Browse Plants

The heart-shaped leaves of this perennial may stretch to 12 inches across. In mid- to late summer, showy white flower umbels add to this plant’s drama.

C. bicolor is a tuberous-rooted perennial of garden origin often grown in containers, as annuals, and as indoor plants. The large, heart-shaped leaves of 'Freida Hemple' caladium are edged in bright green and have bold red centers. Caladiums are excellent choices to add color, texture, and form to shady areas.

A tuberous-rooted perennial most often grown as an annual or a houseplant, 'White Queen' has large frosted-looking white leaves that have green margins and bright red veins that "bleed". A great plant for full shade, it can also be grown in sun if provided with consistently moist soil. Greenish-white flower spathes appear in spring and are followed by white berries, but the foliage is the main show. Its arrow-shaped leaves light up a dark spot and work well as bedding or in containers. It can also be grown as a houseplant and tubers can be overwintered indoors.

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A well-behaved perennial from the mint family (Lamiaceae), variegated calamint has pale-green, oval leaves with strong white marbling. It sends up a wealth of clear-pink tubular flowers that muster an army of bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds from mid- to late summer. It’s eye-catching both in and out of bloom and has a wonderful minty fragrance all season long.

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This plant resembles a rosy-purple poppy mallow that blooms all summer. The saucer-shaped flowers are held above prostrate red stems and fingered leaves.

Starting in early summer and continuing until fall, 'Elizabeth' puts forth abundant purple-flushed, pale pink bells with dark speckles on the inside. Flowers are 2 to 3 inches long and lightly scented. The toothed leaves are bright green. This low-maintenance, hardy perennial retains its evergreen foliage through winter.

By late fall, as the older crowns die out, new rosettes of leaves appear at the ends of underground rhizomes, giving the illusion that the plants have moved. This is not a desirable trait in formal beds, but it's an asset in naturalized plantings. 'Elizabeth' does well under deciduous trees and shrubs, in cottage and rock gardens, and along paths that leat into the woods. -Ruth Rogers Clausen, Plants to know and grow, Fine Gardening issue #121

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Upright, open bell-shaped flowers completely cover the foliage of this late-blooming Campanula for several months in summer. This small plant is suitable for the front of the border or a rock garden. Numerous cultivars are available.

This 2- to 3-foot-tall bellflower bears single or double flowers in white, blue, or pink. 

This plant is one of the most popular campanulas. Its stiff mat of slowly spreading evergreen rosettes is topped by 3-foot-tall, all open, bell-shaped lavender to white flowers in late spring.

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This low, mat-forming plant has blue-purple flowers in summer.

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Serbian bellflowers have an easy, undemanding habit. Creating a stream of lavender blue, the 1-inch-diameter star-shaped blossoms bloom reliably from late spring to early fall. The foliage remains evergreen in mild winters and needs to be sheared only once in a while to keep its appearance tidy. 'Blue Waterfall' flows beautifully along bed edges and through rock gardens in full sun to partial shade.

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Spotted bellflower has heart-shaped foliage on a creeping rhizome with tubular, bell-shaped creamy white to dusky pink flowers with red spots and hairs. This foot-tall bellflower is native to Siberia and Japan.

This 3-foot-tall canna from the 1920s has impossibly deep, pure-rose flowers recalling orchids and leis. It's an old French variety.

A great canna to start with if you're convinced you hate them is 'Madame Paul Caseneuve', from 1902. The pearly-bronze leaves and almost purple stems of this 3- to 5-foot-tall antique beauty are the perfect foil for its elegant, sensual flowers of soft pink shading to peach and apricot.

Growing to 6 or 7 feet, 'Sémaphore' features slender, dark-bronze leaves topped by spikes of narrow-petaled flowers of an unusual glowing color that's not quite yellow and not quite orange; perhaps flickering tongues of flame would be the best description. It is a Victorian classic from 1895.

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Tropicanna Gold is perhaps the showiest of all of the variegated cannas and one of the best for hot, humid, sunny southern gardens. Favored for its bright green and yellow variegated foliage and deep tangerine flowers, Tropicanna Gold will grow at the edge of ponds in shallow water as well as in normal garden conditions. It is adaptable to heat and humidity. Protect in the northern part of its range, or lift tubers in fall where not hardy and store over winter.

Cut-leaved toothwort has sharply cut foliage and single white, lavender, or pink nodding flowers that bloom in early spring. Evergreen forms exist.

A tender perennial native to Madagascar, most often grown as an annual, Catharanthus roseus has attractive, glossy foliage and a bushy form that is covered by phlox-like flowers from summer to first frost. It is a very popular bedding plant and works in containers as well. Many cultivars are vividly colored, but 'Peach' has subtle pale pink-peach flowers with a darker eye.

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Mountain bluet is an excellent choice for the border or rock garden. Blue flowers open from attractive buds in late spring to midsummer, then leave behind a mass of vigorous, silvery-green woolly foliage and woolly stems.