Herbaceous perennial

A delicate perennial with graceful, slender stems, usually in clusters, rising in height from 4-15 in. The stems can be weak so that the entire plant bends over. Its rounded, basal leaves wither early while the narrow, stem leaves remain. Blue-violet bell-shaped flowers hang singly or in clusters along the top…

Downy Wood Mint is a wildflower in the mint family native to the central and eastern part of the U.S.A. Plant it in the full sun to partial shade in well drained soil and enjoy its blue-purple flowers from late spring to mid-summer. Minty leaves can be eaten raw and used…

Antennaria plantaginifolia, or Pussytoes, is a herbaceous perennial, native ground cover in the Asteraceae family. The plant consists of a basal rosette of leaves and an erect stem bearing the flowers. It does best planted in full sun in lean, dry rocky soil with little organic matter. It suffers in soils…

Black Cohosh is an upright rhizomatous perennial native to eastern North America. It is found in a variety of woodland settings from Maine south to Georgia and west to Missouri and Arkansas. It prefers rich moisture-retentive soils in partial to full shade and can be slow to get established. Ideally, it…

Golden Ragwort is a very versatile flowering perennial member of the Asteraceae which we have found useful in various garden circumstances. It is native to the entire Eastern half of the U.S., and in North Carolina it is reported to occur in mountain and piedmont counties. While USDA says it occurs…

Seashore Mallow is a lovely, salt tolerant herbaceous perennial (some call it a subshrub) native to the Eastern shore of the U.S. The toothed, roughly triangular leaves and stems are softly hairy with tiny stellate (star-shaped) hairs. An obligate wetland plant, it thrives in full sunlight and wet soil. It is…

Virginia Bluebells is a magical spring ephemerel plant, an absolute must for every garden with a spot of shade! It is an early spring riser with soft, floppy, grey-green, oval shaped leaves. The flower buds are pink, bluish pink or lavender as they uncoil near the top of each stem, then…

Recognized by its paired, green-and-brown/maroon spotted leaves (like trout), the Trout Lily is sometimes called Dogtooth Violet for its white underground corm. Trout Lily is a lily, not a violet. It is a common spring ephemeral wildflower that grows in woodland colonies in Eastern North America, except for Florida. In North…

Jack in the Pulpit is easily recognizable and is a unique spring ephemeral. The fleshy stalk and leaves lend an almost tropical aura to the plant. This perennial plant is about 1-2′ tall and wide. It loves part to full shade in woodland gardens and moist to wet conditions. Flowering plants…

Horsemint or Spotted Beebalm is an erect, mostly unbranched, perennial wildflower, instantly recognized by its unusual “stacked” arrangement of multiple whorls of two-lipped, cream-colored, purple-speckled tubular flowers on the same stem. Each whorl is subtended by attractive and persistent pink to lavender leaf-like bracts. Leaves are narrow with a fine grayish-white…

This plant is not currently for sale.  This is an archive page preserved for informational use.   There is disagreement and confusion about whether Hibiscus moscheutos and Hibiscus palustris constitute separate species, subspecies, or varieties, and we are not in a position to clarify! We are proceeding with propagating and selling…

Garden Phlox is a staple of the late summer and early fall garden and ‘Jeana’ is a super-rewarding cultivar of it to grow. It provides wonderful color with its bright pink, aromatic flower clusters, attractive to people, butterflies and hummingbirds alike. Named after a woman in Nashville who identified this genotype,…

Nodding Wild Onion is a delightful member of the onion family, a perennial herb which is beautifull as well as hardy and well behaved in the garden. Flat, grass-like leaves emerge as a clump from rhizomatous bulbs, followed by taller, round, leafless flowering stalks which bend over, dangling clusters of dainty…

Green-and-Gold, of which there are several forms, is a hardy, low-growing, long-blooming herbaceous perennial found along woodland edges and clearings on the East coast from New York south to Florida and west to Louisiana. With attractive, semi-evergreen foliage, bright yellow 1.5-inch daisy-like flowers on fuzzy stalks for much of the growing…

Rattlesnake Master is a forb characteristic of the tall grass prairie but it is native to the eastern portion of the U.S. south of West Virginia. It has unusual form — some say architectural — as well as color (greyish green throughout), reminding one of a desert plant. Rattlesnake Master has…

