Saturday, March 8, 2014

Luxury and Classic Sofas

Classic Sofas

Luxury Classic Sofas
Classic Sofas
Do not despair if youre confused about the classic sofa style set should provide you or decorations for the house are going, then. You are not the only one in this position, like many others they find are perplexed and confused about the proper seat design for their real estate purchase. Suppose you are shopping for classic sofa and sofa sets and transitional measures, and found it too dark for your taste. In this situation, you may find that classic sofa exactly the right thing is to your home the right touch and beautification.

Luxury Classic Sofas
Classic Sofas
Classic sofa are the right choice if you want the mix of classic style and taste. Fill the house feel with classic elegance and unique traditional. Take the time honored trends and show their exclusivity in a conventional sense, and can volumes about the quality and the value that you speak to admire. So, of course, comes the feeling that such a purchase seating results from deep affection and love for timelessness.The nostalgic appeal that this classic sofa set to bring with them certainly is ineffable.

Luxury Classic Sofas
Classic Sofas
Classic sofa sets demand and deserve their own special place in the apartment. Once they are fully occupied, the particular corner or an area in the living room, you need to keep more than the usual care for them. This is especially the case if you want children and pets in your house and you don t that the soil the upholstery. There are also some precautions you should take before you sign up for the implementation of your purchase. You need to check if your existing furniture is purchased with the classic sofa , go plan. If you put a sofa, not with your existing furniture, everything that a classic conflict, and your living room is not an ideal place in your house .


Classic Sofas
The other furniture and interior design objects should complement, in general, these classic sofa and make the rooms are harmoniously alive. So, if you buy at the end of a sofa with an offbeat color or design set, you can be stranded when it comes to mixing with the interior decoration. Since the classic sofa furniture has a touch and appeal of its own, is it really in the interest of all that you do not something that looks strange or unusual design has acquired.

Luxury Classic Sofas
Luxury Classic Sofas
In addition, most builders are a sofa, you can choose your own fabric for your classic sofa set, if you are in a specially designed seating area. Make sure that the colors are too bright to select the color scheme of the interiors disturb your house. If you sat down on the classic sofa, use strong, then you should use a fabric that is permanent and resistant to dirt and stains chose. You can also decide how firm or soft you to be your luxury classic sofa. Let the sofa contractor on this building before they start on the luxury sofa. Once they have used cushioning material, it is virtually impossible to replace them again within your specified budget.
Luxury Classic Sofas
Luxury Classic Sofas
Finally, you have the facilities, including the door and up the stairs before measures to classic sofa  for your beloved. It "s best to know how large your input is, so that you can move comfortably seated on the classic and luxury sofa every mistake, you can be expensive. If you need to draw on the luxury classic sofa or help, contact into account their best to the people to ask the store for their help.
Luxury Classic Sofas
Luxury Classic Sofas

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Friday, March 7, 2014

Exile from the Garden




My wife and I recently bought and moved into our house.  It is a single story 1950’s rancher that does little to combat the idea that all post World War II architecture is crap.  The location is killer, and the house was incredibly priced.  After almost seven years of trying to get into the DC market, we made the plunge.  Of course, the house was incredibly priced precisely because it was so run down.  The previous owner had some issues with hoarding and an apparent aversion to maintenance.  The listing called the house “ignored not abused”—one of those euphemisms that only a realtor could spin.

Since we closed on the house in December, our lives have been absorbed by the enormity of the projects.  Every surface of every room needs to be replaced, re-covered, and re-done.   The bathrooms and kitchens must be scraped down to the studs and rebuilt.  The floors have to be refinished or replaced.  Every window, door, and heat register must be made new again.  Its not because were perfectionists; the place was just nasty.  And because we dumped all of our savings on the down payment, we are doing the entire renovation ourselves.  Thanks to the epic kindness and patience of my father-in-law, who comes over almost every weekend to help us, we have been able to do things I never imagined doing myself.  But the scale of the project, combined with the care of a seven-month old baby, is overwhelming. 

We live in the midst of the construction.  The rituals of domesticity merge with our construction projects in confusing ways.  Our “kitchen table” is a piece of plywood set on two sawhorses.  The other day at dinner, I reached for my fork and picked up a wrench instead.   I brush my teeth and wash dishes in the same sink I clean my drywall knives and fill up the tile saw.   And I’m beginning to think of our Shop-Vac as our family pet (we call him Vacu-saurus, and he’s always at my side).


