PLANT OF THE WEEK @ KERNS NURSERY


We featured from May through Labor Day a new perennial Plant of the Week, selected by Pat Kerns.  The perennial or group of perennials is offered at discounted prices. 

Please visit us in Jewett to see what is being offered and why we think its is special for your garden.
 

You can revisit our 2003 and 2002
Plant-of-the-Week feature
pages just to get an idea
of what plants may be coming up...
 

Please visit us in Jewett to see the current Plant-of-the-Week

Gypsophila - "Baby's breath"
PLANT-OF-THE-WEEK 2004
June 26 - July 2, 2004

This group includes hardy annuals and perennials, that are commonly called Baby's Breath. A dainty plant, which grows from 24 to 30 inches high with a spread of 3 feet. It forms mounds of narrowly lance-shaped, blue-green leaves and a profusion of very tiny, double, white flowers in airy panicles on wiry, branching stems, in the summer. In the summer, tiny, double flowers are produced in airy sprays. They are white turning to pale pink.  

Gypsophila - "Baby's breath"
PLANT-OF-THE-WEEK 2004
June 26 - July 2, 2004

 
The flowers of these plants dry well for winter arrangements.    
 

Silene Maritima "Swan Lake"
PLANT-OF-THE-WEEK 2004
June 19 - June 26, 2004

Double, white, fragrant flowers from early June through July. Ideal for a rock garden, with foliage somewhat greyish green in color.  Its prostrate form is best in a rock garden, or on a hill or wall where its flowers can be readily seen and appreciated.       

Silene Maritima "Swan Lake"
PLANT-OF-THE-WEEK 2004
June 19 - June 26, 2004

"Swan Lake" is a nice ground hugging and cascading plant with thick, fleshy, light green leaves and large double white blossoms that look like small carnations. Splendid habit and form.  Grows about 4" tall, spread of 20".    

Delphinium Pacific Giant
June 4 - June 11, 2004

This cultivar has beautiful azure blue flowers with a darker blue bee. A member of the Pacific Giant series that can reach 5 feet tall if planted in a moist, fertile soil in full sun. The inflorescence itself can get 1 to 1 1/2 feet tall. Makes a wonderful cut flower and can be dried. Its best use is in the background of a sunny perennial border.   

Delphinium Pacific Giant
June 4 - June 11, 2004

This will be the most magnificent plant in your garden with some special care. Tall, elegant spires of closely packed, large, well formed blooms. Pink, violet, and many shades of blue flowers. Excellent cut flower.   This great perennial background plant blooms from early Spring to early Summer.  Flowers reach between 3' to 5' in full sun.    

Armeria Rubrifolia
May 24 - June 1 2004
Memorial Day Weekend

This great border or rock garden plant is neat and easy to grow in full sun where soil has good drainage.  We recommend with all plants of this type to add a good deal of sand to the soil. 

The bronze-red foliage makes this armeria unique.  Pink ball-shaped flowers are held above the foliage.  Flowers abundantly for a long period of time.     

Armeria Rubrifolia
May 24 - June 1 2004
Memorial Day Weekend

Variegated ground cover.  Small deep pink pom-pom flowers, above mounds of rich bronze foliage. 
Suitable for rockeries, borders, banks, paving, gravel gardens, containers, requires well drained soil.

Flowering Time:        spring to early summer
Height and Spread:   10 x 20cm    

Penstemon Husker's Red
June 12 - June 19, 2004

This beautiful penstemon blooms large white tubular shaped flowers on tall spikes in May. Evergreen foliage is a striking green with red overtones. Hardy Perennial.
3-4' tall x 1' wide   

Penstemon Husker's Red
June 12 - June 19, 2004

A very fine, long lived, hardy perennial that forms a handsome clump of ornamental, bronzy-purple foliage. Blooms over a long period in early through mid-summer. Most effective planted in groups. Easily grown in full sun. Will not tolerate drought or extremes of humidity. An excellent cut flower. Attracts hummingbirds and butterflies!      

Phlox stolonifera
17-23 May 2004

Creeping Phlox

Excellent, shade tolerant Phlox that spreads rapidly by stolons, forming dense mats of delicate foliage that are 6-12" tall. Tiny flowers cover the plant in dense clusters in spring. Phlox stolonifera thrives in woodland conditions, with partial shade and moist soil that is rich in organic matter. It makes a beautiful flowering ground cover.

Phlox stolonifera "Home Fires" - 8" pink flowers in spring. Fragrant. Prostrate habit of growth.

Phlox stolonifera "Pink Ridge"         

Phlox stolonifera
17-23 May 2004



Creeping Phlox

Creeping Phlox creeps by sending out stolons or stems that root where they touch the ground. The flowers appear in early spring.

Propagation: Remove plants from the clump.
Family: Polemoniaceae
Type: Perennial ... see our list of 2004 Perennials
Leaves: produces both sterile and flowering shoots; leaves on sterile shoots are 1-3" long and narrow at base, flowering shoot leaves are oval no more than 1" long
Soil: well drained              

Polemonium Bressingham Purple
8-16 May 2004

 

Family: Polemoniaceae
Origin: Northern Hemisphere
Special Features: Compact growing habit, glossy leaves and larger flowers
History: Introduced by JELITTO STAUDENSAMEN GMBH in 1999
Colour: Erect panicles hold larger blue flowers, each with a center consisting of a yellow eye with a white center
Natural Flowering Period: June - August
Winter Hardiness: Z3
Growth Habit: Clumping
Foliage: Stems, somearial,helvetica bi-pinnate, with up to 20 oval to oblong, glossy leaflets
Height with Flower: 30 cm (12'')
Spacing between Plants: 45 cm (18'')
Soil Requirement: Well drained soils, pH 5.8 - 6.8
Location: Partial shade

 Polemonium Heavenly Habit
8-16 May 2004


 

BENEFITS: Highly decorative fernlike leaves are neat, uniform and symmetrical, like most varieties of Jacob's Ladder, but with a colorful twist: The foliage takes on a rich, dark purple hue in spring and again in fall. In between, the leaves turn somewhat greener or even fully green in summer, depending on light intensity.
BLOOM SEASON & HABIT: Beautiful flowers of deep electric lavender-blue appear in late spring/early summer, rising in elegant clusters on graceful, sturdy burgundy stems above the attractive mounds of foliage.
LOCATION: Light shade. USDA Hardiness Zones 4 to 9; AHS Heat Zones 8 to 1.
USE: 'Bressingham Purple' makes a lovely companion for an earlier Blooms introduction, the highly popular variegated Polemonium 'Brise d'Anjou'.