Acoma Crape Myrtle

This gorgeous view in our herb garden shows off an Acoma Crape Myrtle as a container plant in spring before it blooms. With careful pruning it has been a highlight of our garden since its origin. This specimen plant ties all the areas within our herb garden together and makes for an absolute beautiful area to sit and enjoy the day.

Asparagus

This highly prized vegetable arrives with the coming of spring. Asparagus is a perennial, an almost leafless member of the lily family.

The spears we buy in the store are actually the shoots from an underground crown. It takes up to 3 years for crowns to develop enough to begin producing shoots, but once they do, they can produce for up to 20 years.

Iris Holy Night

Tall Bearded Irises are the royalty of the spring garden. They make stunning specimen plants and provide the landscape with large, awe-inspiring blooms on multi-budded, branched stalks.

Our garden visitors gravitate to this very dark purple ruffled bearded Iris which can be viewed in the fountain garden.

Acer Palmatum Shirazz 'Gwens Rose Delight'

A New Zealand-raised Japanese Maple cultivar with strongly marked variegated foliage combining green and cream with a strong pink edge and overall pink flush. The colors intensify in autumn, with the green turning to strong purple-red.

The plant offers heat resistant foliage and striking variegation with a weeping habit. You can find this new variety in a pot in our entry garden right by the outside classroom.

Camassia Quamash 'Cusickii'

This is a bulb from the damp meadows in North America. They produce tall, branched flower spikes bearing large, starry or cup-shaped flowers, in shades of blue, purple or white. Camassia bulbs have been an important food staple for native North American Indians.

Camassia cusickii has pale blue flowers and pale wavy-edged leaves. This interesting bulb can be found in our boulder garden in front of the greenhouse.

Indian Hawthorne

Indian Hawthorne's are a low maintenance, flowering, evergreen shrub with either pink or white flowers which are produced in abundance during spring making them an excellent substitute for azaleas in full sun.

They are exceptionally drought tolerant plants and the foliage is evergreen.

Cotoneaster 'Coral Beauty'

This evergreen shrub grows to about 18 inches tall, with the possibility of its semi-prostrate branches stretching six feet wide. It is an excellent evergreen ground cover with small white flowers in spring through early summer and a profusion of coral-red berries in fall.

It can be used on banks or in massed plantings and prefers moist, well-drained soil. This plant can be found in our boulder garden on the left side of the steps leading down to the greenhouse.

Encore Azalea 'Autumn Sweetheart'

Autumn Sweetheart offers two shades of color. The pink flowers are so soft they sometimes appear almost white. Dotted with lavender freckles, the tantalizing blooms provide the perfect adornment for rich evergreen foliage. The growth habit and striking color combination make this variety well suited for foundation planting.

As with all Encore Azaleas you get to enjoy their blooms more then once a year. These beauties can be found on the right hand side of our entrance garden.

Baby Red Water Lily

Water Lily plants will add intense color and green foilage to any water garden, while also attracting birds and butterflies. This lily will thrive with any other water plants already growing in your pond and it is cold hardy.

We found it blooming in our water garden and had to share its beauty.

Amsonia, Bluestar

Bluestar is a perennial wildflower found in wooded areas and on river banks from New Jersey to Tennessee to Texas, and they are popular garden plants as well.

Blooming in May and June, each flower has five pale blue flower petals and blooms in clusters on two to three-foot stems. The upright stems with narrow leaves are attractive all summer and turn a beautiful butterscotch-yellow in the fall.

You can locate it in our boulder garden.

Husker Red Penstemon

This native makes a stunning display with its brilliant white flowers against a backdrop of deep red foliage. Its common name, beardtongue, comes from the bearded staminode found in most species. Tough and easy to grow, it tolerates a wide variety of conditions including hot dry sites. In 1996 it was chosen as the Perennial Plant of the Year.

Zinfandel Oxalis

One look at this plant and you will guess its common name - Shamrock. Zinfandel Oxalis has dark plum-colored shamrocks the size of your palm with clusters of blush pink, lily-shaped flowers. This is a great container plant as it intermingles well with other plants to fill in the middle ground of a combination planter. Deadheading is not necessary and it is drought tolerant. In the Tulsa area it is an annual, but it adapts very well as a houseplant during the winter.

You can find this plant at the sides of the steps in the boulder garden.

Color of Leaves

The landscape can have all kinds of color with perennial plants. Take this picture as an example of eye catching appeal - Bloodgood Japanese Maple (red), Variegated Fallopia (white/green), and Deutizia Chardonay Pearls (chartreuse). The combination of these plants makes a real statement in the garden. You can find this view in our Boulder Garden outside the outdoor classroom.

Variegated Fallopia - In the spring it will pop up from the ground with light, almost white leaves. But as the summer progresses the leaves begin to turn green and white. In late summer the plant will be the star of your landscape design as the variegation draws eyes to its beauty.

Bloodgood Japanese Maple - This easy-to-care for Asian beauty adds charm to any outdoor decor. Attractive, rounded foliage with burgundy-red coloring turns to a brilliant scarlet in the fall, accented by a blackish-red bark. The tree's slender, airy form makes it well suited for use as a small lawn tree or for patios and entryways.

Deutzia Chardonnay Pearls - This wonderful plant adds season long color to the garden with its easy growing, bright beauty. Numerous pearl like buds burst into attractive star shaped flowers in spring. When the flowers have faded, this plant continues to shine with its bright yellow foliage.