Seneca Hill Perennials

Thalictrum delavayi f. album

After several years of combing seed exchanges and growing out seedlings, we finally have a decent group of this exquisite pure-white-flowered version of the much-loved Yunnanese meadow rue, and they have managed to produce a modest amount of fertile seed. The long, typically somewhat scandent sprays of snowy flowers gracefully offset brighter colors and heavier textures in the perennial border.

Thalictrum 'North Hill' - NEW INTRODUCTION

This is an exceptional thalictrum that Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd shared with us many years ago. Standing roughly 4 feet tall, it has smoky purple stems and full, fluffy heads of mauve flowers. The foliage stays low, and the flowering stems are remarkably uniform in height. Visitors' heads swivel and their mouths gape when they see it - always the best test of a plant's merit. It appears to be close to T. aquilegiifolium, but never sets seed here, despite the presence of other T. aquilegiifolium in the garden. Joe and Wayne have the same experience with it. We've been waiting for years to have enough to sell, because we haven't had any luck propagating it from small bits and have had to wait until we had enough old-fashioned divisions. This is a truly fine plant. Limit 1 per customer.

Thalictrum pubescens, purplish form

Our seed source, Kristl Walek of Gardens North, describes this fascinating variant of Tall Meadow Rue as follows: "References are sometimes made to a "purple form" of tall meadowrue in the floras, but until recently, I had never seen it in the wild. The use of the language "purple form" is confusing--this rare variant still displays the white and yellow starbursts of the species in full bloom -but female plants exhibit, from an early stage of bloom, an underlying heart of pinkish-purple glowing through the white. The two-tone effect is very beautiful. As the flowers disappear, the purple remains and intensifies until seed ripening. Seed wild collected in Ontario, in an area where only the variant grew." We have no way of sexing seedlings, so you may or may not get a female. Photo copyright Kristl Walek, used with permission.

Tigridia pavonia 'Sunset in Oz'

Our own introduction, and a splendid one. Don’t be put off by the tender bulb aspect - this is easy to grow in pots, or in the garden, and you can store it as you would any tender gladiolus. It has a fantastic flower: unlike most T. pavonia, with their screaming bright monotones, this has a marigold base heavily brushed with red, and everyone who sees it immediately calls it ‘Sunset’. Oswego (a.k.a. Oz) is famous for its sunsets over Lake Ontario - hence the name. One blooming-size corm and a two smaller ones per order.

Trautvetteria caroliniensis

Tassel Rue or False Bugbane is a handsome woodlander that forms clumps of deeply lobed leaves from which rise tall sturdy stems supporting dense umbels of foamy white flowers. This should be more widely grown - it's undemanding, the foliage is striking, and the masses of clean white flowers light up the shade garden. Occurs in mountain woods from Pennsylvania to Kentucky to Georgia, on prairies in southern Indiana and western Illinois, and on limestone bluffs in southern Missouri.

Trillium cuneatum

An easy-to-grow southeastern species with marbled leaves and (in this group) flowers ranging from maroon to greenish-brown. One of the most reliable garden species, it will form large clumps over time, and is easily divided and moved (do this as the flowers fade). Fully-rooted, blooming-size container-grown plants.

Trillium pusillum subsp. alabamicum

A captivating collection made years ago in Madison Co., Alabama by Aaron Floden. The stems are dark purple, the leaves are flushed purplish when they emerge, and the flowers have faint pink veining on the front and a pinkish flush on the reverse. This is also a robust grower and self-sower, and has been easy for us in the garden. We offer small mature one-eye divisions taken in 2009.

Trillium recurvatum
Zone 4 ~ Height: to 30cm/1ft ~ Shade to part shade, woodland soil

Divisions of some plants collected by a friend on his property in Clark Co., Illinois, these handsome trilliums are good spreaders, easy of culture, and beautiful. The young foliage is mottled green, brown and silver, and the sessile flowers are deep maroon. These will form nice colonies over time. Potted in late spring 2009; mature rooted 1-eye divisons. Photo copyright Will Forster, used with permission.

