 Mexican Flame Vine Senecio confusus Last fall I visited the spectacular, wildly innovative Chanticleer Garden in Pennsylvania and saw unusual plant after unusual plant that I had never seen in real life before, but knew that I could get at …. the Friends School Plant Sale! This Mexican Flame Vine, with its daisy-like flowers but lush and tropical look was one that went instantly onto my shopping list. It needs full sun and will grow to 8 feet. |
 Brazilian Verbena Verbena bonariensis This unique 4′ purple flower can be used in so many different ways. Here it is interplanted with annual butterfly flower (see below) to give the human eye a color shock and signal to the butterfly eye “Come and get me!” It can go in the back of a cottage or classic border to give height that doesn’t need staking. Or, since Brazilian Verbena has such skinny stems and small leaves that you can see right through it, gardeners plant it in front of other plants despite its height. It’s a natural planted in masses with grasses in the New Wave style of Piet Oudolf. |
 Brazilian Verbena, continuedHere you can see how it is planted as an exclamation point in the Exotic Garden at the late Christopher Lloyd’s Great Dixter. If you want a bushier plant, just pinch it back. And it is great in bouquets, easy to stick in last. This is a flower worth learning the Latin name and pronunciation of because it is actually the one most commonly used. Pronounced by those who seem to know these things, it’s: Ver-BEE-nuh buh-nar-ee-EN-sis. That’s botanical pseudo-Latin for the Brazilian city of Buenos Aires, where the seeds first came from. |
 Mexican Sunflower Tithonia ‘Torch’ Two years ago I bought six tiny fuzzy little plants at the sale. Refusing to believe that each would get to be over 6 feet tall (”This is Minnesota! They won’t have time to get that big!”) I planted them a couple of feet apart in my small front garden. They looked ridiculous. Quite soon, though, it was I who looked ridiculous as each one grew not only that tall but also that wide. I tried to hack them back to some reasonable size, but the monstrous plants just laughed. In the end, I ripped out all but two, but these two were truly magnificent, throwing out big, orange, velvety daisies in every direction and attracting all the butterflies and hummingbirds in the neighborhood. Last year, I doubled the size of my front garden…. |
 Firecracker Vine Mina Lobata This is one happy, vigorous flowering vine! The colors are even brighter than in the photo and the slightly purple, lobed leaves and twisty tendrils are stunning all on their own. Be sure to give this vine a very strong support! |
 Butterfly Flower, Silky Red Asclepias curassavica ‘Silky Red’ It’s hard to say enough nice things about this annual butterfly weed. I’ve grown it for six years and never tire of the way it just blooms its heart out all summer and even after some light frosts. The plants are tall and linear, unlike the perennial butterfly weed, so you would think I’d plant it in the back of the border, but instead I put it near the front so that I can deadhead it easily. You don’t have to — the seed pods are lovely — but you will get more and more blooms if you do. Butterfly Flower looks equally at home in both tropical and more naturalistic gardens. |
 Millet, Jester Pennisetum ‘Jester’ I had no idea how much I’d grow to like this dramatic and architectural plant — this year I will definitely buy more than just one! It is not quite as black as it looks in my photo, especially earlier in the summer when the new foliage is charteuse and reddish and purple, and I wish you could see how beautiful those seed heads are close up. They look amazing in bouquets and also dry well. |
 Sedge, Cappuccino Carex ‘Cappuccino’ See the plant that looks rather like dead grass? Now, try adjusting your vision: NOT dead at all, but a gorgeous copper-brown sedge that works well with hot colors and can be an unusual addition to many imaginative container color combinations, for instance, copper and coral and burgundy. We also have another sedge called ‘Toffee Twist’ — sound yummy yet? |
 Balloon Cotton Asclepias physocarpus ‘Oscar’ Another oddity. Not knowing what wonderfully strange seedpods this butterfly-flower-relative would develop, I pulled it out of my orange flowerbed when I saw its white and green flowers. Now, I would happily grow it to use the green pods in bouquets, like they do at the Farmer’s Market. |
 Pepper, Black Pearl Capsicum annuum ‘Black Pearl’ Of all the plants I saw on all the garden tours last summer, it was this almost perfectly black-leaved ornamental pepper that caused the most talk. “Can I eat it?” Yes, if you don’t mind that it tastes terrible. “What could I plant it with?” Try red nasturtiums. Or coleus. Or falling stars (Crocosmia.) And, over and over, the question “Where can I buy it?” Well, now you know. |