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!

This long-blooming, compact Amsonia forms a dense, compact mound of dark green leaves that turn brilliant yellow in the fall. Looks fantastic in a gallon!

'Little Lanterns' is short in stature, but free with flowers! Numerous pendant flowers of red and yellow cover the plant in late spring. This selection resolves a few grievances that some have expressed about Aquilegia canadensis by having consistantly shorter stature and more intense color than the species.

An introduction by Plant Delights Nursery in 2009, this Japanese painted fern is a monster! Growing up to 3' tall and spreading up to 6' wide, 'Godzilla' has the appearance of 'Picta' with the punch of an ostrich fern. 'Godzilla' is great in shady locations in moist soil to dry shade.  

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. 

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.

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!

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!

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.

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!

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.

A profusion of blue-purple pincushion flowers. A fantastic performer and butterfly magnet, flowering continuously from May to killing frost. Top ten container and sunny border plant and cut flower.

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