We buzz around the house like little bees, all the while the yard outside is ignored.  For years I have dreamt about a yard this size, all flat and sunny and full of possibility.  April brings the first few days of warm weather.  I long to be outside.  I look out the window at the overgrown yew hedges and imagine the shapes that I will carve them into.   A stare at the blank lawn next to the busy street and compose a shrub border in my mind.  Every few hours, I redesign the patch of lawn outside the kitchen where I want a perennial meadow.   At night, I flip through my library of garden inspiration images, mentally dismantling and constructing the garden over and over again. 

A wild garden? A pumpkin patch? A perennial garden? A shrub border? 
Every week that goes by, I miss precious preparation time for the garden.  I need to transplant several hollies, but that should have been done last month.  I am smothering several thousand square feet of lawn underneath cardboard, newspapers, and compost, but that should have been started in January, not March.  It’s becoming obvious: the garden will have to wait until next year. 

So I remain in exile from the garden.   But perhaps this exile is a blessing.  Some of the greatest works of art were produced while the artists were in exile: Dante produced the Divine Comedy while exiled in Rome; Ernest Hemingway his best work while in Paris; and Antonin Dvorak was a flurry of creativity during his three short years in the U.S.  Absence from the place where our hearts long to be sharpens and intensifies our understanding of that place.  Will this time away from the garden enrich my concept of it?

A year of thinking and no doing . . . can I stand it?  Of course, that is the fundamental tension of gardening: thinking and doing.  Thinking without doing is pure abstraction; doing without thinking is just yardwork.  A garden in its very nature resides somewhere between the two.  Being a garden designer makes that struggle even more acute for me. The garden is a mediated state between projected possibility (concept) and objective reality (site). Too strong a concept can obliterate the subtle details that make a site special.  But a strong site or context can swallow a timid concept.  The best gardens hold this tension throughout. 

Perhaps one year of exile is exactly the sentence required to turn a garden designer back into a gardener. 
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In Praise of our Weedy Urban Misfits

Ill admit it: Im a plant geek. If I have a car wreck, it will not be because I was playing with my Blackberry, but because I was wrenching my neck to see some grass on the side of the road. I secretly love the days at work when someone brings in an unidentified plant into the office--I can identify faster than anyone else. I even remember the street address of interesting plants I see in my neighborhood. "Remember that spectacular Chaenomeles on 12th and Maryland?" Ill ask my wife, who usually rolls her eyes.

But underneath my I-dare-you-to-find-a-plant-I-dont-know bravado, I have a weak spot. My horticultural Achilles heel. I dont really know weeds. Yes, I can write a dissertation on the differences of South African restios. And I can see differences between indistinguishable Heuchera cultivars. But I cant tell you the names of the seven or eight wild urban plants growing in the cracks in my sidewalk. The most ubiquitious of all plants remain anonymous to me.

Until now. Thanks to a book that Rick Darke suggested to one of my colleagues, my weedy dementia will soon be over. The book, Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast: A Field Guide, written by Arnold Arboretums Peter Del Tredici is a must own book by every horticultural enthusiast. Del Tredici has elegantly and simply catalogued all of the "weeds" that surround us. Yes, yes, I can already hear your objections. I admit, a book about weeds may not be the sexiest horticultural topic. However, what Del Tredici has done is nothing short of revolutionary.

Almost every other book on weed identification assumes the following: you must be able to identify the weed in order to kill it. But Del Tredici unveils the hidden complexity and value of wild urban plants. In addition to the standard field guide identification, Del Tredici catalogues the ecological functions the plant contributes to the urban environment.

For example, many of the common lawn weeds such as clover (Trifolium repens) or Birdsfoot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) actually improve the soil by fixing nitrogen in its roots. I spent an entire summer in high school pulling up Lambsquarters (Chenopodium album) from the parking lot of a nursery. Now I find out that this European alien provides food and habitat for wildlife, helps to build soil on degraded land, and actually performs phytoremediation by absorbing heavy metals (zinc, copper, and lead) out of the soil.