 

Tritonia disticha
Zone 6 ~ Height: to 75cm/30in ~ Sun, well-drained soil

We think we now have the nomenclature straight on our coral-colored tritonias. This one, previously offered (by us) as "Tritonia disticha, large form" and received many years ago as seed from Silverhill, is the true T. disticha, with tall, upright foliage and glowing coral-red/pink flowers with yellow blotch on each lower lobe. Hardy and vigorous here in the open garden. Full pots, each containing a few blooming-size corms and lots of little offsets. The corms are naturally small, even at maturity.

 

Tritonia drakensbergensis
Zone 6 ~ Height: to 30cm/1ft ~ Sun, well-drained soil

This high-altitude Drakensberg irid produces a succession of delicious coral-pink/red flowers on somewhat lax 50cm/20in spikes. We've had it in the open garden for years, planted shallow and not mulched, and it had spread to form a colony roughly 45cm/18in across, loaded with flower spikes. Of all the South Africans we grow, this seems to be the hardiest. Each order receives at least 2 blooming-size corms and several smaller ones. Note that these corms are naturally small.

 

Trollius laxus var. laxus
Zone 4 ~ Height: to 30cm/1ft ~ Sun to part shade, moist humusy alkaline soil

A rare eastern US globeflower with open pale yellow flowers and deeply cut glossy green leaves. Despite the conventional advice that this needs a moist alkaline soil (or extra lime) we grow it with no amendments and no trouble in our slightly acid clayey loam.

 

Typhonium diversifolium
Zone 7? ~ Height: 15cm/6in ~ Sun to part shade, well-drained summer-moist soil

A mysterious little aroid collected in 2005 in India on Garhwal Himal at 3200m/10,400ft, presumably T. diversifolium, which Wilbert Hetterscheid says will become Sauromatum diversifolium when the DNA work is complete. It is a little joy to grow, emerging very late in spring and producing leaves which, as the specific name suggests, are completely unpredictable in shape. The green to green-and-purple spathe stands upright on a short pedicel and encloses the spadix. We grow ours in containers, where they overwinter easily if kept cool to cold (ours are around 35F) and dry. Blooming-size tubers, naturally small.

 

Watsonia latifolia
Zone 7? ~ Height: to 70cm/2ft ~ Sun, well-drained summer-moist soil (container)

Distinctive spikes of showy deep maroon-red flowers emerge in early fall above relatively short, broad, sturdy leaves. These are easily grown in containers if kept cool and dry over the winter. In the wild, W. latifolia is found only in a small region in southeastern Transvaal and occasionally into Natal and western Swaziland, usually at altitudes above 1800m/5900ft. We have just a few blooming-size corms to sell.

 

Wurmbea elatior
Zone 6? ~ Height: to 40cm/16in ~ Sun, summer-moist-to-wet soil

An oddly charming high-altitude Drakensberg bulb, found at up to 3000m/9750ft, the Pepper-and-Salt Flower has spikes of small starry white flowers wherein each tepal has a reddish-purple or black transverse band. Should be fairly hardy. Several little bulbs per pot.

 

Zantedeschia albomaculata
Zone 6? ~ Height: to 50cm/20in ~ Sun, well-drained summer-moist soil

The Arrow-Leaved Arum is widely distributed from central Africa into the the Eastern Cape, and as it can occur at quite high altitudes (up to 2400m/7800ft) I made it my mission to collect the highest-altitude seeds I could find. In this I did not completely succeed, as it turned out that the highest-altitude plants were devoid of the white spotting that makes the leaves of some so attractive. So the plants we offer here are from the highest-altitude SPOTTED population I encountered, along the road from Maseru to Semonkong in Lesotho. I collected from the best-spotted individuals in what was quite a large population. We have hopes, if not confidence, that they'll prove to be fairly hardy. Photo copyright Cameron McMaster, used with permission.