Plant Sale shopper Shana has heard our call for photos, and responded with this photo of her Gallery Pink lupines, which are now in bloom. This plant is from the 2007 sale. Shana writes:

“This plant sits on the edge of a rain garden in the front of my house. I just expanded the garden and planted it with a bunch of plants from the sale (swamp milkweed, monkeyflower, turtlehead, blue vervain, side oats gramma, and more). If you’re interested, I can take pictures of this as they grow.”

Yes, Shana, please send more photos! And everyone else with plants from the sale — we’d love to see how they’re doing. Send them to photos@friendsschoolplantsale.com

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to see photos of more plants from the Plant Sale? You can help with this project! We would love to have photos of your plants and gardens to put on this website and into next year’s catalog. For 2009, we plan to have more color pages with photos in the catalog!

In fact, we really need them, because otherwise we are limited to using photos we take ourselves in our own gardens and photos from the websites we have permission to use. And this supply of photos is dwindling.

We need both photos of individual plants that you bought at the sale and photos showing how the plants look in your garden, window box, or container. In fact, it would be great if you made a point of taking photographs in your garden this summer of both previous purchases and new 2008 plants.

We are more interested in practical photos that show the plant or flower clearly than in “beauty shots,” but either would be welcome! It’s not required, but we would also be interested in hearing about your impressions of the plants, both positive and negative.

There are various ways you can share your photos with the Friends School Plant Sale community:

1. If possible, email your full-size digital photos to us at photos@friendsschoolplantsale.com — we will take care of cropping them and making them the right size. If you know the name of a plant, that is definitely helpful but not necessary. In many cases, we will be able to recognize it. Let us know if you want your name with your photo or not.
2. If you have print photos, you can mail them to Friends School Plant Sale, 1365 Englewood Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104.
3. If you are a gardener with a lot of Friends School Plant Sale plants in your garden but do not wish to photograph them yourself, email or write to us and we can discuss having one of our volunteer photographers take photos. Or let us know if your garden will be on a garden tour this year!

The world-famous White Garden at Sissinghurst in England contains not only all shades of white flowers and gray foliage — it has a surprising number of plants that are actually light pastels. Here are some white or nearly white flowers that will be at the sale.

Above: Part of the White Garden at Sissinghurst (photo by Nancy)

Above: Maiden’s Wreath (Francoa p.17) (photo from the Wikipedia)

Above: Bacopa, Great White p. 39 A614

Above: Slender Deutzia ‘Nikko’ (Deutzia p.52) (photo from the Wikipedia)

Above: Prairie Sage (Artemisia ‘Valerie Finnis’ p. 32) (photo from Mobot.org)

Above: Baby’s Breath (Gypsophila repens p.7) (photo from the Wikipedia)

2007 Plant Sale shopper Jennie writes:

Just wanted you to know that the Friends Plant Sale Japanese Maple I bought last year made it!

I’m looking forward to my volunteer shift this week and the sale. I hope it’s a great year for the sale!

Thanks, Jennie! We love to get feedback on the plants you grow. Of course, we can’t be blamed if we particularly like the success stories, but we’re very interested to know what doesn’t do so well, too.

Here is a photo of a Japanese Maple planted a few years earlier (note: this is not Jennie’s tree), shot last summer just a few blocks from Friends School in the Hamline Midway neighborhood.

Photo by Pat

It’s a little hard to imagine our gardens in summer when we just barely have tulips right now, but here are photos of four gorgeous summer-blooming perennials (one a vine) that might help.

Above: Fragrant Aster (Aster oblongifolius ‘Dream of Beauty’ p. 7)

Above: Daylily (Hemerocallis ‘Joan Senior’ p. 11)

Above: Daylily (Hemerocallis ‘Purple d’Oro’ p. 11)

Above: Trumpet Honeysuckle (Lonicera ‘Blanche Sandman’ p.38)

(Photos from www.mobot.org)

People who prefer purple or who are passionate about purple will appreciate these plants.

Above: Toad Lily (Tricyrtis hirta p.21)

Above: Bonnet Bellflower (Codonopsis p.8)

Above: Clematis ‘Josephine’ p.37

Above: Japanese Roof Iris (Iris tectorum p. 15)(Photo from Mobot.org)

Above: Rock Thyme (Acinos alpinus p.19)

Above: Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium ‘Gisela’ p.26)

Above: Flowering Sage (Salvia ‘May Night’ p.19)

(Photos except Iris and Sage from the Wikipedia)

Plant Sale shoppers Paulette and Sharon emailed a few photos to share. Thanks!

Paulette sent this Pink and White Showy Lady Slipper (Cypripedium reginae), U015, page 26. She says she planted it four years ago and it first bloomed in 2007. I’ll bet that was exciting!