Swamp Sunflower is a clump-forming, upright, late-blooming perennial sunflower — the latest flowering of the sunflowers (October and even November). It is found in bottomlands, swamps, and other natural wet habitats as well as in disturbed wet areas, on roadsides and in ditches. It thrives in full sun in moist soils…

Although Scarlet Rosemallow in nature grows in wet places (the Wetland Indicator Status is “Obligate”), this herbaceous perennial thrives in upland gardens, and should be invited to do so! Adjectives such as “statuesque” and “architectural” come to mind. If given a sufficiently large sunny space, Rosemallow will express its full natural…

This plant is not currently for sale.  This is an archive page preserved for informational use.   The Halberdleaf Rosemallow is a big (3-6 feet), wet-loving herbacious perennial found in a few coastal and piedmont counties in NC but which is much more common in the Mississippi River valley and midwestern…

Crimson-eyed Rosemallow is a robust wetland herbaceous perennial native to most of Eastern North America up to New York. It is shrub-like, with multiple, unbranched stems 3-7′ in height. Large, single flowers occur in upper leaf axils, with delicate petals ranging from white to pink but always with a maroon “eye”.…

Zizea aurea, or Golden Alexander, is an herbaceous perennial found in piedmont and mountain counties of NC but is much more widespread in the midwest, north central and northeastern states. It consists of 30-inch, branching, erect, reddish, ridged stems which, like others in the carrot family, are hollow between the nodes.…

Whorled Milkweed is a tough, attractive herbaceous perennial easily grown in dry, sunny locations in naturalistic as well as garden settings. It is on the small side, reaching 2.5 feet high and wide, with bright white flowers and delicate, whorled foliage. Like all Milkweeds, it is toxic to livestock, so it…

This herbaceous perennial is most rewarding to grow. From an attractive persistent basal rosette, vigorous, sturdy stems with dark green foliage rise to about 3 feet, terminating in branched panicles of numerous, showy, bright white, 1-inch tubular flowers which last a long time for an early season plant (spring to early…

Beautiful Wood Poppy is reported in a number of scattered counties centering on Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, peripherally in Tennessee and Virginia — close to, but not actually occurring in NC. Named (“diphyllum”) for a pair of deeply lobed leaves just below the 1-2- inch bright yellow, delicate flowers, the Wood…

The common Blue Wood Aster (of which ‘Avondale’ is a cultivar) is an herbaceous perennial native to a huge swath of north-central-eastern North America, and the counties in NC where it is reported represent the southeastern tip of its range. Found in dry to moist (well drained) deciduous woodlands and woodland…

Aromatic Aster is a tried and true source of stunning blue color in the late season perennial garden, where it is seen to play dramatically against rich fall yellows and golds and oranges. It is shrub-like and bushy, compact, reaching 1-2+ feet and usually totally covered in blooms for up to…

Foamflower is a beautiful, clumping flowering perennial with immense versatility for shady gardens, featuring racemes of starry florets with a “foamy” effect above foot-tall mounds of attractive basal foliage. The leaf shape may vary from almost heart-shaped to deeply lobed with pronounced venation, and the leaf veins are often tinged with…

Foamflower is a beautiful, clumping flowering perennial with immense versatility for shady gardens, featuring racemes of starry florets with a “foamy” effect above foot-tall mounds of attractive basal foliage. The leaf shape may vary from almost heart-shaped to deeply lobed with pronounced venation, and the leaf veins are often tinged with…

This plant is not currently for sale.  This is an archive page preserved for informational use. Bellwort is a beautiful understory wildflower that sprouts up delicate green in early spring (April) in shady, dry-to-mesic woods or wooded gardens in piedmont and mountain counties in North Carolina. Found from Massachusetts southward, it…

Blue-Eyed Grass is a graceful and fetching herbaceous perennial in the Iris family which resembles a small bunch grass — until it flowers. Blue, 6-parted, with pointed tepals (petals and sepals) with golden centers, the distinctly not-grassy flowers are held on flattened, branched flower stalks just a bit above the straplike…

Wreath (or Bluestem) Goldenrod could have been so named for its plant form, growing to 2-3′ in gracefully arching, mostly unbranched shoots with bright flowers positioned in the axils of leaves all along the stems. It is smaller and less aggressive than most of its cousins, and more suitable for cultivation…

