Specialty Gardening: Eco friendly cottage gardens, 1 by sempervirens

sempervirens wrote:
I thought I'd bump this thread up and ask everyone for good native replacements for all the cottage plants we love but find too invasive to use anymore. I do have the new book "Native Alternates to Invasive Plants" on my wish list.
In the past I've used shasta daisies for a loose meadow look and to hide daffodil leaves. My replacement, because it's white and blooms at the same time, is Penstemon digitalis (tall white beardtongue) cultivar Husker Red.This is a 4 season plant for me. Maroon early spring foliage followed by white (can be pink tinged on some plants) flowers. After that red seedheads form that glisten in the sun (pretty next to black eyed susans). In the late summer/ fall the seedheads turn brown and add texture next to grasses in the fall/winter. The basal foliage turns a purply red in the winter.
The photo is the the spring, Penstemon next to a white Baptisa.

Gram,
I still can't decide which joepye weed to buy. Has anyone grown "Little Joe"?
oops, wrong photo.