Scutellaria Species, Downy Skullcap, Hoary Skullcap

This is a beautiful plant and one that I like enough to stake it every year (I don't knowingly buy any plants that require staking but th...Read Moreink this one is worth it.) Its profusion of light blue blooms last a long time.

Native flowering perennial, very ornamental. Native at least to mid-atlantic USA states. Appears to tolerate heat and dry summer period...Read Mores. Mine is growing in good humusy garden soil, but may tolerate worse. As showy as any Salvia to my mind and should be grown more. Will flower summer til frost if deadheaded.

I have seen some Skullcaps before, but I don't really yet know this plant. Looks like a nice perennial of the Mint Family for part-shade ...Read Moreand shady locations. Native from Iowa to New Jersey and south in dry woods and woodland clearings. The photo I loaded shows a specimen planted in a woodsy area of Longwood Gardens in se PA at the end of its bloom with a few flowers left and some dry fruit structures in early October of 2014. Sources say that it is easy to grow; can grow also in full sun; for dry or moist soils that should be acid at least a little bit; it attracts bumblebees and hummingbirds; and it blooms in August and September; blends well with Cardinal-flower and Blue Lobelia; but it is not deer resistant.