Instead of planting bulbs and cutting back frost damaged plants, I decided to take a trip earlier this week with my friend Jenks Farmer to visit a nursery and a few gardens in and around Athens, GA.
Our first stop was a great perennial nursery called Goodness Grows. They offer a wide selection of perennials and some unique woodies as well.
One of the first perennials we noticed when walking up was Adenophora liliifolia (ladybells). I was drawn to it for two reasons 1.) It was flowering right now and 2.) it isn't available often. While speaking with the nursery owner Rick, he explained they had recently dug a clump of
ladybells from their old nursery site and that was the reason these were flowering this late in the season. Another great perennial we bought was Viola pedata 'Eco Artist Palette' (perennial bird-foot violet) a native that flowers during April and May, a time when not to many native perennials in our area flower.
A few other plants we picked up:
Aster tataricus (tartarian aster)
Eucomis comosa 'Tugela Ruby' (perennial pineapple lily)
Physostegia virginiana 'Summer Snow' (obedient plant)
Veronica peduncularis 'Georgia Blue' (speedwell)
After leaving Goodness Grows we visited The State Botanical Garden of Georgia.
From there we went to The University of Georgia Horticulture Trial Gardens.
Here you can compare 20 different cultivars of geraniums that vary in flower color, flower size, leaf color, number of flowers and so on.
We probably spent an hour taking cuttings of various annuals and mixing them together to see what would make great combinations for the following year.
One of the great things about this trial garden is the location is right in the heart of campus which is great for promoting horticulture. Another great benefit of this trial garden is all the information they collect is available to the public at the trial gardens website.
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