Crocosmia – Montbretia: 

Grassy, sword like leaves and brilliant orange blooms on plume-like spikes make this summer flowering bulb a favorite for sunny hillsides or any spot with well-drained soil. If your winter temps stay above zero degrees the small bulbs will come back in larger colonies year after year. If the weather is colder, cover the bulbs with a mulch to keep them from freezing. The variety of crocosmia called ‘Lucifer’ has large and very bright orange blooms. However, new varieties with yellow and scarlet flowers are also available.

Tip: If you notice that your crocosmia have fewer blooms after a few years in the garden, then it is time to dig and divide the corms or small bulbs. Do this in the fall once the green leaves start to fade.

Eryngium – Sea Holly: 

Spiny leaves and spiky blooms make this a dangerous looking perennial. The silver color means this plant needs little water. Once established, the flowers are unique, star-like and vivid purple or electric blue. Eryngium is a taller perennial that has a long bloom time that will go from summer to fall as the flowers dry out in the sun. Leave the flower bracts and this plant may reseed in all the rocky, sunny parts of your garden.

Tip: Harvest the unusual blooms when they feel dry to the touch and use them in everlasting floral arrangements or wreaths.

Helleborus –Christmas Rose, Lenten Rose: 

This long- lived and evergreen perennial is not only deer, slug and drought resistant but flowers in late winter and early spring when not much else is going on in the garden. The large, pointed leathery leaves make a great summer backdrop for hosta or for shading the ground under hydrangeas. Hellebores can take some morning sun but prefer afternoon shade. The deep roots do not like to be disturbed. Make sure to loosen the soil in the planting area well and add organic matter when you plant. Your hellebore can stay in the same spot for decades. The winter blooms can be enjoyed indoors by floating them in bowls of water where they will look like mini waterlilies. New varieties such as the ‘Winter Jewels’ offer more colors and double flower forms. The taller, green- blooming Corsican Hellebores (Hellebore agutifolius) are the most drought and sun tolerant.

Tip: Hellebores hate to be divided so to get new plants look for seedlings near the mother plant in early summer and transplant into small pots or a new location. In areas with wet winters clip off the old summer foliage before the plants flower in the spring. Removing the leaves not only allows you to see the winter blooms, but also helps to prevent foliage disease that first appears as black spots on old leaves.