Seneca Hill Perennials

Colchicum aff. 'Disraeli'

We're not getting into the bulb business, but we dug and transplanted a big colony of these this summer, and couldn't use them all, so potted up the leftovers. Some of these are blooming size, some not quite, but there are at least 2, and sometimes 3, bulbs in each pot. This cultivar came under a different name, but we think it's the old cultivar 'Disraeli', with deep checkered magenta goblets with white throats and an impressive ability to multiply. Hands-down the best grower among our various colchicums, and a truly splendid flower.

Collinsonia canadensis

This widely-distributed eastern US species (from the northern tip of Quebec to the southern tip of Florida, if the USDA is correct) has lots of uses in herbal medicine which interest us not at all, but what does interest us is that it's a first-rate plant for the lightly shaded natural garden. From late summer into fall it produces airy panicles of small pale yellow flowers - thousands of them! - and they look just beautiful against, for example, the sombre foliage of large-leaved rhododendrons. This really should be much more widely grown than it is.

Convallaria majalis 'Cream Da Mint'

An oustanding oversized convallaria, introduced by Rick Sawyer of Fernwood Nursery, with somewhat glaucous leaves generously edged in cream. Rick thinks it may be a sport of 'Fortin's Giant'. You city folks probably think someone didn't know how to spell when they named this plant. Well, for your edification, "Cream da Mint" is how "Creme de Menthe" is pronounced out here in the 'boonies. With my Ivy-League education I will not pretend that I say it that way, but I know plenty of folks who do.

Convallaria majalis 'Fernwood's Golden Slippers'

A truly outstanding convallaria, 'Fernwood's Golden Slippers' was discovered by plantsman Rick Sawyer as an unusually large-berried tetraploid sport of 'Cream da Mint'. The foliage emerges in spring a faintly translucent chartreuse-gold; when the sun is behind it, it glows. The leaves darken somewhat in summer heat, but stay somewhere between chartreuse and light green. We know it's tough, too, because when Rick let us twist his arm, years ago, and agreed to ship us some from his nursery in Maine (he absolutely does not do mail-order), UPS took that little box all the way to California before Rick traced it; and then, because he had paid for ground service, they returned it via truck, for a total time in transit of roughly 2.5 weeks, bare-root. And yet no discernible damage was done. This is still a very hard plant to come by; in order to ensure that reasonable numbers of customers get to have it, we have set a limit of 1 per customer, strictly enforced.

Convallaria majalis 'Flore Pleno'

Some plant snobs give double lilies-of-the-valley a bad press, but we think they're adorable. Not only are the fragrant creamy-white flowers double, but they double up on their pedicels, two to a stem, for a decidedly full look. Like the straight species, a vigorous and care-free plant; unlike the straight species, easy to give away to your friends.

Convallaria majalis 'Hardwick Hall'

A vigorous golden/cream-margined form, similar to 'Cream Da Mint' but a tad smaller.

Convallaria majalis, old cutting strain

This distinctive Lily-of-the-Valley grows in a local cemetery and was brought to us by our friend Jim Kraus, who has fond memories of an elderly member of his church bringing in bouquets to adorn the altar. Our guess is that it's an old cutting strain (we have some named ones from Germany, and this is certainly of the same ilk). The foliage is fairly tall, and the flower stems appreciably longer(30cm/1ft) than in our old farmhouse types . The flowers are, of course, waxy white and deliciously scented.

Convallaria majalis 'Prolificans'

A wonderful old-fashioned lily of the valley with little congested sprigs of double flowers. This is a more petite form than the 'Flore Pleno' we sometimes offer, and the flowers are bunched more tightly on the spike.

Convallaria majalis var. montana (C. majuscula)

The US variant of Lily of the Valley, this plant is native to mountainous areas from Virginia and West Virginia south to Georgia and west to Kentucky and Tennessee (ours are from Tennessee). It is fairly similar to the familiar European C. majalis, but we find it to be a more demure grower, and somewhat less likely to romp over neighboring plants.

Convallaria majalis, yellow striped

These are outstanding plants, descended from unnamed plants we obtained many years ago from hosta breeder Alec Summers. They have heavy cream striping (the outer end of the leaf is sometimes solid cream) and hold their variegation all summer, at least here where summers are relatively cool. They will throw the occasional green(er) sport, and these should be removed to maintain the heavily variegated clone. We are told that they look very much like the selection 'Vic Pawlowski's Gold'.

Corydalis cava 'Albiflora'

A luscious corydalis with dense racemes of full milky-white flowers above biternate blue-green leaves. The tubers we offer (potted) should all bloom in 2010. We have found that though our parent plants are white, they occasionally produce a purple-flowered seedling. Should you be the unhappy recipient of one, just let us know and we'll give you a credit for it.