Sweet Goldenrod is found in open woods and savannahs in coastal states from New Hampshire south to Florida and over to east Texas, and inland as far as Missouri. (In northern Florida there is a separate subspecies, Chapmanii.) It occurs in most of the counties of NC. Sweet Goldenrod grows to…

This plant is not currently for sale.  This is an archive page preserved for informational use. Indian Pink is a beautiful and unique herbaceous perennial which is currently enjoying great popularity among native plant gardeners. This is a good thing as North Carolina lists it as Endangered and Natureserve lists it…

This super-attractive, butterfly-drawing herbaceous perennial is small (1-2′ high x 1-2′ wide) with large (2-3 inch) very showy, usually single flowers ranging from cornflower blue (most often) to lavender and even, occasionally, white. The flower structure of Stokes aster reflects its membership in the Aster family: deeply notched blue or lavender…

The Hooded Pitcherplant, native to the bogs of NC, SC, GA and FL, is a smallish pitcherplant, 8-16 inches tall. The pitcher consists of a green tube or trap which expands gradually from base up towards the hood; then, in an unbroken line, the hood arches smoothly, closely and protectively over…

Sarracenia purpurea, or Purple Pitcherplant, differs from (most, not all) other species in this genus in several ways. Its pitchers are decumbent rather than upright, squatty and with a large lip; they are open to the sky instead of being protected by a hood, and are therefore probably full of water…

Although the Sweet Pitcherplant has a fragrant, maroon-colored flower at the top of a leafless stem, usually taller than the pitchers (about 10 inches), it is not the flower that fascinates people. The hollow pitchers of this insectivorous perennial plant are leaves modified to passively capture small animal creatures. Insects attracted…

This plant is not currently for sale.  This is an archive page preserved for informational use.  Black-Eyed Susan ‘Goldsturm’ — sometimes called “Orange Coneflower” even though it is neither orange nor an Echinacea — is one of the most popular, tried and true garden perennials. These beautiful golden flowers are easy…

This natural variety of Black-Eyed Susan is found in meadows and on roadsides in the eastern United States from New York to the Florida panhandle and west to Illinois and Mississippi. It is a lovely wildflower, hugely useful in the garden. The plant is 2-3′ high x 1.5 – 2′ wide…

A bright spring ephemeral and one of the first flowers to emerge in the brown, still-dormant forest, the Bloodroot is an exciting harbinger of wonderful things to come. The delicate white flower with prominent golden stamens emerges on a single stalk arising from a woody rhizome, opening during the day and…

‘Daina’s Delight’ is one of the largest and showiest of the carnivorous pitcherplants we sell at Cure Nursery, with beautiful pitchers up to 3 feet tall. The pitcher consists of a green to rusty red throat or tube, that begins the season deep red but later sports a striking white, ruffled…

‘Dixie Lace’ Pitcherplant is a hybrid, introduced by local NC botanists Larry Mellichamp and Rob Gardner. Technically, the lineage is: (Sarracenia leucophylla x Sarracenia rubra ssp. wherryi) x (Sarracenia psittacina x Sarracenia purpurea). A cross of two hybrid crosses! But do not be dismayed, the genes are local as all Sarracenias…

‘Mardi Gras’ is one of the most beautiful of the pitcher plants — an herbaceous perennial presenting as a sturdy clump of modified leaves (pitchers) averaging 1′ tall. The pitcher is an insect trap, consisting of an undulating, often flared, frilly hood with a striking pattern of deep rose veins and…

Yellow Pitcherplant is an herbaceous perennial up to 3′ tall found in sandy bogs in the coastal plain regions of Virginia and south to Florida and west to Alabama. Like all pitcherplants, S. flava thrives in full sun. The long throat or tube is quite slender, and the hood is reflexed,…

White-topped Pitcherplant, according to Wikipedia, is not a N.C. native, but an introduction, actually endemic to Deep South gulf coastal areas. It is a popular pitcherplant because of its lovely coloration — with white pigmentation, delicately cut by green or red veins, on the hood and the uppermost part of the…

The Mayapple is a foot-tall herbaceous perennial that grows in open mixed deciduous hardwood forests and alluvial woodlands and meadows in much of eastern U.S. It is valued for what it does best, which is to form dense colonies in part to full shade, usually from the rhizomes of a single…