Del Tredicis book accomplishes two remarkable feats for a field guide. First, he draws attention to a group of plants the entire horticultural universe has ignored, and in so doing, opens a new world for discovery. Turns out, the misfits on the margins of plant society turn out to be some of the more interesting characters. Second, Del Tredicis book upends the traditional categories of natives vs. aliens or "good" vs. "bad" plants. In the mean and brutal world of urban ecology, the good guys and bad guys may not be that far apart. The pioneers of our denuded and abused urban environments may just turn out to be the plants of the future.
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simple landscaping ideas

simple landscaping ideas


For a hardly any homeowners, a new front as well as backyard of merely grass abutting around their residences walls is sufficient. They like the tranquility of and simple maintaining their own yard -- just cut and move. But most individuals like a amount of color. The walkway. Why not a trellis. Maybe a floral border. Some thing than just a smaller patio piece left from the builder only outside the backdoor.

Then again we think with the work included. The cost. The look involved.

"Maybe the concept of big grassy meters front and back is not so undesirable," we would think. "Backyard landscaping design, front yard landscaping is just not for us.

Yet wait. Relax. Slow down.

Landscape designs neednt be that will difficult.

Consider backyard landscaping, for instance. If you think of the backyard, you think of relaxation, dont you? The sunny spot for perhaps a barbeque. A cozy spot on which in turn to lay on a sleeping sack, swing inside breeze, go through a book after which take a sleep.

So keep it uncomplicated.

Heres a straightforward backyard landscaping idea: Why not put in a flowerbed of blossoming plants that will attract seeing stars? You can place that somewhat in the heart of your lawn. It will become the focal point and simply wait until your pals and neighbours come to go to! (Perhaps you need to have e-book on seeing stars handy, notice who can find the most several types.)

For backyard landscaping ideas in which attract seeing stars, check out the Country wide Wildlife Federations info on the subject below

For a really simple design, have you thought to "just" have a attractive patio, along with shrubs and/or blooming plants together its perimeters? A good cement/concrete service provider can put a patio in the oval, curled or just regarding any condition for you. Start being active . shrubs, vegetation and/or some photo voltaic patio equipment and lighting would make an attractive - and straightforward and relaxing - backyard landscape for you personally.

Speaking of bushes, they can be a easy, inexpensive accessory for your landscape designs. Place them in-front and in the rear of your home, appropriate up against your walls. They will add excellent curb appeal with no lot of muss as well as fuss. Along with your shrubbery doesnt have to be just diverse shades associated with green : many bushes flower and offer wonderful jolts of coloration. Check out azalea, lilac, hydrangea, plant rose, as well as dogwood at your neighborhood nursery to find out if they interest you.

Dont forget plant life that are indigenous to your area. Visit your gardening shop or do your homework on the Internet to view what vegetation is native to a state. A simple Search of, state, "Pennsylvania native plants" will provide you with a wealth of details. Choosing ancient plants provide you with peace of mind when you know they certainly well inside your climate and so will be much easier to take care of.

Location wood casino chips around your own shrubs, timber and shrubbery. They conceal the soil - this offers your gardening a more slick look -- and they also aid cut down on weed growth. They also supply food since they break down along with help keep your current plants wet.

Finally, remember the lawnchair * the perfect accessory for your backyard landscape. In the end, now that the simple backyard landscape is performed, its time to place your backyard to the real employ - a beautiful spot for a soothing snooze over a summer On the afternoon.

simple landscaping ideas for front of house
simple landscaping ideas front of house
simple landscaping ideas for pool area

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Thursday, March 6, 2014

Alabama Snow Wreath

Neviusia alabamensis
An upright but broad, suckering, deciduous shrub, reaching a maximum size of 6.5 x 10 feet, that is a close relative of Kerria. Some records include: fastest growth rate - 4 feet; largest on record - 8 x 11 feet. This is one of 2 species in the Neviusia genus and it is native to Alabama in the eastern U.S. where it is endangered with extinction in the wild.
The saw-toothed leaves are up to 3.5 inches in length. The very attractive foliage is mid-green above, downy beneath.
The very showy, fluffy, white flowers are borne mid to late spring.
Hardy zones 4 to 8 in full sun or partial shade on fertile, light, well drained soil. Easy to grow and tolerant of drought though looks better if irrigated deeply once weekly during dry spells. Cut out tired or dead stalks at the base after blooming to tidy appearance and enhance vigor ( similar to pruning of most Spirea ).
Propagation can be achieved from seed, layering ( often occurs naturally in the wild ), cuttings or division.

