Purple Coneflower
$14.00The workhorse of a pollinator border. Flowers for two months and feeds goldfinches all winter.
Little Bluestem
Schizachyrium scoparium
$16.001 gal41 on the bench
Blue-green in summer, copper and mahogany from September until you cut it down in April.
- ONTARIO NATIVE
- DEER RESISTANT
We don't sell online — plants travel badly and we'd rather you saw what you're buying. Ring 705-555-0126 and we'll hold it at the till for 48 hours.
About this plant
A true prairie native and the best small grass for our conditions. It stands up through snow load in a way that most ornamental grasses do not, so you get structure all winter rather than a collapsed heap by December.
The autumn colour is the point — a coppery orange with silver seed heads that catch low light from about mid-September.
It genuinely wants poor soil. In rich, watered ground it flops. If you have a hot, thin, awkward strip along a driveway, this is the answer.
Looking after it
- Water
- Only while establishing
- Soil
- Lean and well-drained. Do not improve it
- Cutting back
- Leave standing all winter; cut to 10 cm in April
- Feeding
- Never. Fertiliser makes it flop
Plant it with
Black-Eyed Susan
$13.00Solid gold from August into October, when most of the border has given up.
Sedum 'Autumn Joy'
$14.00Broccoli-green all summer, dusty pink in September, rust-brown through the snow.