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Inspiration

July 10th, 2014

I’m lucky that there are tons of lovely gardens nearby to visit.  This is perfect for me since I’m trying to build a good database of photos of a wide variety plants.  I sell photos to magazines and often get requests for specific cultivars.  Earlier this week I stopped at the Merryspring Nature Center in Camden, Maine and took a few photos.  I’ll post more photos from the gardens later this week, but I was drawn to this verbascum.
verbascum 1
verbascum 2
Unfortunately, the tag wasn’t very readable so I will need to do some sleuthing to figure out the name of this specific variety.
verbascum 3
It’s quite a lovely plant, no doubt something that I can find seed for when I figure out what it’s called. I love tall plants like this, they can add such drama to a border. No doubt since it’s a mullein family plant it is healthy for the garden. Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, 2nd Edition explains that mullein has a spike root that pulls minerals deep from within the soil. I’m always looking for plants that are both beautiful and beneficial.

Have you seen a must have plant recently?

3 Comments to “Inspiration”
  1. Laura @ Raise Your Garden on July 10, 2014 at 7:42 am

    While driving around in the convertible with our 2 & 4 year old we spotted a torch lily or a red hot poker. We LOVED it! Grew some out of seeds. Looks great in our yard. For some reason, I have no problem growing annuals from seed but get all weird about trying my hand at perennials.

    We always have the camera on hand in case we see a new and fun flower we want to try!

    Reply to Laura @ Raise Your Garden's comment

  2. Nebraska Dave on July 10, 2014 at 8:49 am

    Susy, no favorite plants here. I just try to recreate what works for me. For three years my living poor man’s patio has been shade plants that work well in the containers. The rest of the yard has been spring flowering plants for years. Some day I really must branch out with more interesting plants. There are many plants that I have tried without success. Black eyed Susan just doesn’t seem to want to survive for me and hollyhock is another failure. The purple cone flower does OK until a wind comes along and blows them flat. I always admire those that grow these plants as I’ve always wished that I could. I like the Italian Aster but haven’t really tried to grow that one yet. It won’t be this year. Maybe next year. There’s always next year in a gardener’s life.

    Have a great flower inspirational day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  3. Shannon on July 19, 2014 at 7:59 am

    Not sure if this helps, but that looks just like the mullein we’re cultivating in our medicinal perennials garden.

    Reply to Shannon's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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