* photos taken on June 30 2013 @ U.S. National Arboretum, DC


Neviusia cliftonii ( Mount Shasta Snow-Wreath )
Very similar to the Alabama Snow-Wreath and has a tiny native range in the Mount Shasta region of California.

Neviusia dunthornei
Presumed to be extinct but is known from fossils to have occured in the Okanagan Highlands in interior British Columbia and Washington State, mostly on shale deposits.
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CONCEPTUAL GARDENS

Having returned from the Chelsea Flower Show, I must admit it just gets better every year.  Cleve West’s sunken Roman garden won best in show, Diarmuid Gavin theatrics stopped traffic, and my personal favorite garden was Luciano Guibbilei’s for his serene and elegant Laurent Perrier garden. (All to be detailed in further posts)  For sheer uniqueness there was the artisanal Hae-Woo-Soo garden, which I led on about last month.

Cleve Wests garden sponsored by The Daily Telegraph

Lucian Giubbileis "Nature and Human Intervention" sponsored by Laurent-Perrier 

Diarmuid Gavins "Irish Sky Garden"

Show gardens (at Chelsea) are proposed to the Royal Horticultural Society almost a year before the actual show and are either accepted or denied.  The Hae Woo So garden was one that stretched the boundaries of the “British proper.” One person on the acceptance committee mentioned to me “we knew it would either be extraordinary or be an embarrassment.”  Thankfully, the garden was exemplary and honored with a gold medal.
According to Jihae Hwang, who designed the garden, this conceptual landscape refers to a place where you “empty your mind.” According to ancient Korean tradition visiting the lavatory (the trip to it) is traditionally regarded as a cathartic experience, a way to spiritually cleanse one’s mind and reconnect with nature through a “natural cycle” -- the physical act that accompanies it. The focal point of the garden is an elegant wooden dunny (an outhouse).  The lintel is low, forcing one to bow as you enter, humbling oneself.  Typically the wooden building (the latrine) serves a dual purpose in that the human waste is left to ferment, creating fertilizer.
Stipa tenuissima, Paeonia lactiflora and Lonicera japonica embrace a stone wall

     A washbasin filled with rainwater to cleanse ones hands

 Candlelight to illuminate the path at night

In romantic disorder, plants are arranged along the path to “the throne.”  Small, highly scented lilacs, Syringa wolfii and Syringa dilatata and Lonicera japonica (Honeysuckle) aid in perfuming the air surrounding the latrine. 

**all photos ©Todd Haiman 2011
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Hug Your Gardener

In South Africa gardening as a vocation is something that is not esteemed highly enough and is generally done by people with little or no training.



Unfortunately the result of this, is that gardening as a skill is not valued. There is even a stigma associated with gardening as menial. This becomes a catch 22 in that little investment is made into development of skills, which results in a continuation of the mis-perception. This in turn means that people look for jobs in other industries with better financial benefits instead of making careers in gardening.

There are also an abundance of people with no real skills offering landscaping and garden maintenance services which is giving the industry as a whole a negative image. Often these businesses pay their staff a pittance, plant gardens that dont last, and have no idea how to look after and nurture a garden properly.

There is a definite need to change peoples perceptions about gardening as an industry. Landscaping is an art-form that should be the equal of the more traditional arts. And the skill of not only maintaining a garden but nurturing and guiding it into something of incredible beauty should be valued and respected.
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Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Patrinia

Patrinia

Flowers borne during early summer.
Hardy zones 5 to 8 in full sun to partial shade.

Patrinia gibbosa
Reaches up to 1 foot with yellow flowers.

Patrinia scabiosifolia
A long-lived perennial, reaching a maximum size of 7 x 3 feet.
The leaves resemble that of Scabiosa. The foliage turns glowing scarlet-red during autumn.
The flowers are yellow.
Hardy zones 4 to 8 in full sun to partial shade. Heat and drought tolerant. Unfortunately, it is an alternate host for Daylily Rust.
The deep taproot makes it difficult to transplant.
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Tufted Hair Grass

Deschampsia caespitosa ( Tufted Hair Grass )
A fast growing, finely textured grass, forming a semi-evergreen ( evergreen zones 7 to 9 ) foliage clump reaching a maximum size of 3.5 x 5 feet. It is native to North America, from Greenland to Alaska; south to California to North Carolina. It is also native to northern Eurasia. The Tufted Hair Grass is a cool season grass that grows mostly during spring and fall though remaining green during summer.
It is an excellent choice for mass plantings on wet sites.
The deep green leaves are very narrow, up to 0.12 inches wide.
The pale purplish-green flower panicles appear during mid summer, they are followed
by loose, airy, hazy seed panicles, reaching up to 6 feet high.
This grass remains attractive during autumn and winter.
Hardy zones 4 to 9 ( 3 on protected sites ) in sun or shade. Very soil tolerant including wet clays. Cut back ( to 1/3 height - more may damage the crown ) very early during spring before new growth begins. Dividing should also be done very early in spring.

