Mulberry Creek Herb Farm: Catalog/Hardy Perennial

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Herbs A-Z: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Will live year after year in zone 5b and maybe colder zones.

'Walk - Abouts'

Common Uses:Walk About

Reliable groundcovers for stepping stones: We've been asked so often for groundcovers that can be planted between stepping stones, that we finally put together this collection of tough, hardy, mostly fragrant, plants for you to tuck in cracks and gently tread over. While we don't recommend these hardy souls in a dog path or continuously walked on area, they are perfectly suited to spilling over into a pathway.

Agastache 'Sangria'

Agastache mexicana 'Sangria'

Cold Tolerance: Zone 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b-11
Light: Full Sun to Sun-P.Sun
Height: 2 Feet
Water: Normal
Soil: Loamy
Flowers: Late Summer to Middle Summer
Common Uses:Butterfly, Culinary, Edible Flowers, Fragrant, Ornamental, Tea

Another hot, yellow-apricot colored, taste of licorice, for cool fruit salads or fragrant, WOW bouquets

Agastache, Apricot Sprite

Agastache aurantiaca

Cold Tolerance: Zone 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b
Light: Full Sun to Sun-P.Sun
Height: 2 Feet
Water: Normal
Soil: Loamy
Flowers: Late Summer to Middle Summer
Common Uses:Butterfly, Culinary, Edible Flowers, Fragrant, Ornamental, Tea

Try this for your next salad: mixed greens, ripe nectarines (or mandarin oranges), toasted walnuts, "Purple Ruffles Basil" and these subtle citrus/anise, bright orange and yellow flowers. Dress with a fruity viniagrette. Not only tasty, there's the silver foliage and stocky 18" height to admire. Add extra color to the herb garden or even large mixed containers.

Agastache, Golden Jubilee

Agastache x 'Golden Jubilee'

Cold Tolerance: Zone 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b-11
Light: Full Sun to Sun-P.Sun
Height: 2 - 4 Feet
Water: Normal
Soil: Any Soil
Common Uses:Butterfly, Culinary, Tea

Hummingbird, butterflies and bees all adore the 3" soft, lavender blue flowers atop chartreuse foliage

Agastache, Mexican Giant

Agastache mexicana

Cold Tolerance: Zone 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b-11
Light: Full Sun to Sun-P.Sun
Height: 2 - 4 Feet
Water: Normal
Soil: Any Soil
Flowers: Late Summer to Middle Summer
Common Uses:Butterfly, Culinary, Edible Flowers, Fragrant, Ornamental, Tea

Guilt free candy straight from the garden. The ladies helping us could not resist popping pink petals of sweet, lemon-mint into their mouths. Imagine pink confetti over cantaloupe or the lemony leaves in your child's tea - a great start for an afternoon tea party.

Agastache, Sunset or Rootbeer Hyssop

Agastache rupestris

We first saw this delicate, cool summer beauty in Seattle labeled "Root Beer Plant. This caught our attention, as we have the same common name on a different plant. While not as strongly scented as our Root Beer Plant (Piper auritum), it's fragrance lingers all summer from apricot-pink flowers hovering above finely cut gray foliage. Has definite tea possibilities.

Agastache- Anise Hyssop

Agastache foeniculum

Cold Tolerance: Zone 4b 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b
Light: Full Sun to Sun-P.Sun
Height: 3 Feet
Water: Normal
Soil: Loamy
Flowers: Late Summer to Middle Summer
Common Uses:Butterfly, Culinary, Cut Flower, Edible Flowers, Fragrant, Ornamental, Tea

Lavender purple spikes, July through September, are cut fresh or dried for flower arrangements, while anise flavored leaves & flowers make a nice summer tea. Easily grown hardy perennial, but, reseeds if flowers are not removed quickly, which isn't always bad.

Angelica

Angelica archangelica

Cold Tolerance: Zone 4b 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b
Light: P.Sun-P.Shade to Shade Only
Height: 4-6 Feet
Water: Wet
Soil: Organic-Loamy
Common Uses:Borders, Butterfly, Culinary, Ornamental

If you desire the largest, boldest herb that you can grow in the shade or a 6 foot tropical for a wet area, consider Angelica. Seeds add a sweet, delicate flavor to soups and stews. Stems are easily candied or add several slivers to your favorite rhubarb recipe. Creamy yellow flowers produce long lasting seed heads followed by the death to the mother plant shortly thereafter.

