North Creek Catalog + Resource Guide

Where Horticulture Meets Ecology™

WHOLESALE PRODUCT + RESOURCE GUIDE

Where Horticulture Meets Ecology™

resource guide

NORTH EVERGREEN CREEK LEGACY BASAL FOLIAGE PLANTS

Plants go in and out of fashion, which got us thinking—after 30+ years in business—which varieties have been part of our NEED product INTRO offering TEXT since the beginning? Are we still aligned with our mission, “to propagate and market plants that develop the relationship between people and sustainable outdoor environments”? After a deep dive into the North Creek archives we were able to come up with a list of North Creek Legacy Plants—the species and cultivars that have been with us for the long haul. There is something to be said for the tried and true. Like an old friend, they conjure a smile when you see them return to the perennial border. It’s inspiring to truly feel the power of plants, and it’s our privilege to provide customers with plants in which they can rely upon, year after year. Over 75 items made the cut— nearly a quarter of what is offered on today’s availability!

PERENNIALS Achillea ‘Moonshine’ Achillea millefolium 'Paprika' Amsonia hubrichtii Amsonia tab. var. salicifolia Anemone sylvestris Aquilegia canadensis Aquilegia canadensis ‘Corbett’ Asclepias incarnata Asclepias tuberosa Aster cordifolius Aster divaricatus Aster novae-angliae Aster novae-angliae ‘Purple Dome’ Aster × frikartii ‘Mönch’ Asteromea mongolica Baptisia australis Boltonia asteroides ‘Snowbank’ Calamintha nepeta ssp. nepeta Ceratostigma plumbaginoides Chelone glabra Chelone lyonii ‘Hot Lips’ Chrysogonum virginianum ‘Allen Bush’ Chrysogonum virginianum var. australe Coreopsis verticillata ‘Moonbeam’ Coreopsis verticillata ‘Zagreb’ Dicentra eximia Echinacea purpurea ‘White Swan’ Eupatorium coelestinum Eupatorium fistulosum Eupatorium hyssopifolium Eupatorium perfoliatum Eupatorium ‘Gateway’ Geranium maculatum Heuchera americana ‘Dale's Strain’ Heuchera micrantha ‘Palace Purple’ Iris cristata Iris versicolor Lobelia cardinalis Lobelia siphilitica Monarda fistulosa Packera aurea Penstemon digitalis Penstemon digitalis ‘Husker Red’ Perovskia atriplicifolia ‘Superba’ Phlox stolonifera ‘Home Fires’ Phlox stolonifera ‘Sherwood Purple’ Polemonium reptans

Porteranthus trifoliatus Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’ Rudbeckia laciniata Rudbeckia laciniata ‘Autumn Sun’ Rudbeckia triloba Salvia nemorosa ‘East Friesland’ Salvia nemorosa ‘May Night’ Scabiosa ‘Butterfly Blue’ Sedum ‘Vera Jamison’ Sedum ‘Weihenstephaner Gold’ Sedum telphinum ‘Autumn Joy’ Solidago graminifolia Solidago ‘Golden Fleece’ Thermopsis caroliniana Tiarella cordifolia Verbena hastata Vernonia noveboracensis Veronicastrum virginicum

GRASSES Calamagrostis brachytricha Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ Chasmanthium latifolium Panicum virgatum Schizachyrium scoparium Scirpus cyperinus Sorghastrum nutans

CAREX Carex lurida

VINES + WOODIES Caryopteris ‘Longwood Blue’ Caryopteris × clandonensis ‘Dark Knight’ Lonicera sempervirens

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1. Coreopsis verticillata ‘Zagreb’, 2. Amsonia tab. var. salicifolia, 3. Asclepias incarnata, 4. Chelone lyonii ‘Hot Lips’, 5. Caryopteris × clandonensis ‘Dark Knight’, 6. Lonicera sempervirens, 7. Calamagrostis brachytricha, 8. Panicum virgatum, 9. Scirpus cyperinus

