Plants to Love: Plant Profiles

Plants to Love: Neon Flash Spirea (Spirea ‘Neon Flash’)

August 11, 2010 7 comments
Thumbnail image for Plants to Love: Neon Flash Spirea (Spirea ‘Neon Flash’)

Spirea ‘Neon Flash’ (USDA Zones 4-9) is a Bright! Magenta! Pink! flowering shrub to about 4’ tall, which loves full sun and blooms off and on throughout the summer. It does lose its leaves in winter and gets a bit of reddish-yellow fall color, but the fall color isn’t anything to rave about. I love [...]

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Plants to Love: White Parahebe (Parahebe linifolia)

August 4, 2010 3 comments
Parahebe linifolia

White Parahebe (USDA Zones 8-11) deserves to be one of those plants like Geranium ‘Rozanne’; a plant that’s totally overused but nobody’s actually sick of because it is so ridiculously charming. It has deep green, glossy foliage that’s evergreen and very attractive, its delicate white blooms are lacy yet sturdy and incredibly profuse – and [...]

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Plants to Love: Purple Pixie Hebe (Hebe ‘Mohawk’ or ‘Purple Pixie’)

July 28, 2010 0 comments
Thumbnail image for Plants to Love: Purple Pixie Hebe (Hebe ‘Mohawk’ or ‘Purple Pixie’)

This Hebe is a lovely little evergreen thing which gets to about 3’ around and blooms off and on a good part of the year. It takes shearing well and usually comes back well from hard pruning during the growing season, though I try to avoid pruning into the wood if I can avoid it.

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Plants to Love: Autumn Fern (Dryopteris erythrosora)

July 21, 2010 2 comments
Thumbnail image for Plants to Love: Autumn Fern (Dryopteris erythrosora)

I LOVE the Autumn Fern. Orangey foliage in spring and summer? Cinnamon-colored spores on the underside of the plant? A neat habit and a plant that’s simple to prune down in winter? It’s got it all.

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Plants to Love: Fragrant Sweet Box (Sarcococca ruscifolia)

July 14, 2010 6 comments
Sarcococca ruscifolia

This unassuming little shade shrub is one that people often don’t notice at first. There’s nothing particularly showy about its graceful arching stems, deep green leaves, or the tiny white flowers that hang from its branches in winter. But when those small blooms open, people walk around sniffing all the big, showy flowers in the [...]

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Plants to Love: Mexican Feather Grass (Nassella tenuissima/ Stipa tenuissima)

July 4, 2010 0 comments
Thumbnail image for Plants to Love: Mexican Feather Grass (Nassella tenuissima/ Stipa tenuissima)

This waving blonde grass is a great way of bringing a sense of movement to your garden. It looks great massed, and brings a beachy feel to the garden with its bleached straw-colored seedheads. Nassella tenuissima does need to be cut to the ground once a year, but I’ve had great luck doing it at [...]

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Plants to Love: Purple Catmint (Nepeta faassenii)

May 1, 2010 2 comments
Thumbnail image for Plants to Love: Purple Catmint (Nepeta faassenii)

Simple, lush, gorgeous. This sun-lover attracts bees and beneficial insects, resists deer, takes salty seacoast wind, and looks great with any number of plants. All it asks in return is good drainage and full sun. I love it with just about any ornamental grass, pink or yellow roses (it attracts the beneficial bugs that eat [...]

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