My North Creek Nurseries Wish List

Definitely a WOW! plant. Chartreuse, Coleus-like foliage is incredible on its own, but the blue bottlebrush flowers in mid summer top it off beautifully. Very hardy and will self sow. Benefits from a little shade in production to protect leaf color. A 2003 All-America Selection Flower Award Winner.

Handsome crowns of feathery fronds are typical of this genus. Delicate and lacy with arching fronds and dark red stems at maturity. Strong-growing and dependable, lady ferns are great garden plants. Tough and easy to grow, this beauty is the right choice for perennial borders and woodlands alike. A breathtaking flush of new fronds appears in the spring, with new leaves appearing throughout the season for a continuously fresh look. Found in swamps, thickets and damp woods east of the Rockies.

"This is the most spectacular of all cultivars in its magnificent frond architecture. It is really the Queen of Green", according to Dr. John Mickel, former curator of ferns at the New York Botanical Garden and author of "Ferns for American Gardens". As with other forms of lady ferns there is so much variability with spore production that it is necessary to produce this form in tissue culture, so its clones are identical to the parent. This superb selection has fronds whose pinnae (leaflets) crisscross to form x's and has crested pinnae tips. Another superior cultivar in the Mickel Collection™.

Calamagrostis brachytricha is a clump-forming grass with bright green leaves reaching about 2 feet. In late summer blooms emerge with a pink tint and reach 3 to 4 feet. The feathery flowers fade to cream in fall and finish in a straw color in winter. A graceful addition to the shade or part shade garden! One of the few flowering grasses that is happy in the shade. Wonderful for cut flowers.

One of the most popular garden grasses in the world, 'Karl Foerster' is known for its ease of culture, tidy vertical habit and beautiful feathery blooms. In mid summer flowers open a creamy white tinged with pink. As they age they become narrow plumes of golden straw and last well into winter.

A bright groundcover for a shady spot, 'Ice Dance' has long shiny leaves trimmed in bright white. It spreads slowly to fill in and make a tidy cover that discourages weeds. Deer and disease resistant, it is long-lasting and easy to grow!

The leathery leaves of Dryopteris marginalis are a beautiful addition to the woodland garden and can form a lovely and easy to maintain groundcover. A sturdy east coast native, it forms a tidy clump that will not spread and is very tolerant of dry shade conditions once it has established. Marginal wood fern is often found in shaded crevices of rocky ledges and bluffs from Newfoundland to Georgia, west to Oklahoma and Minnesota.

An explosion of golden yellow flowers combined with a manageable height makes this a superior selection. Despite its name, this plant can be found literally blanketed in flowers in the late summer and into the fall when most other Helianthus are past. Flowers form on upright, self-supporting stems but instead of the typical tall sunflower, Helianthus 'First Light' forms a nice, compact clump of fuzzy, linear leaves topping out just above 3 feet.

A widely used and attractive evergreen groundcover which is dense, but not invasive. Deep green, oval leaves and 2" gold flowers with pincushion-like, center-clustered stamens in late spring and early summer. One of the nicest groundcovers when in bloom. Most content in cooler areas away from drying winter winds, although quite tough once established.

A fan favorite at Mt. Cuba Center’s Monarda trials thanks to superior resistance to powdery mildew—this selection boasts sturdy, upright stems, and a prolific floral display of purplish-red flowers atop clean green foliage.

A White Flower Farm introduction. The buds really do resemble raspberries! Clear wine-red flowers from June through August. Very mildew resistant. Cherished by butterflies and hummingbirds, but loathed by deer. Also makes an excellent cut flower.