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Where Horticulture Meets Ecology™

by the season

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FALL AND WINTER INTEREST

Agastache sp. and cvs. Amsonia hubrichtii Andropogon sp. Asclepias sp. Aster sp. and cvs. Asteromoea mongolica Baptisia sp. and cvs. Bouteloua sp. and cvs. Calamagrostis cvs. Calamintha cvs. Carex sp. and cvs. Caryopteris cvs. Chasmanthium latifolium Chrysogonum virginianum and cvs. Dryopteris erythrosora ‘Brilliance’ Dryopteris marginalis Echinacea sp. and cvs. Elymus virginicus Eupatorium sp. and cvs. Helianthus and cvs. Heliopsis and cvs. Helleborus Brandywine™ Helleborus foetidus

Heuchera sp. and cvs. Hibiscus sp. and cvs. Juncus sp. Kalimeris cvs. Liatris spicata Monarda sp. and cvs. Nepeta cvs. Panicum sp. and cvs. Perovskia cvs. Polystichum acrostichoides Pycnanthemum sp. Rudbeckia sp. and cvs. Schizachyrium sp. and cvs. Scirpus sp. Solidago sp. and cvs. Sorghastrum nutans Vernonia sp. and cvs.

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Great Plants Start Here! TM

THE BENEFITS OF SANC

North Creek was recently recognized as SANC compliant, becoming the second nursery in Pennsylvania and the fifth nursery in the nation to receive this designation. The Systems Approach to Nursery Certification is a certification system based on how plants are produced rather than how plants appear at the time of a single inspection. SANC is an ongoing effort to incorporate the designated processes into existing state based certification programs to reduce pest risk and disease movement while facilitating and expediting the handling of nursery stock.

What does this mean for you, our customers? An even higher level of growing practices to ensure clean, healthy plugs produced efficiently with less handling—streamlining processes on our end saves time and money on your end. A win-win!

Sound IPM

North Creek is very serious about our responsibility to the habitats in which our plants will ultimately thrive. Protecting people and the environment has been our priority, and like our customers, our use of pesticides has always been a sensitive subject. In keeping with our mission, every effort is made to grow plants in the safest and most sustainable manner possible.

STOP, THINK, CONNECT

How are our collective actions affecting our people, affecting others including our customers, and affecting our environment?

Our product mix provides food and habitat for wildlife. Our use of beneficial insects is a frontline preventative and always the first step in our Integrated Pest Management (IPM). The pillars of our IPM program include:

SETTING ACTION THRESHOLDS1. Treat only when populations cause economic damage

SCOUTING & IDENTIFICATION

1. Proper pest ID is critical 2. Only the best method of treatment 3. Track pest and beneficial populations 4. Gauge the effectiveness of treatments 5. Prevention & Control

PREVENTION & CONTROL

1. Identify appropriate time to take action

2. Earth-friendly methods such as nematodes, beneficial predatory insects, soft chemistry (or and natural based bio fungicides) 3. Prevent populations from reaching action threshold 4. Treatment made on case by case basis and treated according to specific issue 5. Reach a preventable level to allow beneficial to catch up

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perennials

“I ONLY WENT OUT FOR A WALK AND FINALLY CONCLUDED TO STAY OUT TILL SUNDOWN, FOR GOING OUT, I FOUND, WAS REALLY GOING IN.”

—JOHN MUIR

Milkweed Leaf Beetle on Asclepias incarnata 'Ice Ballet'

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Where Horticulture Meets Ecology™

Echinacea ‘Cheyenne Spirit’ A 2013 All-America Selection award winner, and for good reason—they’re durable, easy to grow and gorgeous! A delightful mix of colors from rich purples, pinks, reds, and oranges to lighter yellows, creams, and whites makes a bold statement in a perennial border, butterfly garden or patio container. Drought tolerant and low maintenance, these coneflowers do not require deadheading to maintain their flower power! The spent blooms turn to seeds, providing winter food for songbirds and architectural interest.

