Featured plant: Mountain Garland

Mountain Garland (Clarkia unguiculata) Annual, pink flowers. Native. Needs full sun, well drained soil...hates wet feet, and water when dry. Grows to about 2' and will bloom continuously all summer. Looks good in the border mixed with blue and yellow flowering plants.

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Featured plant: sweet alyssum

ALYSUMM, white, annual, great ground cover for the front of the border

Alyssum, white (Alyssum sp.) Annual, white flowers, blooms young. Likes full sun, water when dry, and can tolerate light frost. Sweet fragrance. Grows to about 3" tall and forms a white carpet. Great bedding plant.

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Featured plant: Lobelia inflata, medicinal herb

Indian tobacco(Lobelia inflata)Annual. This annual herb has been used medicinally to help people stop smoking. Do a lot of research into this before trying it...as with any herbal medicine. The plant itself grows up to 3' tall if very happy in good soil, water when dry, and full sun. I have seen it growing quite happily in part sun and think it may prefer that.
 

Indian tobacco(Lobelia inflata)Annual. This annual herb has been used medicinally to help people stop smoking. Do a lot of research into this before trying it...as with any herbal medicine. The plant itself grows up to 3' tall if very happy in good soil, water when dry, and full sun. I have seen it growing quite happily in part sun and think it may prefer that.

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Featured plant: Wild sweet peas

Sweet pea(Lathyrus latifolia) Perennial. Zones 5-9. This perennial sweet pea does not have the sweet pea scent. The trade off is that it is perennial and you can enjoy it year after year once you get it started. I've seen it come in many shades of pink and it can grow in the most abysmal soil...that which is in road cuts. I often see it growing happily on road banks. It doesn't do well in dry years without supplemental water. It can be trained to grow up strings or trellis. Sweet peas are vines and they can either ramble or climb. It needs full sun, but I've seen it growing ok in part sun.

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Featured plant: dyer's chamomile, margarite

Dyer's chamomile (Anthemis tinctoria) Perennial. Zones 3-9. This is one of the delightful flowers. It's golden yellow color cheers up any garden space. It grows to 2', bears it's button like golden daisy flowers in droves from early summer to late summer. Continuous bloom if you dead head them weekly. Deadheading is especially important if you do not want them to spread rampantly. This plant is somewhat drought tolerant and it is said that deer do not like them and where elk are a garden problem, they don't like it either. It can grow in full to part sun, with more sun you get more flowers.

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Featured plant: yellow hollyhock

perennial yellow hollyhock (Alcea rugosa) Perennial. Zones 3-8. This is a Russian variety of hollyhock. It grows to 6' and bears a multitude of single, pale yellow flowers. It requires full sun, water when dry, and likes to have good fertile soil. I've seen references that this is supposed to be very resistant to rust, but I've not found that to be true. It is one of my favorite hollyhocks and it's a bonus to me that it is a perennial. I particularly like it planted with pink hollyhocks.

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Featured plant: Purple coneflower, echinacea

PURPLE CONEFLOWER, Echinacea, 100 seeds, perennial, medicinal, birds and butterflies

Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) Perennial. Zones 2-10. This is a very pretty medicinal plant. It's purple/pink blooms appear in July-August. It needs full sun, well drained soil, and water when dry. It will grow in part sun but will be spindly and have a tendancy to flop over and have fewer blooms. It grows to 3', sometimes 4' in good soil or with added organic matter. Will bloom the second year from seed. This is the most widely used Echinacea for boosting the immune system. All parts of the plant are considered medicinal. Pretty in the border and also attracts butterflies in bloom and goldfinches when in seed.

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