Great Garden Plants at Reduced Prices

by Claire Sawyers and Andrew Bunting

You had to be a real plant lover to turn out for our Plant Sale this past weekend and brave the mud. Understandably, it was a bit much for the novices and anyone in white tennis shoes. Volunteers who had been sloshing around it for several days began to feel like they hadn’t missed Woodstock after all.

Klara Britt shopping in the rain with the help of plant expert, Sam Keitch. photo credit: U. Maul

So, with a lot of really great plants left, we ‘re having a 50%-off plant sale for members of the Scott Arboretum on Tuesday, September 22 and Wednesday, September 23 from 2 to 6 pm each day at Swarthmore College’s Hallowell House, 405 Elm Street. If you are not a member, you can join at the sale to bargain shop.

Some examples of great plants we still have available are daphnes. This is the first plant sale I can remember daphnes not selling out on the first day. Daphnes, as a group, are loved for their fragrant flowers, manageable small neat habit as flowering shrubs, and many offer handsome evergreen leaves or variegated leaves.

Daphne xtransatlantica 'Jim's Pride' photo credit: R. Robert

We still have several Daphne xtransatlantica ‘Jim’s Pride’ available. A Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Gold Medal winner in 1990, this cultivar is deliciously fragrant with a heavy bloom in the spring and intermittent blooms until frost.

Leucosceptrum japonicum 'Golden Angel' in bud. photo credit: R. Robert

We are also happy to offer two very exciting selections of the Japanese shrubs mints, Leucosceptrum japonicum ‘Golden Angel’ and ‘Variegatum’. These herbaceous perennials will reach three feet tall and wide at maturity. They thrive in light shade to full sun. Both selections have bold foliage. ‘Golden Angel’ has beautiful golden foliage which can lighten a shady spot in the garden. ‘Variegatum’ has a creamy white variegation. In the fall from October to November, they are covered with an abundance of yellow bottle-brush like flowers which bring added beauty late into the fall.

Many great plants still available at the 50% off sale. photo credit: R. Robert

Some other great remaining plants include: Franklinia, Jasminum officinale Fiona Sunrise™, Magnolia denudata ‘Swarthmore Sentinel’ and Pinus bungeana. Over 30 kinds of perennials remain and over 70 kinds of trees, shrubs, and vines. So it’s not too late to enrich your garden this fall! The plants are on blacktop now– so you’ll miss the mud this time around.