GCseed - * 24-30” | Z 4-10 | 72 + LP32

Echinacea paradoxa yellow purple coneflower Relatively rare in the wild and in cultivation, this coneflower is stunning in mid-summer with its bright pure yellow flowers that consist of drooping petals surrounding a soft brown cone. Goldfinches devour the seeds in the garden. A yellow flowering purple coneflower—thus the paradox! Native to the Ozark Mountains and surrounding area.

GCseed - * 2-3’ | Z 5-9 | LP50

Echinacea purpurea PowWow® White Lend a classic look to your garden with PowWow® White’s graceful, downward arching and bright white

ray petals surrounded by bright yellow cones. This spectacular variety is extremely well-branched for profuse blooms and summerto-frost flower power! Amazing in a sunny perennial border or wildlife garden. Easy to grow and very adaptable to heat, humidity, drought and poor soils.

GCseed - S 20-24” | Z 4-10 | 72

Echinacea purpurea PowWow® Wild Berry Up the WOW factor in your garden with PowWow® Wild Berry, a 2010 All-America Selection award winner! This spectacular variety is extremely well-branched for profuse blooms and flower power summer to frost. Brilliant rose-purple flowers retain color longer without fading and will bloom without the need for deadheading. Amazing in a sunny perennial border or wildlife garden. Easy to grow and very adaptable to heat, humidity, drought or poor soils.

GCseed - S 20-24” | Z 4-10 | 72+ LP32

Echinacea purpurea purple coneflower The poster child for native plants! One of the great butterfly magnets, purple coneflower has a bright golden disc with long-lasting lavender-pink ray petals. It is easily grown in average to dry,

well-drained soils. Very drought resistant.

GCseed - S 2-3’ | Z 4-9 | LP50

Echinacea purpurea ‘Green Twister’—NEW! A new release from Jelitto Perennial Seeds, ‘Green Twister’ is a compact, sturdy plant with horizontal facing petals that change in color from edges of lemon green to a bright carmine red center, colors vary by flower and give a pleasing range of color pattern. Quite a floral display from summer through autumn.

GCseed - S 2-3’ | Z 3-8 | 72 + LP32

Echinacea purpurea ‘Mellow Yellows’—NEW! A beautiful and long-lasting coneflower, ‘Mellow Yellows’ is a Jelitto seed introduction that ranges from light yellow to the deepest golden with bright orange centers. Flowering in its first season, this sturdy and reliable plant is an excellent cut flower and a great source of nectar and seed to pollinators and wildlife.

GCseed - S 2-3’ | Z 4-9 | 72 + LP32

Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’ Named by Klaus Jelitto for Swedish nurseryman Magnus Nilsson, who carefully selected Echinacea for ten years, searching for fine form, dark

hue, and very horizontal petals. You’re looking at the result of that exhaustive work. Prominent dark orange discs are surrounded by reddish-pink ray petals throughout summer. The Perennial Plant Association’s Plant of the Year for 1998.

GCseed - S 2-3’ | Z 3-9 | 72

Echinacea purpurea ‘Ruby Star’ A European seed cultivar with exceptionally large flat-topped flowers that are a deeper purplepink than most others. A further improvement on ‘Magnus’, reaching 2-3’ in the landscape.

GC/scl - S 2-3’ | Z 4-8 | 72 + LP50

Echinacea purpurea ‘White Swan’ Beautiful, pure white flowers attract butterflies and birds from June to September. Adaptable coneflower that is tolerant of drought, heat, humidity, and poor soil.

GC/scl - S 2-3’ | Z 4-8 | 72

Erigeron pulchellus var. pulchellus ‘Lynnhaven Carpet‘ This outstanding form of E. pulchellus was selected for its relatively large gray-green pubescent foliage, dense mat-forming habit, and astonishing ability to thrive in a wide range of challenging conditions. In early May, individual flower stalks give rise to lightly

perennials | grasses | carex | ferns | vines + woodies

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Echinacea 1. purpurea PowWow® White, 2. PowWow® Wild Berry, 3. purpurea, 4. ‘Green Twister’, 5. ‘Mellow Yellows’, 6. ‘Magnus’, 7. 'Ruby Star’, 8. ‘White Swan’, 9. Erigeron pulchellus ‘Lynnhaven Carpet‘, 10. Eryngium yuccifolium

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Where Horticulture Meets Ecology™

EROSION CONTROL PLANTS

Steep hillsides, sandy soil, banks along a water feature—the one thing these areas have in common is a need for erosion control during inclement weather. Soil stabilization is the key to maintaining a landscape as wind and rain can lead to surface soil runoff and erode the landscape over time. With proper physical erosion control barriers, stormwater management techniques, and species selection, these trials become points of interest rather than insurmountable challenges.