Sharon sent several photos. First is round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica americana) N099, page 32. This winsome woodland native might be blooming right now (although it may be a bit delayed with this year’s late spring).

Sharon’s second photo is of Golden Moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia) P494, page 17. I just added a bunch of this to my garden last year as well. It’s a groundcover that definitely spreads, but provides bright, attractive undergrowth in a range of light situations. Here, you see it juxtaposed in Sharon’s early spring garden with sweet violets.

Finally, Sharon sent this photo of one of her beautifully designed window boxes. At center is a Tuberous Begonia (Begonia hybrida), page 39. I especially like the juxtaposition of the lime coleus with the darker begonia and trailing million bells.

We’d love to see photos of plants you got at the plant sale. Send them to photos@friendsschoolplantsale.com. Thanks!

A few more photos of plants we think you’ll like! Sale starts in one week!

Above: Annual Stonecrop (Sedum clavatum p. 47)

Above: Bath’s Pinks ‘Firewitch’ (Dianthus ‘Firewitch’ p. 18)

Above: Fiber Optic Grass (Isolepsis cernuus p. 42)

Above: Pasque Flower (Anemone pulsatilla p.18)

Above: Flowering Sage ‘May Night’ (Salvia nemerosa p.19)

Above: Gray Hair Grass (Corynephorus canescens ‘Spiky Blue’). This one is new for the sale and not in the catalog.

Years ago, when we first moved into our house and I started gardening, I envied my neighbor’s clump of Trillium grandiflorum which she’d brought back from The Lake. Since I shared the shade and leaves of her oaks, I figured I could grow them too.

I bought one plant, chose what I thought was a good spot and waited. The plant did not thrive. I added two more plants in different spots the following year. They did not thrive.

Some years later I noticed a small clump of healthy trilliums growing out of the bottom of my stone wall. I knew I hadn’t planted them or even thought of cramming a plant into what looked to be an inhospitable site. Squirrels! They’d planted the fruit/seed pods in exactly the right place; I was suitably humbled. (I’ve since learned that the seeds of trilliums are attractive to ants, who help disperse them by leaving seeds in their tunnels, where the seeds germinate, so ants might deserve the credit.)

Now I have many clumps of T. grandiflorum around the garden, and my habit is to plant them amongst good sized rocks, where they seem to thrive.

T. grandiflorum is the most showy trillium, and in my garden it self-seeds. The seedlings don’t look like the parent plant but show a single leaf, somewhat like a lily seedling or a broadish blade of grass; the seedlings do not appear until the second spring after dispersal.

Trillium erectum (left) and Trillium luteum (right). Both images are from the Wikipedia’s entry on Trillium.

T. erectum’s flower is not as large as T. grandiflorum but it is striking, usually dark red, and the plant makes large clumps. It is propagated easily by division and will also seed (although mine hasn’t).

T. luteum has an unusual yellow flower and handsome mottled leaves.

All these trilliums grow in deciduous woods in neutral to somewhat acid soil. Dig in leaf mold when planting. I top dress with compost in the spring and add a light mulch of shredded leaves. Some growers use a liquid 10-30-20 fertilizer to get bigger blooms. This can be done twice a year, as the shoots appear and then as the flowers fade.

These trilliums are available at this year’s Friends School Plant Sale (T. grandiflorum in the Woodland Wild Flowers on page 33, T. erectum and T. luteum in the Garden Perennials, page 21).

Try some, and bring home a bit of The Lake.

We are always happy to see a new Cranesbill Geranium. This one is named ‘Orkney Cherry’ because it is from the small Scottish island and has bright pink flowers with cerise lines. A bonus is the bronze foliage. 10-12″ (P 244 p. 11)

As if Meadow Rue needed more drama. Black Stockings Meadow Rue (Thalictrum ‘Black Stockings’) has long, dark stems contrasting with its cloud of lavender blooms and attractive green foliage. 48-72″ (P 490 p.17)

‘Britt-Marie Crawford’ (36-40″) is the darkest-leaved Ligularia so far, more of a dark chocolate maroon than the purple of Ligularia ‘Desdemona’ but with similar flowers. Some gardeners, not fond of big gold daisies, cut these flowers off and use ‘Britt-Marie Crawford’ purely for its gorgeous foliage, but others welcome the cheerful, sunny blooms in their shade gardens. Ligularia ‘Britt-Marie Crawford’ (P 465 p. 17)

Does the cultivar name ‘Misty Lace’ help to soften the impression of the common name Goatsbeard? The photo shows how much more accurate it is! What doesn’t show is its pretty red stems, cold-hardiness, and heat-tolerance. 30″ (P 321 p.14)