My North Creek Nurseries Wish List

Silver foliage with 3' tall stems topped with broad, sulfur-yellow flower heads. A hybrid of A. x 'Taygeta' and A. clypeolata, introduced by Alan Bloom in the 1950s. An excellent choice for a hot dry site, especially if it's windy. A beautiful cut flower!

Aster 'Wood's Purple' has perfectly clean foliage, and is loaded with single, clear purple flowers in late summer and early fall. It is slightly earlier than 'Wood's Blue'. Bred for compact habit, long bloom period and heavy flowering, all of the Wood's Asters are outstanding pot crops and should be used far more often as a sturdy perennial alternative for mums.

Handsome and ruffled, this high-color selection has been a much requested Japanese Painted Fern. The dark violet red interior of each 'Regal Red' frond is contrasted by bright silver edges making each leaflet distinct and creating an overall tapestry effect. The pinnules also twist a little giving the frond a "fluffed" up look. 'Regal Red' combines beautifully with red-purple Heuchera such as 'Plum Pudding' and blue sedges like Carex platyphylla. The fronds work well in cut flower arrangements, providing lasting color and soft texture. Unique and beautiful!

Airy plumes with numerous small, barely blue flowers over mint-scented, oregano-like foliage from June to October. Great in rock walls. It does need good drainage. It looks like a small, light blue Heuchera when in flower, which seems like all the time. 2021 Perennial Plant of the Year by the Perennial Plant Association. 

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.

A North Creek original, this selection of C. pubescens var. pubescens blooms non-stop from mid-summer until October here, with saucer-like flowers over low, spreading, slightly fuzzy foliage. An easy, self-sowing plant when happy. Likes hot, bright, well-drained spots, but is not fussy at all. An easy native for sun or part shade.

Winner of the 2001 RHS Award of Garden Merit, this threadleaf coreopsis is just a little bit shorter than 'Moonbeam'. 'Zagreb' has bright yellow flowers that sit atop tall, erect, lacey, somwhat mound forming, delicate (threadleaf) looking, green foliage that has an airy appearance. The flowers are abundant and bloom continuously throughout the entire summer. Removal of the dead blossoms encourages longer blooming and healthier flowers. Truly a colorful sight. Great in rock gardens and gardens with poor soil. Makes a good cut flower.

Autumn fern is a colorful groundcover with pink fiddleheads that turn coppery orange as they unfurl. Fronds age to a lustrous dark green and remain well into winter. New growth continues through the season, giving a colorful tapestry effect of copper and green from spring to late fall.

A beautiful and long-lasting coneflower, Echinacea purpurea 'Mellow Yellows' is a seed introduction from Jelitto that ranges from light yellow to the deepest golden with bright orange centers. Flowering in its first season, this sturdy and reliable plant is an excellent cut flower and a great source of nectar and seed to pollinators and wildlife. 

Loose, white, flat-topped flowers over deep green foliage with hairy stems. E. perfoliatum is a clumping, slightly aromatic, easy to grow plant with low maintenance. Great for attracting butterflies. E. perfoliatum may be used in border and wildflower gardens, around the banks of a pond and in areas in which it may naturalize.

An evergreen plant that is excellent in sun or shade. A carefree, slowly spreading groundcover with shiny, deep green, leathery leaves. Yellow green disc-like bracts back chartreuse yellow flowers in late spring which last for months. Looks fantastic in a pot and in the garden. Grow in a protected site for best winter foliage. Most importantly, this plant has just about zero maintenance requirements. Unbeatable!

Vivid magenta-pink flowers above mounds of large, scented foliage in spring and early summer. An excellent deer-resistant, spreading groundcover for full to part sun areas with the added benefit of lovely red-tinted foliage in the fall.

Easily flowing through the landscape, this grass softens the garden with its gracefully arching blades as they drift between plantings. The soft vibrant green of this species indigenous to the mountains of Japan lends tranquility to your plantings – especially impactful in large masses under limbed-up deciduous trees.

Bred by Lynn Collicutt of the Morden Research Station in Morden, Manitoba. Lavender-pink flowers in July and August atop deep green, shiny and clean foliage. More compact than others in the species. Very low maintenance. Cherished by butterflies and hummingbirds, but disliked by deer. Also makes an excellent cut flower!

Aaaarrrrgggghhhh! Named after the infamous English pirate Blackbeard, Penstemon 'Blackbeard' has the darkest of eggplant foliage with bright lilac-purple flowers rising high above and standing tall. With a long season of interest and a magnet for hummingbirds and bees, this Walters Gardens introduction is sure to cause a delightful cry of 'Shiver me timbers!' 

Japanese Beech Fern is one of the best landscape ferns we've tried over the years. It also behaves very well in pot culture and it travels well with minimal breakage. It has been in the trade for some time, but is still underutilized since it hasn't been readily available. No more! Phegopteris decursive-pinnata is a vigorous spreader and an excellent choice for a groundcover. Beautiful, with graceful fronds, it produces large colonies in moist or average shade. Its vigorous growth is produced on short runners so it is easily controlled if necessary. Arching fronds are a lustrous dark green and have a lighter green underside for a unique display. Japanese Beech Fern appreciates a little extra moisture in the soil to perform best, although it is not necessary for plant health and appearance. It may be evergreen in warmer zones and is fully perennial to zone 4.

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!

We give up! So many of you claimed this mountain mint to be superior to Pycnanthemum virginianum that we decided to try it for ourselves. We love it! Its leaves are broader and more lustrous, the bracts are silvery and very showy, the flowers are pinkish and its habit is more compact. Nicely aromatic. This native is happiest at the wood's edge, so it is excellent for a naturalized border or woodland garden. Mountain Mint is one of the best nectar sources for native butterflies, so butterfly gardeners can't do without this one. Our bees go crazy for it, too!

Brown cones with reflexed yellow ray petals adorn this midwestern prairie native in midsummer. Emits a soft fragrance of anise when seeds are crushed. Long-lived and very easy to grow in most situations. Great for attracting birds and butterflies! Combines well with meadow grasses and flowers. Makes a wonderful cut flower, too!

Shiny, deep green foliage. Smaller and finer than Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' with 10 weeks of flowers from July into October. Six weeks after 'Goldsturm' is brown, this plant is at its peak! Excellent cut flower. Provides late summer nectar for butterflies and seeds in the winter for birds. Beautiful and versatile!

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.

Grown mainly for the foliage, 'Purple Knockout' has compact basal rosettes of shiny burgundy leaves that turn to deep purple in summer, then to red in the fall. Spikes of pale lilac-blue flowers appear in spring and summer, but sometimes the flowers have only calyces and no petals. We have not been able to determine the cause of this, but a cut back of the stems promotes new blooms that often have petals the second time around. Petals or no, the flowers are attractive to bees and butterflies. Very easy to grow in just about any soil, it will self sow to spread and become a dense groundcover that makes a great native substitute for Ajuga.

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.