Our Plants

Wow! A blue-flowered Delphinium for bright to average shade and it is native to woodland glades from Alabama to Pennsylvania. Ours came to us thanks to the generosity of the Holden Arboretum in Kirtland, Ohio. Spikes of spurred blue flowers top 3-6' stems from July to September. A welcome addition to the woodland edge or bright shade border.

An ornamental grass that does well in moderately shady locations.  Airy masses of finely branched, light green infloresences rise above the neatly rounded tufts of narrow, dark green foliage in early summer, and remain intact long enough to provide some early winter interest.

Selected for deep, dark-green foliage, late blooming period, clump-forming habit and airy, golden-yellow flowers that emerge in June and last through to September. Attractive seed heads persist through winter. An eye catching cool season, semi-evergreen ornamental grass perfectly suited for part sun to shade.

A delightful and elegant native, this diminutive grass thrives in dry shade. Fine-textured and delicate in appearance, it is tough and drought tolerant, ideal for planting in any well-drained shady location as a groundcover. In spring it is topped with graceful feathery flowers that are lovely as they move quietly in the breeze.

A popular plant for the shade garden, Dicentra eximia is a tremendous performer. The leaves are deeply cut and fern like. The pink flowers are oblong heart shaped with an inner petal that drips from the outer petals, creating the appearance that the heart is bleeding. The flowers are smaller and longer than the old-fashioned bleeding heart, but in long branching inflorescences that encourage a more floriferous species.

Our own selection of this species has dark blue snapdragon flowers covering a low, thick mound of rosemary-like foliage in early summer. Compact in a container and very easy to grow, just treat it as you would a Dianthus. It has been reliably hardy in Landenberg through rain and drought for many winters. Needs good drainage.

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.

This is the largest of the native wood ferns, reaching 4' in ideal conditions. It is a stately and slowly spreading groundcover, forming large clusters of graceful arching fronds. Named for Scottish botanist John Goldie, its fronds are green without a hint of gold. Dryopteris goldiana is native to seepage slopes and moist woods from Newfoundland to Georgia, west to Minnesota and Arkansas.

Dryopteris x australis is a natural hybrid (D. celsa x ludoviciana) found in wild populations from Louisiana to Virginia, but is a superb garden plant as far north as Zone 5. It is taller than either parent and a formidable addition to the garden.