Bronze Veil
Also called Bronzeschleier.
Forms a tufted evergreen clump up to 3 x 2.5 feet, topped with bronze-yellow inflorescences up to 4.5 feet during autumn.

Gold Dust
Forms a tufted evergreen clump up to 2 x 4 feet, topped with yellow flower inflorescences up to 5 feet during autumn.
Hardy zones 3 to 9

Gold Veil
Reaches up to 2 feet with bright yellow inflorescences.

Golden Pendant
Reaches up to 3 feet with golden-yellow inflorescences.

Northern Lights
Forms a foliage clump up to 14 inches x 2 feet, it does not flower.
The highly attractive foliage is boldly variegated with a white margin that turns to pink during fall and winter.

Schottland ( Scottish Tufted Hair Grass )
Forms a tufted, deep green, evergreen clump up to 3.5 x 5 feet, topped with giant, bright green, airy inflorescences up to 5.5 feet during autumn.

Tardiflora
Reaches up to 3 feet with flower inflorescences borne during late summer.

Deschampsia flexuosa ( Tufted Hair Grass )
Reaches up to 1 x 1 foot.
The golden-yellow flower inflorescences, up to 3.5 feet high are borne during mid to late summer.
An excellent groundcover and looks great planted with heather.
Hardy zones 4 to 9 ( 2 & 3 on very protected sites ) in full sun to partial shade on acidic moist soil though it is tolerant of temporary drought.
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What nonsense it is to shave it as often as foolish men shave their faces!















These wise words of William Robinson refer of course to the newly fashionable process of mowing the lawn - newly fashionable in the Victorian era since Mr Buddings lawn mower was invented in the 1820s.  These days face-shaving is in fashion in my part of England, but we are reverting happily to the idea of leaving areas of lawn unmown to welcome in the deliciously diverse wildflowers of the past. In fact William Robinson is back in vogue like formica kitchens and miniskirts. I have the 1977 version of the Wild Garden, with forward by the now venerable Robin Lane Fox.  In 1977 as now, the times were in favour of cutting down on labour costs. It may be no coincidence with the world recession that there is a new edition of Robinsons book coming out in August - this time with photographs as well as the fabulous original woodcuts.


With 95% of Englands meadow pasture gone under the plough and then improved through fertilisation and pesticides we are very lucky in Kent to have Marden Meadow to remind us how it should be done. Owned and managed by the Kent Wildlife trust the three fields of just under 6 acres are easy to drive by, if you miss the discreet butterfly sign by the side of the lane.  


Once inside the meadow is a riot of green-winged orchids and meadow buttercup in late May, with thousands of the less showy adders tongue for the eagle-eyed.  These will be followed by pepper saxifrage, dyer’s greenweed and yellow rattle as well as daisies, vetches, and wild grasses. The furthest and original field also has a rare wild service tree, and two ponds. The other two fields were bought in 1999 and are being recolonised gradually. The process is simple, following the ancient hay making patterns, with the hay being cut in late summer, left to stand (dropping its seed) and then removed (talking with it the nutrients not needed). Grazing would have followed in the past, treading in the seed and close cropping the grass to allow the flowers to compete.



















William Robinson was also agin the Victorian practice of bedding out of tender plants and in favour of placing plants of other countries, as hardy as our hardiest wild flowers, in places where they will flourish without further care or cost.  Robinson was a great friend of Daisy Lloyd, creator of Great Dixter who followed his methods by mixing native and new, and whose son Christopher continued to make Dixter the Mecca of this methodology today. 















Not that Dixter advocates the low maintenance approach, which Christopher Lloyd abhorred, calling it low braintenance, but the mixing of native and exotic is nowhere better demonstrated than the old rose garden, where Banana jostles with Rose and Clematis climbs Amicia.
