We offer a full selection of perennials, ferns, and grasses that run the light tolerance gamut of full sun to shade—providing beautiful green solutions to stabilizing soil no matter the cultural requirements.

Acorus americanus Agastache foeniculum Allium cernuum Andropogon sp. Aster sp. and cvs. Antennaria plantaginifolia Caltha palustris Carex sp. and cvs. Chasmanthium latifolium Chrysogonum sp. and cvs. Erigeron 'Lynnhaven Carpet' Eupatorium sp. and cvs. Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae Geum fragarioides Iris versicolor Juncus effusus Juncus tenuis Lysimachia lanceolata var. purpurea Matteuccia struthiopteris Monarda bradburiana Monarda didyma and cvs. Monarda fistulosa and cvs. Nepeta sp. and cvs. Oenothera sp. and cvs. Packera aurea Packera sp. Panicum virgatum and cvs. Pycnanthemum sp. and cvs. Rubus calycinoides Ruellia humilis Schizachyrium scoparium and cvs. Scirpus sp. Solidago sp. Sorghastrum nutans

SALT TOLERANT PLANTS

resource guide

The idea of plants being able to withstand salt seems counterintuitive—the chemical nature of the sodium and chlorine ions break down plant cells as it binds to other molecules and disrupts the pathways plants use to absorb water and nutrients—effectively stopping the critical photosynthesis process when salt is in high enough quantities. But as always, nature finds a way, and some plants not only mildly tolerate salt but thrive in it. This list, originally featured in our weekly The Plug® email, is full of plants that have evolved in conditions with higher than normal salinity. In areas surrounding roadways or ocean shores, selecting plants with high salt tolerance leads to greater planting success as they are durable and adapted such conditions.

Designer-tip: some plants listed are tolerant of salt spray more than soil salinity and vice versa. It is important to do your research to find a plant most suitable to the environment in which it will be exposed—reports performed by NC State, University of Maryland, and University of Wisconsin were excellent resources to assist in creating this plant list.

Achillea millefolium and cvs. Allium cernuum Anemone canadensis Aquilegia canadensis and cvs. Ascelpias tuberosa Aster novae-angliae and cvs. Aster novi–belgii Baptisia australis and cvs. Bouteloua curtipendula Bouteloua gracilis and cvs. Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' Carex flaccosperma Carex vulpinoidea Chasmanthium latifolium Deschampsia cespitosa and cvs. Echinacea purpurea and cvs. Eragrostis spectabilis Gelsemium sempervirens and cvs. Hibiscus moscheutos Juncus effusus Lonicera sempervirens and cvs. Monarda didyma and cvs. Muhlenbergia capillaris and cvs. Oenothera sp. Perovskia atriplicifolia and cvs. Panicum virgatum and cvs. Rudbeckia sp. and cvs. Schizachyrium scoparium and cvs. Scirpus validus Solidago sempervirens Sorghastrum nutans Sporobolus heterolepis Veronica spicata and cvs.

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Caltha palustris

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Hibiscus moscheutos

Where Horticulture Meets Ecology™

resource guide

EVERGREEN BASAL FOLIAGE

Beyond the color of a flower or the shape of a leaf, there are many other plant characteristics that can enhance a garden design. We often consider factors such as plant height or the textural qualities of seedheads, but do we ever stop to think about utilizing something as innate as a plant survival mechanism?

Evergreen basal rosettes are modified stems with a circular arrangement of leaves that assist plants in surviving harsh winters, outcompeting other plants, and helping to protect from herbivory. Incorporating plants with evergreen basal rosettes into your garden design can lend interest in winter, prevent weed seed germination, and provide ecosystem services such as animal habitat and erosion control. A little less time weeding and a bit more time enjoying the beauty of your garden—sounds pretty good to us!

