My North Creek Nurseries Wish List

A wetland native that forms dense tussocks of straw-colored leaves at the base with bright green new growth emerging from the top. Spreads via rhizomes. Found in wet meadows. Emergent aquatic.

Plainly stated, it’s a show stopper. Beyond other Iris selections on the market, ‘Purple Flame’ has a richer, more intense cast to stems and flowers, yes. However, the true beauty lies in the irresistible foliage. Emerging in March, the purple flame-like foliage provides an unparalleled performance of vivid and intense eggplant purple foliage followed by an encore of rich and abundant flowers. 

The darkest, truest purple flowers to come out of Mt. Cuba’s bee balm evaluations—this selection has upright rigid stems, strongly verticality, and a rough, sand-papery texture to its foliage. Very resistant to powdery mildew.

Found by and named after Jeana Prewitt of Nashville, TN, this selection possesses outstanding mildew resistance with varying shades of sweetly scented, lavender-pink flowers, vibrant midsummer through early autumn. Foliage remains clean green while flower clusters create a tiered effect along upright, multi-stemmed branches. Expect a flurry of pollinator activity!

A drought-tolerant prairie native with delightful lavender-blue petunia-like flowers that bloom from summer to fall. Compact (great in pots!) and very easy to grow. Seeds in well. Great choice for a height-restricted meadow. Found in dry open woods and prairies Pennsylvania to Indiana, south to Alabama.

Bright blue star-shaped flowers with gold centers rise above fine, semi-evergreen, iris-like foliage from May to June. Excellent for edging, the 3/4" flowers are very good sized for the genus. We are very excited about this little gem. It will charm your customers for 8-10 weeks! Named by Robert Herman, who found it in Lucerne, Switzerland.

According to wild Niel Dibol, of Prairie Nursery, Westfield, WI, it is "often considered to be the most handsome of the prairie grasses. It makes a well defined and very distinctive border." Fine textured, deep green foliage with lovely, light and airy flowers to 2 1/2" in September and October. Flowers have a slight fragrance similar to coriander. Often has glowing pumpkin orange fall color. Good drought tolerance.

Foamflowers are commonly found in the woods of eastern North America, but not nearly often enough in gardens. They are easy to grow and many will spread when given moist soil high in organic matter and shade. In the early spring fairy wand flowers of white or light pink appear over green, deeply veined leaves which are often tinged with burgundy.

‘Gilt Edge’ is a compact form with variegated foliage that typically grows in a clump to 12-24” tall, but will spread over time to 36” wide. Ovate to lanceolate, stem-clasping leaves (4-6” long) have (as suggested by the cultivar name) irregular creamy white to chartreuse margins. Leaves generally remain attractive throughout the growing season. -Missouri Botanical Garden