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Catalog B
BALLOTA nigra
Prancing Jester (Black Horehound). Vividly variegated
foliage produces 20 blue spikes. Notable>
BAPTISIA australis
(False Indigo) 36-48". Hardy to Zone 3. Blue lupine-like
flowers early summer, pleasing gray-green
foliage, nice pods. Prefers sun, takes some shade, drought-resistant.
Slow to establish but long-lived. Minor
is half the size of australis.
Caspian Blue is
a distinctive cultivar. Natives lactea
(pendula) (3 ft.), leucantha
(4 ft), and leucophaea
(20) are various shades of white to cream. X
Purple Smoke sports charcoal stems and gray-green foliage,
smoky violet flowers. Its discovery is an example of the new
American plant hunters at work, as is Carolina
Moonlight, sensational new yellow.
BELAMCANDA (Blackberry Lily). 36". Iris like foliage,
1" black-spotted orange flowers, nice seedpods.
BERGENIA cordifolia
(Saxifrage). Clusters of pink flowers in early Spring, but
foliage is the best part of this plant. Leathery 6" x
10" leaves form a 12" high clump. Dark green in
the Spring, they turn bronzy purple in the Fall. Cut old growth
back in early Spring so that new leaves can develop. Shade
or part sun. Darker-flowered varieties include Red
Bloom and Abendglut.
Baby Doll is more compact than others. We seem to have
a nice white, obtained in 2002, but do not know its name or
species.
BOLTONIA asteroides
Snowbank. Substitute
for fall asters. Masses of 3/4" white flowers are carried
on 48" plants. Foliage is blue green and superior to
that of asters. Blooms all Fall. Pink
Beauty is less robust. Var.
latisquama Nana
is somewhat shorter, lavender flowered.
BRUNNERA macrophylla
(False or Chinese Forget-Me-Not) 8-15". Early spring
flowers look exactly like Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis),
but the plant has textured heart-shaped leaves. It likes shade
and moisture and self-sows readily; a good plant to naturalize
in a woodland. We no longer stock the variegated ones; none
are good doers. But Langtrees,
discreetly brushed with silver, is an elegant and vigorous
plant. Marleys White
has white flowers. Jack
Frost is a sensational new hybrid with largely silver
leaves, veined and edged green. (PPAF). Zones 3 7 for these
beauties.
BUDDLEIA davidii
(Butterfly Bush). In warmer climates, buddleia is a woody
shrub. In all but the coldest winters, it dies back to the
ground in Central New York; thus the tendency to sell it as
a perennial. Proper care here is to cut the bush back to the
ground in late Fall or early Spring, then wait patiently for
new growth to show, perhaps as late as Memorial Day. It will
begin to bloom in August, and carry on until hard frost, particularly
if you deadhead, just behind the spent flower panicle. (This
also prevents random seeding, which can
be a nuisance.)
We have found these satisfactory:
Black Knight (deep violet), Harlequin
(golden yellow variegated foliage and red-violet flowers),
Nanho
Blue (shorter than most at 5-6 ft.), Red
Plume and Royal
Red (rich red-violet), and Ellens
Blue, the very blue superior selection from Ellen Hornig
of Oswego, which has quickly become a national favorite. White
Profusion is the best butterfly magnet; we have seen it
covered with Monarchs in early Fall. We like Opera,
White Ball (3-4
ft.) and Potters Purple
(5 ft), new in 2002. Pink
Charming or Summer
Beauty may replace the older Pink
Delight. Please tell your friends, butterfly bush is inexpensive
and quick-growing. No need to search for the three-color bush
featured in some (dare I say cheap?) catalogs; its a photo
trick.
FOR EXAMPLE:
UNUSUAL BUDDLEIA SHOWS PRUNING CHOICES
May and June visitors to the Farm are blown away by the
other buddleia. Alternifolia
(Fountain Buddleia)
is a Spring-blooming shrub, not often seen here, but perfectly
hardy in Zone 5. Its lilac flowers appear in clusters up and
down the stem; leaves are silvery and small. Over time it
assumes a vase shape, with weeping branches, giving a fountain
effect. You can prune it as you would any Spring-flowering
deciduous shrub: After three years, remove the oldest (thickest)
third of the stems, at the base, each year, within a month
after flowering. In this way, it will remain an 8 10 foot
shrub and always give good color. Or, you can do as they have
at the Arnold Arboretum, and restrict it to one to three main
stems, pruning the crown judiciously; in 25 years it will
become a respectable
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