Corydalis ellipticarpa

A lovely and quite vigorous understory plant from southern Gansu and northern Sichuan provinces in China, with green-glaucous bi- to tri-ternate leaves that emerge from a reddish-brown fleshy rosette (the tob of the bulb). Eight to fourteen buttery yellow flowers are born in a raceme displayed nicely above the foliage. Our photo is lousy, but the plant is handsome. We have not found this offered anywhere else; our seeds came from a friend who gardens at the cutting edge.

Corydalis flexuosa 'Purple Leaf'

We had to divide our overcrowded patch this year, so we potted some up. It may be old hat, but it's a great doer here in the north, where it blooms heavily and returns reliably. The emerging foliage has a purple cast, and the flowers, in crowded racemes, are a glowing blue-purple.

Corydalis nobilis

A central Asian corydalis that produces dense heads of light yellow flowers with dark lips above clumps of deeply divided blue-green foliage. Because it goes dormant after the seed ripens, it is an excellent plant among deciduous shrubs and late-developing perennials, providing spring interest and then conveniently disappearing into dormancy for the rest of the season. Blooming-size plants.

Corydalis solida 'Blushing Girl'

One of the real charmers in the spring garden, popping up, blooming with compact racemes of warm baby-pink flowers, and going dormant within a matter of weeks. Potted blooming-size tubers, two per pot, not dry bare-root tubers.

Crinum macowanii

Here is a species that just knocks your socks off when you see it in the wild, as I did in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The large, bell-shaped flowers, pale pink to white with darker pink stripes, exude the sweet spicy scent of dianthus - this one gets you on your knees. Makes an excellent container plant if you cannot grow it in the garden (just keep it cool and dry in winter).

Crocosmia aurea

This most exquisite of the species crocosmias, with its common name of Falling Stars, has branched spikes of nodding luminous golden-orange flowers with gently reflexed petals, and here, at least, blooms very late in the season (October). Conventionally rated hardy to zone 7, it's survived and spread slowly in our garden for roughly 10 years now, and enchants us anew each year. Though described in South African floras as reaching 1.5m/5ft, ours are closer to 1m/39in. Very full pots, several corms per pot.

Crocosmia 'Distant Planet'

If you're looking for a gorgeous and indestructible northern-hardy orange crocosmia, seek no more. This plant is unstoppable here. It started years ago as a seedling, from a source never recorded and long since forgotten, and it has spread and spread. It blooms freely, in a very bright orange, and the flowers are beautifully flared.

Crocosmia paniculata, old Victorian passalong form from the Eastern Cape

I saw this plant in several places when I traveled in South Africa's Eastern Cape in the company of John Manning, one of the co-authors of Crocosmia and Chasmanthe (RHS and Timber Press, 2004). He knows the plant well, but says he's never found a name for it, and assumes it's an old passalong form that dates back to Victorian times. It's distinguished from the wild-type C. paniculata by having shorter foliage, so that the flower panicles are held above the foliage, by being wonderfully heavy-blooming, and by being a better red.

Cynanchum ascyrifolium

A grand border perennial that has been making the rounds on the passalong circuit seemingly forever, but has never crashed the green ceiling and joined the horticultural mainstream. Long a favorite of ours and our garden visitors, this distant milkweed relative is a well-behaved clump-former with vague semi-vining tendencies and myriad waxy white flowers in axillary cymes. Once it starts blooming, it continues for almost the entire summer, especially if it is cut back part-way through.

Cyrtanthus breviflorus, large form

A robust form of Cyrtanthus breviflorus with typical upward-facing sunny yellow flowers. The flowers open fairly near the ground, but then the flowering stalk extends itself, so that ultimately the seed pods stand roughly 60cm/2ft above the ground. This species is found at up to 3000m/10,000ft in the Drakensberg. Should bloom in 2010.

Cyrtanthus breviflorus, petite form

A high-altitude bulb from the Drakensberg, found at up to 3000m/10,000ft. Scapes of sweet little upward-facing bright yellow flowers open as the narrow straplike leaves emerge. The species is said to be used in traditional medicine to treat intestinal worms and as a protective or love charm. This form is unusually petite, and very free-blooming. Blooming-size potted bulbs.

Cyrtanthus elatus

The well-known Scarborough Lily, a wonderful plant for the cool greenhouse. We love their spectacular flared scarlet flowers, which light up the greenhouse in spring. When I (Ellen) traveled to South Africa in early 2008, this was one of the first exciting species we spotted in the wild as we began our trek towards the Eastern Cape. Blooming-size bulbs with multiple offsets attached, potted.

Cyrtanthus macowanii

This summer-rainfall native of the Eastern Cape produces clusters of drooping, waxy trumpets of an indescribable shade of glowing orange-red. You can spot them from fifty feet away, and most of our nursery visitors who did so made a beeline for them (as did the bees; seed-set was excellent.) We assume most people will keep them in containers, where they're easy if kept cool and dry in winter.