These Perennials Are Hot!

I am fortunate to have clients willing to try out plants and perennials that are unique from what their neighbors have. Especially recently.

While these “new” plants are native to Nebraska, they are not frequently used in landscape design. Perhaps they should be used more often! They all work in smaller spaces, add unique interest to your design, and not get too big.

Callirhoe involucrata: Purple Poppy Mallow, or Winecup, boasts chalice-shaped, magenta flowers on trailing foliage. These vibrant flowers fit well into formal gardens and work well as a rock garden plant or ground cover. Winecup blooms in early summer but can continue to bloom by removing old flowers. It also does well in full sun and is very drought tolerant.

Penstemons: These showy spikes of flowers work well in a border or naturalized garden. The Mexicali variation has some really wonderful colors, too. “Windwalker” is a blue-hued purple, “Red Rocks” is a bright rose-red, and “Pike’s Peak Purple” (pictured at right) is a grape purple. Penstemons bloom all summer long and do well without a lot of water.

Allium Millenium: Of these three plants, Allium is probably the one that is used the most infrequently. And you have heard of ornamental kale, right? Well, meet the ornamental onion. Yes…onion. Allium blooms in mid-summer with large globes of rose-pink flowers. Once mature, the plants display dozens of globes per plant atop shiny, deep-green, grassy foliage. And believe it or not, Allium was the Perennial Plant Association’s 2018 Plant of The Year.

Do you love these plants and want to see about adding some to your space? Which one is your favorite?