As well as turning the rose garden into a tropical extravaganza Christopher Lloyd let the Topiary lawns grow up, and his head gardener Fergus Garrett is one of the great advocates and gurus of the Wildflower lawn today. At the recent Friends day he explained the the process they use, and showed us the newly re-annexed fields which are being returned to meadow with the help of willingly greedy sheep.

























Each area of meadow in the garden has a slightly different flower population, depending on localised conditions. Daisy and Christopher Lloyd famously gathered their orchids from the local countryside - illegal today but perhaps an act of mercy before the sprays of the 1970s got to them.  It goes without saying that together with the native orchids and all-important yellow-rattle, you will find intermingled the North American native Camassia and eastern exotic Gladiolus byzantinus, both as happy in Kent as Dixters Byzantine Head Gardener and its many American friends.


















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Coming soon


Sorry folks, I have been away from my posts as of late...it has been a very very busy season for me and in the meantime I have been doing my own backyard landscape project.... it is still in progress but here is a slight taste of it...when I am complete with my fence, I will update for this post....
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Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Container Gardening The Perfect Patio Planter

If you are looking for the perfect combination of plants for your container garden then this is the one for you.  This is a planter that I came up with two summers ago. It was the perfect combination and it lasted well into the fall so I have to share!

This design can fit to any planter size.  I used a 16- inch diameter planter the first time around and increased the size to a 20-inch planter for this season.  It is important to use a good lightweight potting mix meant for containers and be sure to have good drainage in the bottom.  For a central focal point I used a wispy Asparagus Fern. Around the fern is an alternating pattern of five potato vines, three purple and two green. In between the fern and potato vines are pockets of various types of coleus.

I liked the combination so much last year that I used the same mix again only switched up the types of coleus for even more color! 
  
This combination will add color and interest to a shady spot under an overhang and will last all summer long. It will be sure to receive lots of attention!

Heuchera & Potato Vine
If you are looking for a patio-hanging planter that does not have to be changed from year to year try using a wire basket with Sphagnum moss and fill it with heuchera (coral bells).  Add a potato vine or some other vine for an added twist.  Your hanging basket will re-bloom year after year without ever having to change it.  I have had this basket now for several years and it is virtually maintenace free except for the watering. 

Happy Gardening!


 
 
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Blue Stem Grass

Schizachyrium

Schizachyrium scoparium ( Little Bluestem )
Also called Andropogon scoparius. A moderate growing, deep-rooted, upright perennial grass, reaching up to 3.5 x 3.5 ( rarely over 3 ) feet, is native to tall grass prairie ecosystems in North America ( from Alberta to Quebec; south to Arizona to Florida ).
The foliage is blue-green, turning coppery-orange to deep red in autumn.
The silvery-pink flower plumes, up to 3 inches in length, are borne mid-summer into early autumn. They are followed by fluffy white seedheads that persist into winter.
Hardy zones 2 to 9 in full sun and requires well drained soil. Easy to grow and tolerant of drought, poor soils, sand, heavy clay, saline and alkaline soils but not wet soil. Deer resistant, it is not prone to pests or disease. Cut back during early spring. Propagation is from seed or division during early spring.

* photo taken on Feb 15 2011 in Howard Co, MD




* photo of unknown internet source


* photo taken by Jennifer Anderson @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database

* photo taken by L. Glasscock @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database Southern wetland flora

* USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database


Blaze
Reaches up to 4.2 x 2.5 feet, with blue-foliage that turns to intense-red during autumn, then to bright pink during winter.

Blue Heaven
Vigorous and more upright in habit, reaching up to 4 x 3 feet with deep blue foliage that tinges reddish later in summer then finally to intense red, violet or purple during autumn.

The Blues
Forms a clump, up to 3 x 4 feet high of intense-blue, soft, hairy foliage that becomes tinted deep red during autumn. Looks great in mass plantings on berms and for erosion control.
The soft, pinkish seed heads reach up to 5 feet in height.

* photo taken on June 30 2013 @ U.S. National Arboretum, DC

* photos taken on Aug 25 2013 @ University of Maryland, College Park

* photo taken on Sep 14 2013 in Columbia, MD


Standing Ovation
Strongly upright, not flopping over, reaching up to 4 x 1.5 feet.
The foliage is intense blue-green and the stems are tinged deep purple.
During autumn the foliage turns to intense yellow, orange and red.

* photo taken on Sep 23 2013 in Burtonsville, MD
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