Angelica, Korean

Angelica gigas

Cold Tolerance: Zone 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b
Light: P.Sun-P.Shade to Shade
Height: 3 Feet
Water: Normal
Soil: Organic-Loamy
Common Uses:Borders, Butterfly, Culinary, Ornamental, Tea

Unassertive, small leaves scream for this bold, dramatic foliaged neighbor for any shade area. Baseball sized purple clusters on 3' stalks form in 2-3 years, which I suggest you remove during their glory to prevent this herb's demise or the birth of 100 more. Leaf stalks can be candied. This "Dong Quai herb" makes a cozy Chinese tea and is a premiere female medicinal.

Arnica

Arnica chamissonis var. foliosa

Cold Tolerance: Zone 4b 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a
Light: Full Sun to Full Sun
Height: 1-2 Feet
Water: Normal
Soil: Loamy
Flowers: Middle Summer
Common Uses:Bees, Groundcover, Medicinal, Ornamental

This North American native is nearly identical in every way to it's well known cousin Arnica montana, with perky yellow/orange daisy flowers on a 6" spreading ground cover, but it is easier to grow. Used in many homeopathic preparations and tinctures, for external wounds.

BEE BALM - OSWEGO TEA

Common Uses:Tea

Eye catching blooms in June, offer delicious flowers & leaves for a historical tea, coined after this hardy perennial's common name. Leaves of Monarda didyma were collected, before flowering, then dried and steeped for a Revolutionary Tea during the Boston Tea Party; also named "Oswego Tea." Tea eases our sore throats and colds. Some taste good, others are "interesting."

All Bee Balms grow in full sun to afternoon shade, in normal soil, with extra organic matter to hold a lot of water, and plenty of room for roots (and tops) to spread. All are hardy to from Zone 5 through 8.

POWDERY MILDEW CURE: IF, on the chance you spot that whitish haze in July when the dew is thick and slow to dry off, here's all you need do: Recycle a gallon jug and funnel in 2 T. of "Baking Soda" and 2 T. vegetable oil. Fill it up with water. Shake and spray this all over plant. Repeat every week until mildew is destroyed! Shouldn't take more than 2 applications. Good for "Bee Balms, Zinnia, Phlox" and other plants susceptible to this relatively harmless, but unsightly mildew.

Bee Balm, Blue Stocking

Monarda fistulosa`Blue Stocking'

Cold Tolerance: Zone 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b
Light: Full Sun to Sun-P.Shade
Height: 2-3 Feet
Water: Normal Wet
Soil: Organic-Loamy
Flowers: Early Summer
Common Uses:Borders, Butterfly, Ornamental

Who cares if it is last to flower, 3 to 4 weeks after Gardenview Scarlet. Its dark pink or blue purple blooms are unusually intense, but, do not eat camphor-like flowers! They taste awful to us, but oh how they show off delphiniums!

Bee Balm, Coral Reef

Monarda didyma 'Coral Reef'

Cold Tolerance: Zone 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b
Light: Full Sun to Sun-P.Shade
Height: 3-4 Feet
Water: Wet
Soil: Organic-Loamy
Common Uses:Borders, , Butterfly, , Ornamental

Neon, coral pink flowers crescendo on top 2-1/2 to 3 feet tall stems, usually in July. Coming out of Morden Research Station, it's no surprise that it is also mildew resistant as are most new 'Monarda offerings.

Bee Balm, Jacob Cline

Monarda didyma

Improvements in bee balms always include an emphasis on "Powdery Mildew,"a disease that's relatively harmless or at least controllable, but definitely unsightly. Siting "Bee Balms" in part sun but away from a North exposure, where the dew takes hours to dry in the morning, helps. So does choosing this very mildew resistant herb with huge red flowers and vigorous growth.

Bee Balm, Mahogany

Monarda x media 'Mahogany'

Rare, mahogany flower color that is suited to a more natural setting rather than a perky pastel border.

