Seneca Hill Perennials

Kirengeshoma palmata, Koreana group

This woodland beauty forms deciduous clumps of large, maple-like leaves and produces, in late summer, erect stems of large, primrose-yellow flared bells. We have grown this plant from a few different sources over time, and find that the one we have kept, from Russell Graham, Purveyor of Plants, forms an unsually shapely mound of foliage, above which the flowers are elegantly displayed on their wiry stems.

Lathyrus aureus

When our garden plants of this clump-forming pea bloomed for the first time, we were just bowled over. The conventional description of coppery flowers does not begin to capture the soft tones of tawny orange and apricot. It is a real winner. Native to eastern Europe, northern Turkey, the Caucasus and the Crimea.

Lathyrus vernus 'Flaccidus', pink form

A stunning strain which originated here as a group of seedlings that have the narrow foliage of L. vernus 'Flaccidus' and the baby-pink flowers of L. vernus f. roseus. These are seedlings of our original selections, which are well-isolated from other forms and have been edited to assure narrow foliage.

Lathyrus vernus 'Flaccidus', typical red-purple

A beautiful strain of Lathyrus vernus with unusually narrow leaflets, hence feathery foliage, and the typical red-purple flowers of the species.

Lathyrus vernus f. roseus

This fetching lathyrus forms compact clumps loaded with soft pink pea flowers. It just improves with age, as the clump gets a little wider and fuller each year. One of the loveliest plants in our early spring garden.

Lilium canadense

A stunning species, widely distributed in eastern North America, with stems of up to 20 slightly-reflexed dark-freckled deep orange flowers nodding gracefully at the ends of their peduncles. In the wild, we find these at the edges of upland bogs and on the silty islands that build up, and are periodically inundated, in rivers on the Tug Hill. The plants we offer here are grown from Canadian collections.

Lilium canadense, golden yellow

The golden-yellow form (with dark spots in the throat) of this lovely native northeastern lily. If you have an appropriate site for it, it will delight you with its nodding, bell-shaped flowers with gracefully reflexed petals. One of those plants which is highly ornamental yet incontestably wild. Note that our photo is of the orange form, not the gold.

Lilium michiganense, deep red-orange

A particularly deep, glowing near-red form of the preceding species, originally selected by Fred Case, and generously shared with us by Rob and Sharon Illingsworth. A splendid plant.

Lilium philadelphicum

The Wood Lily is a stunning native with red-orange flowers held upright, each petal so constricted at the base that looking into the flower you will see right through to the ground. Well-drained soil is a must for successful culture. The small potted bulbs we are currently shipping are probably one or two years shy of blooming size. Grown from seed collected in eastern Ontario.

Lilium superbum from Briggs Beach, Little Compton, RI

Grown from seed collected just behind Briggs Beach, among the bayberries, from the plants I walked past as a child (or, more likely, their progeny). This outstanding species adapts readily to garden conditions, where it tends to grow larger, and have larger and more numerous flowers, than it does in the wild.  The sharply-reflexed petals are a deep red-orange, more yellow towards the base.

Lobelia cardinalis

The incomparable US native Cardinal Flower, with spikes of incandescent scarlet flowers in late summer. Irresistible to hummingbirds, butterflies and most human beings.