Antennaria plantaginifolia Asarum canadense Carex ‘Silver Sceptre’ Carex amphibola Carex appalachica Carex dolichostachya 'Gold Fountains' Kaga-nishiki Carex eburnea Carex flacca ‘Blue Zinger’ Carex flaccosperma Carex laxiculmus Bunny Blue® ‘HOBB’ Carex morrowii ‘Ice Dance’ Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’ Carex pensylvanica Carex plantaginea Carex platyphylla Carex radiata Chrysogonum virginianum and cvs. Festuca glauca ‘Beyond Blue’ Fragaria ‘Lipstick’ Geum fragarioides Helleborus ‘Brandywine‘ Helleborus foetidus Hypericum calycinum and cvs. Juncus sp. and cvs.

Lobelia sp. and cvs. Lysimachia lanceolata v. purpurea Oenothera sp. and cvs. Pachysandra procumbens Packera sp. and cvs. Polystichum sp. and cvs. Rubus calycinoides Salvia sp. and cvs. Sedum sp. and cvs. Solidago sempervirens Stachys byzantina and cvs. Viola walteri ‘Silver Gem’

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1. Carex laxiculmus Bunny Blue ® , 2. Carex radiata, 3. Juncus, 4. Lobelia sp., 5. Sedum sp.

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Where Horticulture Meets Ecology™

resource guide

DEER-RESISTANT PLANTS

Oh, dear! The deer are at it again! You’re probably tired of hearing this but we cannot stress this fact enough—deerresistant does not mean deer-PROOF! In lean times, when food sources are scarce, these beautiful yet destructive creatures will eat just about anything verdant and lush. However, plants included on this list are generally the last thing a deer will try in the garden. These plants have evolved instep with deer pressure and are typically unpalatable—unless under extreme duress. So, go on, Bambi—make our day.

Achillea sp. and cvs. Agastache sp. and cvs. Allium cernuum Amsonia sp. and cvs. Andropogon sp. and cvs. Aquilegia canadensis and cvs. Asarum canadense Asclepias sp. and cvs. Asteromea mongolica Athyrium sp. and cvs. Calamagrostis sp. and cvs. Calamintha sp. and cvs. Caltha palustris Carex sp. and cvs. Caryopteris sp. and cvs. Ceratostigma plumbaginoides Chasmanthium latifolium Chrysogonum virginianum and cvs. Coreopsis sp. and cvs. Dryopteris sp. and cvs. Echinacea sp. and cvs. Elymus virginicus Eupatorium sp. and cvs. Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae Gaura lindheimeri and cvs. Gelsemium sempervirens ‘Margarita’ Helenium sp. and cvs. Helleborus sp. and cvs. Juncus sp. and cvs.

Lavandula x intermedia ‘Phenomenal’ Leucanthemum x superbum and cvs. Lonicera sempervirens and cvs. Matteuccia struthiopteris Meehania cordata Monarda sp. and cvs. Muhlenbergia sp. and cvs. Nepeta sp. and cvs. Osmunda claytoniana Osmunda regalis var. spectabilis Packera sp. and cvs. Panicum virgatum and cvs. Perovskia atriplicifolia and cvs. Polystichum sp. and cvs. Pycnanthemum sp. and cvs. Rubus calycinoides Salvia lyrata ‘Purple Knockout’ Salvia nemorosa and cvs. Schizachyrium scoparium and cvs. Scirpus sp. and cvs. Sisyrinchium angustifolium ‘Lucerne’ Solidago sp. and cvs. Sorghastrum nutans Spigelia marilandica Stachys sp. and cvs. Thelypteris noveboracensis Viola walteri ‘Silver Gem’

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1. Sisyrinchium angustifolium ‘Lucerne’, 2. Aquilegia 'Corbett', 3. Matteuccia struthiopteris

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Eastern Modest Masked Bee on Lobelia silphilitica