Jacob’s Ladder is a sweet herbaceous perennial wildflower not common in N.C. (only in 2 counties), but native to rich, moist woodlands in much of Eastern North America. The flowers are a dainty, bright shot of blue on 1 -1.5 foot high spray of foliage in a spring garden. From April…

Solomon’s Seal is a graceful plant which enriches the woodland haitat without competing with the larger specimens there. It grows slowly but surely in the deer-protected understory to be a beautiful show throughout the growing season. The individual plant is an arching single stem with alternate, shiny leaves and pairs of…

Virginia Mountain Mint is an herbaceous perennial of the Mint family found mostly in north central and north eastern U.S. Two counties in NC are among a very small handful of counties reporting this plant in the southeast. Nevertheless, we are respectful of its potential value in our landscape for a…

Piedmont Barbara’s Buttons is found in moist, well drained roadsides and fields from south-central Virginia to Florida. That said, it is truly our own wildflower as in NC, it is actually only reported in the very central counties of the state. A basal rosette of narrow leaves gives rise in early…

Beebalm is a showy herbaceous perennial herb in the Mint family, very popular in Southeastern gardens for its long bloom time and easy nature. Bright red, somewhat coarse flowers are supported by sturdy, three-foot tall, square stems in July and August here in the piedmont, making excellent cut flowers.Our southern Appalachians…

Wild Bergamont is a fantastic wildflower native to almost every state in the country! Like other members of the mint family, it has square stems with coarsely toothed and slightly hairy opposite leaves. Wild Bergamont flowers are…well, kind of wild; they are lavender to pink, with irregular tubular petals, protruding from…

Southern Sundrop is a day-flowering perennial (from the Evening Primrose family) native to much of Eastern North America and reported nearly throughout NC. Its habit is upright, (two feet tall x 1.5 feet wide), a little sprawling, with an overwintering evergreen basal rosette. It’s obvious value in the garden is from…

This plant is not currently for sale.  This is an archive page preserved for informational use.  Allegheny or Mountain Spurge is a short, shrubby ground cover which barely reaches a foot tall. Grown in dappled sun to full shade, it spreads by rhizomes to form a carpet of semi-toothed, crisp blue-green…

Small’s Beardtongue is a bright perennial wildflower which naturally grows in the rocky soils of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Green to purplish stems rise from an attractive bronzy-tinted winter rosette. In early summer, it has tubular, snapdragon type bright pinkish-purple blossoms that attract hummingbirds and beneficial insects. They are lavender on…

Wild Sweet William or Woodland Phlox is a beautiful and beloved wildflower that can brighten a shady area in need of spring color, — ranging from a soft exquisite true blue to lavender and occasionally, white. It occupies a position between the low groundcover phloxes and the tall garden phloxes. During…

Speckled Phlox is an upright, clumping, herbaceous perennial with beautiful bright clusters of small, aromatic, tubular flowers. It grows in moist meadows, along riverbanks and in bottomland woodland openings in the eastern mountains and piedmont and in the midwest, although it is not really common in the wild. Generally unbranched, the…

Phlox stolonifera, or Creeping Phlox, is a low-growing Phlox found in rich deciduous woodlands, along stream banks and shaded rocky slopes mostly in the Appalachian Mountains from Pennsylvania to Georgia. Unlike the other ground-hugging Phloxes, therefore (which hale from more xeric locales), this one thrives in shady and semi-shady niches on…

Phlox subulata, often called Moss Pink even though it comes in as many colors as the other groundcover Phloxes, is a mat-forming, sun-loving, semi-evergreen herbaceous perennial found in rocky and sandy barrens from New York to Michigan and south to Georgia and Louisiana. Leaves are needle-like or linear, and the vegetative…

Phlox subulata ‘Amazing Grace’ is a cultivar of Phlox subulata ssp. subulata (see that entry). The flowers of  ‘Amazing Grace’ are bright white with the tiny golden exserted stamens closely surrounded by small maroon markings (nectar guides) at the base of the petal lobes. The USDA plant distribution map linked below…

Solomon’s Plume is a widespread perennial, reported in all of the U.S. mainland states, but conspicuously almost entirely absent from the coastal plain from NC down to Florida and over to Texas and throughout the great plains. It is abundant here in the piedmont, with gracefully arching, unbranched stems reaching up…

