American Spikenard

Easy to grow in sun or part shade in my Zone 6 yard. Takes up a lot of space (6' by 5'). Nice plumes of blossoms in July turning into a...Read Morettractive clusters of dark berries..

This plant was purchased from a wild flower nursery as a White Baneberry in 2010. The first few years I was puzzled because I saw little ...Read Morethat looked like flowers and never any berries. It apparently was not a baneberry but I had no idea what it was. About 4 years ago I realized that it got bigger every year. This year it cannot be ignored. It is stunning. It is 4 feet high, 5 feet wide and every leaf axil has a long flower panicle. They have not yet bloomed. If it finally produces berries it will be a show stopper. A friend identified it with an app on her phone. It is in my wildflower garden under a Serviceberry tree and next to a healthy stand of giant Solomon Seal.

I grew several of these from berries collected from a mature plant. I removed the seeds, sowed in pots, stratified over the winter in the...Read More garage and had excellent germination in the spring. They were relatively slow to grow as young plants in cell packs but once I transplanted them into the garden they really took off. I planted them in several areas with good, moist soil in 1/2 to 3/4 day sun . The more sun, the more growth. The leaves are large and tropical looking. By the end of their first full year in the ground, they were already 3' tall by 2 1/2' wide. Flowering is heavy, lasts for about a month or so and attracts a lot of pollinators. The black berries develop quickly and were gobbled up by the birds. Although in the summer they look like shrubs, they are actually herbaceous perennials dying completely back to the ground each year. An easy, trouble-free and unusual garden plant. Highly recommended!

An impressive, big woodland perennial with purple, smooth stems and compound leaves with 6 to 21 heart-shaped leaflets. Nice umbel clust...Read Moreers of small white flowers in June-July of summer. Native from southern Quebec to Manitoba south to Georgia to Texas to AR.