Close Ups

Aster, Woods Blue, is a lavender blue daisy-like flower blooming from August through September. It makes an excellent container plant or front of the garden feature and looks great with ornamental grasses. Woods Blue is attractive to bees, butterflies and birds.

The showy golden-yellow, fragrant blooms of this azalea light up the display garden in early spring. That is not all, however. It is also exceptionally mildew resistant, and ready to offer a second season of beauty with brilliant fall foliage.

Bleeding hearts are traditional favorites in shade gardens. The graceful, sprays of rosy-pink heart-shaped flowers dangle from long, arching, stems above the foliage in mid to late spring.

Covered with dozens of fragrant, soft yellow trumpet-shaped flowers, this Angel's Trumpet is perfect for a non-stop blooming container.

Clematis is the most popular perennial climber available. Rouge Cardinal is just one of 20 varieties we offer. It has brilliant, velvety crimson blooms backed by leathery-textured foliage on a woody vine. It makes a fine ground cover or climber for arbors, fences or weaving through taller shrubs.

Crocosmia, Lucifer, adds a tropical flair to northern gardens. Beginning in midsummer and continuing through early fall, brilliant flame red flowers stand in rows on wiry, gracefully arched stems that are perfect for cutting.

Euphorbia Fireglow, has flame orange bracts and brick-colored flowers which stand torch-like on strong pomegranate red stems. The soft green foliage blushes crimson and yellow in the fall.

Welcome your feathered friends to your garden with a green-roof birdhouse. They are as decorative as they are functional, planted with assorted succulents, sedums, and other drought tolerant plants.

The large blooms of this perennial geranium are a spectacular violet-blue with a white throat and darker veining that continue to provide color all season long. The attractive foliage weaves itself through neighboring plants, and turns wonderful shades of bronze-red in the fall. Grow in borders, containers, rock or cottage gardens. 'Rozanne' is most effective en masse.

These hardy hibiscus plants add a touch of the tropics to your garden beds. The brilliant coppery-red foliage provides thrilling contrast to the bold, flared flowers that cover the shrub-like plants from midsummer until frost. Enormous blooms, up to 12" across, are sparkling white tinged with pink and have bright red eyes! Compact, bushy growth, 3 to 3½' high and 2½ to 3' wide, is ideal for screens, hedges and borders.

The giant blue leaves of Hosta 'Blue Angel' form a clump that will command attention in any shady garden. The broad oval leaves are heavily corrugated with a thick substance and rippled margin. They can reach 18 inches long by 12 inches wide, probably the largest blue varieties. Also, one of the best bloomers, it's near white flowers are densely clustered and long lasting.

The showy, dusky pink blossoms of Pee Gee Hydrangea cascade gracefully in mid-late summer, finally becoming a warm wheat color by winter. The cut blooms are lovely in flower arrangements.

Iris ensata, Eden Purple Glory, has deep purple flowers with a short yellow stripe near the center. Japanese iris are a group of beardless iris (I. ensata, formerly I. kaempferi) which are the last to bloom, about a month after the tall bearded and Siberian iris. The largest flowers of all iris, with lovely forms, colors and patterns, they require full sun, a rich, acidic soil and ample water. Mulch will help hold water and reduce weeds.

The bright rose-pink to red flowers of Lewisia, Little Plum, start blooming in the rock garden in early spring and last into June. Some of the blossoms, when they first open, are a pastel orange, so that on some days one sees two or even three distinct bloom colorations mixed together on a single plant. Whilie most species of lewisia hybrids are sterile, 'Little Plum' does reseed.

Fata Morgana is an outstanding Asiatic Lily that produces semi-double, bright yellow, lightly spotted petals with five to seven blooms on tall stems.

This OT Hybrid Lily, Zagora, produces beautiful yellow flowers with red-orange centers. OT Hybrid Lilies are a cross between an Oriental lily and a trumpet lily wich gives them a heavy fragrance, vivid color and large blooms. Lilies are great for borders, beds, and containers. They prefer well drained soil and they will multiply each year. Allow the leaves on the stalk to turn yellow and fall off to provide the bulb with ample nourishment for the next growing year.

The stately lotus, Nelumbo, with stunning leaves and flowers standing high above the water, is one the most dramatic pond ornaments of all.

These hybrid poppies bloom in May and June each year on vigorous plants about 3 feet tall... and they are truly spectacular. Royal Wedding adds a touch of gracefulness to the garden as it welcomes the beginning of summer.

These large exotic Passion Flowers are known for their intricate, scented blossoms that have an almost plastic-looking appearance. The vines will cascade from a basket, climb on a trellis in a container on the patio, or cover a fence in the garden. Wherever they are planted, they will surely add an interesting tropical touch.

Clusters of deep rose flowers cover the dark gray-green foliage of Sedum 'Neon' in late summer, early fall.

Sedums become part of a 'living painting' framed and ready to hang on a wall.

The striking foliage of Tiger Eyes Sumac offers a long season of interest with its deeply-cut, almost lacy leaves. The new growth starts out a vivid chartreuse, but soon changes to a bright yellow. In autumn the plants turn a brilliant scarlet-orange layered over the yellow, for an impressive, luminous show. The fuzzy-looking, purplish-pink stems offer a pleasing contrast to the lemony foliage.

Like a candy cane in the garden, 'Shimanishiki' tree peony displays stunning double flowers that are streaked with red, white and light pink. Almost good enough to eat!

The showy bell-shaped flowers of early summer-blooming Weigela are sure to attract hummingbirds by the hundreds to your garden.