Dwarf Crested Iris is beloved in southern gardens as it is a beautiful and easy groundcover. In nature, it is found in rich or rocky wooded slopes and stream banks in Eastern states, well inland from the coast, and in NC is reported in mountain and piedmont counties only. Dwarf Crested…

Dense Blazing Star is a clump-forming perennial found naturally in moist meadows in Eastern North America. In the Carolinas it is reported mostly in coastal counties. Dense Blazing Star gets its name from its spectacular bottle brush flower stalks, which rise straight and sturdy to four or five feet from grass-like…

Scaly Blazing Star is un upright herbaceous perennial found in high quality natural habitats including openings in upland rocky woodlands, dry ditches and and barren savannas from the eastern Great Plains eastward to Virginia and south. In NC it is reported mostly in piedmont counties. Scaly Blazing Star is one funky…

Cardinalflower is a handsome wildflower known for it vibrant red (occasionally white or rosie pink) floral spikes on sturdy, upright stems three to four feet tall and occasionally taller. It is valued by gardeners not just for the deep scarlet color and relatively tall, erect form but also because it attracts…

The Great Blue Lobelia is a colony-forming, clumping perennial which is well known for its long-lasting, deep violet-blue floral spires from late summer to mid-autumn. The deep blue floral racemes play exceedingly well against the dominant yellows of other fall garden greats, and draw their own share of butterflies, bees and…

Boneset or Thoroughwort is a hardy perennial which is found throughout the Eastern half of North America in sunny, low, wet roadsides and fields. The plant grows three to four feet in height with multiple, hairy stems branched only near the top. These terminate in bright white clusters, up to eight…

White Wood Aster is a two foot-tall, rhizomatous, drought-tolerant herbaceous perennial which grows in open, dry woods and shady clearings in much of the Eastern U.S., including many mountain and piedmont couties in NC. This plant lights up shady, dry woodland sites with delicate white daisy-like flowers from September to November.…

Coastal Plain or Dwarf Joe Pye, E. dubium, is a tough, rewarding late-season herbaceous perennial whose family must be represented in the native garden. It is very handsome, the fragrant mauve to pink flowers appearing in cone-shaped clusters on red stems in late summer and lasting through fall, similar in many…

Joe-Pye Weed is an impressive (six to nine feet), erect, sun-loving perennial which is found mostly in wet thickets and stream margins from Quebec to Texas. Leaves are lance-shaped and whorled around the hollow stem (a diagnostic character for the species). The stems, which are mostly unbranched, are green below with…

Wild Geraniums are beautiful wild flowers of Eastern North America, reported to occur mostly in mountain and piedmont counties of the Carolinas. The plant is a clump-forming mound about 2 feet high, with generous, deeply lobed foliage topped by delicate, 5-petaled, upward-facing, pink flowers in late spring/early summer. Easy to grow…

This plant is not currently for sale.  This is an archive page preserved for informational use.  Purple-Headed Sneezeweed is a winning native perennial, found in wet, sunny habitats in the Eastern half of the U.S. In NC, it is reported to occur in scattered counties in the mountains, piedmont and coastal…

Heuchera, or Alumroot, or Coral Bells is a wonderful, low, evergreen perennial with beautiful foliage which remains attractive year ’round if its cultural requirements are met. It does flower, but is often grown purely for its rich, patterned foliage which shows a wide array of leaf colors, patterns, shapes, and sizes.…

This plant is not currently for sale.  This is an archive page preserved for informational use. Lance-leaf Coreopsis or Lance-leaf Tickseed, is a perennial wildflower 2-3 feet tall with striking golden 2-3-inch flowers characteristic of the genus, that is, with about 8 notched sterile ray flowers surrounding a center of many…

Dutchman’s Breeches is a shade-loving, spring ephemeral wildflower found in undisturbed mesic woods of most of the eastern U.S. In NC it is reported to occur in several mountain and piedmont counties, including our own Chatham County. Averaging six to ten inches tall, it has a basal rosette of finely-divided leaves…

Purple Coneflower is found naturally in meadows and roadsides throughout the Central U.S. The few western counties of NC where Purple Coneflower is reported to occur consitute the easternmost edge of its natural range at our latitude. However, this plant must be the all-time favorite native wildflower for sunny pollinator gardens…

