Seneca Hill Perennials

Aralia cordata var. sachalinensis

For people who like REALLY BIG herbaceous plants in their gardens, this one is hard to beat. We planted ours to replace a magnolia destroyed by an ice storm; the understory plants that depended on the magnolia for shade badly needed a quick replacement. Native to parts of Japan, Sakhalin, China and Korea, where the shoots are eaten as a vegetable (udo), A. cordata sends up stout pithy stems bearing large, deep green twice-pinnate leaves. In late summer racemes of round greenish-white "puffs" adorn the ends of the branches; these are followed by myriad small purple-black fruits. A mature clump in full growth is as wide as it is tall - really magnificent.

Aristolochia guichardii

We've had some scary encounters with larger aristolochias (beware A. clematitis), but this tiny Turk, with its comparatively oversized flowers, never strays from its solitary woody rootstalk, and delights us each year with its much-hoped-for reemergence and bloom. The narrow tannish flowers, with maroon interiors, stand perkily upright from somewhat lax stems. Best viewed from ground level, so plant it high or kneel before it. Common in Turkey at low altitudes; we do not know how hardy it is without snow cover.

Arnoglossum reniforme

Native from Pennsylvania south to Georgia, and west to Minnesota and Oklahoma, Great Indian Plaintain is a towering native suitable for the large woodland garden. The lower leaves are kidney-shaped; the flowering stem is clad in fan-shaped leaves and topped with umbels of small white to cream flowers. Collected in St. Francois Co., Missouri.

Asparagus schoberioides

This is a Siberian asparagus that we acquired many years ago from seed collector Alexandra Berkutenko. The branched stems make soft arching plumes in the garden, and the female plants are smothered in plump red berries in fall. Because it is relatively short, we recommend placing it near the front of the border, with the caveat that like most asparagus it is relatively late to emerge.

Asphodeline taurica

Descendants of a wild collection (Turkey, Bolkar Dag) of this elegant monocarpic member of the Liliaceae. In its first two years, typically, it forms a rosette of linear blue-grey leaves. When it matures it send up an extremely long-blooming spike of white flowers. It will self-sow if permitted, and we suggest encouraging this, as it is an enchanting plant in the rock garden.

Aster novae-angliae 'Alma Baby'

This 2007 introduction from Seneca Hill Perennials is a granddaughter of 'Andenken an Alma Potschke', the popular cherry-popsicle-red/pink cultivar known in the US as 'Alma Potschke'.  'Alma Baby' is a rich pink, not as dark as her grandma, but what we really like about her is her compact habit, incredibly floriferous nature, and deliciously full flowers. All the other pink cultivars we've grown have been between relatively and decidedly rangy, but this one, which we hatched here many years ago, is not. Unpruned, it hits roughly 1.2m/4ft; with a single mid-season pruning you can easily keep it around 60cm/2ft. The color is a saturated pink, neither peachy nor purplish.

Aster novae-angliae 'Chilly Winds'

Goin' where them chilly winds don't blow...We introduced this selection in 2006, and we sincerely believe it is the best white-flowered Aster novae-angliae around. We collected it on a high, lonely open stretch of County Route 242 in Cattaraugus County, New York, somewhere between Little Valley and Ellicottville, primarily because it and a few other isolated plants were the only wild white Aster novae-angliae we'd ever encountered. Of course we took the plant with the largest, whitest flowers. Well, after it grew for a few years in the fertile moist magnificence of our garden soil, it turned into a six-foot-plus billowing mass of white, with flowers roughly 1.5in across - a far cry from the thrifty little plant we pulled from a gravelly hillside.