you who have been here before guessed, the special garden visitor I mentioned in my last post was Anne Raver of the New York Times. It was such a surprise that she wanted to write an article (Where Foliage Eclipses Flowers); I figured she and my two editors from Storey were just looking for an afternoon of garden touring. You can imagine what a lot of plant talk four garden nerds can fit into just a few hours.

While the attention has been fun, it’s also great to finally have some time to get back to blogging - especially blogging about neat plants. As usual, it was hard to choose just three, but I’ve ended up with something old, something sort of new, and something I think will be very new to most of you. (more…)

Published in: on August 1, 2008 at 5:37 pm Comments (19)
Tags: , ,

Three Neat Plants - Late June

Bupleurum rotundifolium June 27 08

Text and photos ©Nancy J. Ondra

Despite our depressingly hot and dry weather this month, great-looking plants are coming along faster than I can write about them. One of my favorites of the moment is the sadly underused annual known as thoroughwax or hare’s ear (Bupleurum rotundifolium). Looking very much like an airy euphorbia, though it’s more closely related to dill, fennel, and other umbellifers, it grows anywhere from 12 to about 30 inches here, with a single main stem that branches heavily toward the tips and beautiful blue-green foliage. Below is a closeup of the blooms and a leaf. (more…)

Published in: on June 29, 2008 at 6:16 pm Comments (15)
Tags: , ,
« Older Entries