The genus of Scouring Rush Horsetail, or Puzzlegrass, is the only living genus of a class of plants which for over one hundred million years dominated the understory of late Paleozoic forests (Wikipedia)! And Puzzlegrass does, indeed, have a primitive look. It now favors wet areas along railroad embankments, stream banks…

Blue Mistflower is a shrub-like herbaceous perennial native to the south-central and eastern portions the U.S. In NC, is is present in most non-mountainous counties. Growing two to three feet tall and as wide, it has opposite, triangular-shaped leaves and masses of tiny, whimsical, fluffy, bright blue-purple disc flowers in clusters,…

Coreopsis auriculata, or “Mouse-eared Coreopsis”, is a sun-loving favorite for the native perennial garden in the Southeast. The flowers are single, about 2 inches across, with a center of golden disk flowers and 8 golden, characteristically toothed petals or ray flowers. They are held at 12 – 24 inches high, well…

This plant is not currently for sale.  This is an archive page preserved for informational use.  Golden Canna is a beautiful, wet-loving, long lived herbaceous perennial plant and is the only yellow Canna. It was originally described by William Bartram, who found it blooming along the rivers of coastal Georgia. It…

Not all sedges are the same and this one is a beauty! The finely textured, medium green leaves of Appalachian Sedge grow between 12-18 inches in length, but the clumps arch gracefully over to the ground, actually only 6 to 10 inches tall. It can be grown as a specimen, where…

Maryland Goldenaster is a Southeastern short-lived herbaceous perennial about 2.5 feet tall which occurs on roadsides, in dry, open, rocky woods and sandhills throughout NC. It thrives in full sun and well drained soils and is considered drought tolerant. Each plant is short-lived, but persists in the garden by seeding out…

Green-and-gold is a hardy, low-growing, long-blooming herbaceous perennial found along woodland edges and clearings on the East coast from New York south to Florida and west to Louisiana. With attractive, semi-evergreen foliage, bright yellow 1.5-inch star-like flowers on fuzzy stalks for much of the growing season, and an unfussy attitude about…

Native to the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma and Arkansas, Bluestar is an upright, broad-spreading herbaceous perennial ~3′ tall and wide, with clusters of terminal sky-blue flowers in spring. The leaves are very fine when compared to other members of the genus, creating a cloudlike texture. When grown in the sun, the…

Eastern Bluestar, or Willow Amsonia, is a showy, dependably beautiful, clump-forming hardy perennial about three feet in height and spread. The leaves are shiny, medium-green and willow-shaped, and can turn yellow in the fall. The flowers of Eastern Bluestar are a bright unusual blue color. They are star-shaped, and borne in…

Generous, easy to grow, cheerful and carefree, Wild Columbine is a favorite in perennial gardens from the simplest to the most sophisticated. Native to the entire eastern half of North America, it thrives in partial shade, but tolerates full sun (if not too hot or dry) as well as full shade.…

Asarum, or Wild Ginger, is an herbaceous perennial which grows in colonies in shady woodland locations especially in the more northerly Eastern U.S. Each plant consists of two heart-shaped leaves emerging from a fleshy root/rhizome complex. Between these two leaves a single, somewhat inconspicuous maroon flower arises in May/June, most often…

The Pink Swamp Milkweed, being a milkweed, is important support for the Monarch butterflies But it is also a stunning perennial wildlfower and therefore deserving of a place in the perennial border. Even though it is found in wet meadows and swamp margins, it is also happy in a well drained…

Butterfly Weed, famous for its relationship to the endangered and beloved Monarch butterfly, nevertheless deserves a place in a perennial garden purely on aesthetic merits. It is a sun-loving, 1-2-ft, mound-shaped plant with dark green foliage and contrasting, bright orange, long-lasting flower clusters. These, in time, produce lovely pods of silky-threaded…

This plant is not currently for sale.  This is an archive page preserved for informational use.   Baptisia albescens is a bushy, leguminous herbaceous perennial with foliage about two feet high supporting much taller spikes of white, pea-like flowers, hence the common name of “Spiked Wild Indigo”. Wider than it is…

Wild Blue Indigo is a tall (three to four feet), sturdy, sun-loving, shrub-sized perennial with upright racemes of pea-like flowers ranging from bright blue to deep indigo held above the foliage. Being a legume, it can fix nitrogen and therefore tolerates poor soils gracefully. It blooms in May and June. The…