Bee Balm, Marshall Delight

Monarda didyma

You may wonder with all the fuss over mildew resistance, why even choose a "Bee Balm." One look at these rich pink, confetti flowers that just happen to add a sweetness, found in no other herb, and your next Summer fruit salad will seem naked without it. Don't panic that it's also resistant to "Rust." I'm telling you, it's well worth a try.

Bee Balm, Pink Petite Delight

Monarda x 'Petite Delight' PP#10784

Cold Tolerance: Zone 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b
Light: Full Sun to Sun-P.Shade
Height: 3-4 Feet
Water: Normal,,Wet
Soil: Organic-Loamy
Flowers: Late Spring
Common Uses:Borders, , Butterfly, , Culinary, , Ornamental

You could stop at the dwarf (12 to 15 inch height) and be satisfied but this new lavender/pink 'Monarda' boasts mildew resistance as well. Shiny, deep green foliage offsets lavender pink summer explosions. I like to site these in morning sun but they could tolerate full sun in most areas of the U.S.

Bee Balm, Purple Improved

Monarda fistulosa `Purple Mildew Resistent'

Cold Tolerance: Zone 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b
Light: Full Sun to Sun-P.Shade
Height: 3-4 Feet
Water: Normal Wet
Soil: Organic-Loamy
Flowers: Early Summer
Common Uses:Borders, Butterfly, Culinary, Edible Flowers, Ornamental, Tea

Actually a "Bergamot," the common name for this and other white & pastel colored Monarda fistulosa hybrids. This North American native makes a nice tea by itself or with black tea. First to flower in June, with an O.K. taste, but more mildew resistance than Bee Balms (M. didyma).

Bee Balm, Raspberry Wine

Monarda didyma

Rich, dark, "Cabernet" colored buds pour open to clear red wine flowers. This dark foliage is also highly resistant to Powdery Mildew. From White Flower Farms

Butterfly Bush, Dwarf Purple

Buddleia davidii 'Nanho Purple'

Cold Tolerance: Zone 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b
Light: Full Sun to Full Sun
Height: 4-6 Feet
Water: Normal
Soil: Loamy
Common Uses:Butterfly, Ornamental

Beautiful blue-purple panicles of flowers draw every butterfly for miles around. Be forewarned "dwarf" is a relative term but pruning (see Butterfly Bush Introduction) can keep it manageable. We've seen it as low as 3 feet. Combines with grasses and cutleaf plants.

Butterfly Bush, Empire Blue

Buddleia daviddii 'Empire Blue'

Cold Tolerance: Zone 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b
Light: Full Sun to Full Sun
Height: 6-7 Feet
Water: Normal
Soil: Loamy
Common Uses:Butterfly, , Ornamental

Like Darth Vadars' Death Star, this one is huge. The color is a deep, true blue with a small yellow eye. Use in back of border to create structure.

Butterfly Bush, Pink Delight

Buddleia davidii `Pink Delight'

Cold Tolerance: Zone 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b
Light: Full Sun to Full Sun
Height: 5-7 Feet
Water: Normal
Soil: Loamy
Common Uses:Butterfly, , Ornamental

Large pink panicles of flowers cover this (at least 6') tall bush making a nice backdrop for any cottage garden. Ours surpassed 7 feet by the fifth year.

Butterfly Bush, Royal Red

Buddleia davidii 'Royal Red'

Cold Tolerance: Zone 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b
Light: Full Sun to Full Sun
Height: 6-8 Feet
Water: Normal
Soil: Loamy
Common Uses:Butterfly, , Ornamental

Describing this as red takes more imagination than when Ben was 4 in his creative firefighter outfit. Still, the violet color with yellow eye and steady growth, reserves a special spot in our beds.

Butterfly Bush, Silver-leaf

Buddelia 'Lochneri'

Cold Tolerance: Zone 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b
Height: 6 feet
Water: Dry-Normal
Soil: Loamy
Common Uses:Butterfly, , Cut Flower

Attractive, silvery foliage with "blue jeans blue" blooms attract butterflies all summer. Our first year we didn't think this would be hardy, but after the winter of `03 we're sure.

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