My North Creek Nurseries Wish List

"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™.

Native to northern states and Canada, this little beauty is at home at pond's edge or along a stream. It is clumping by nature, but can seed in to form a dense groundcover in a consistently moist site. In early spring, hundreds of bright yellow buttercup flowers dot the green carpet of cordate foliage. Deer usually leave this alone! Found in marshes, swamps, and wet meadows from North Carolina to Alaska.

Spotted Joe Pye weed grows 4-7 feet tall with mauve-pink flowers blooming in late summer to early fall. A native perennial, Eupatorium maculatum attracts swallowtail butterflies and lives happily in sunny, wet soils. 

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.

The sweetly-scented tubular red flowers of this native honeysuckle often attract hummingbirds to the garden throughout the summer. Flowers are followed by bright red fruit, attractive to birds. A twining vine, it needs a trellis or fence for support.

While there may be a bounty of black-eyed susan on the market, what makes Rudbeckia fulgida var. deamii a dream is its ability to wrap strength, beauty, disease and pest resistance all into one neat package. This variety won the prestigious Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society in 1993 and if you grow it, you'll soon understand why!

From Beate Zillmer of Zillmer Pflanzen in Uchte, Germany. Imagine 'East Friesland' with violet blue flowers and glowing purple stems. Incomparable! Its tidy upright habit makes an excellent companion for Geranium, yellow Baptisia, and purple Heuchera.

An underused but widely requested native warm-season grass, Schizachyrium littorale is a bushier version of the popular little bluestem, growing 2' tall. What makes it notable are the seedheads, which are featherier and stay on the stem well into the winter. We predict this dune bluestem to become a popular favorite in everything from dune restoration projects to coastal landscaping to low-maintenance high-exposure urban sites.