Plants for Special Situations —

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Dicentra spectabilis ‘Gold Heart’ (Gold Heart Bleeding Heart)

“I love, love love this plant,” said Janie Grillo, customer service rep at Midwest Groundcovers in St. Charles. In her home garden, the plant reached five-plus feet across. “It was always about three and a half feet high and gorgeous. It holds its foliage much longer into the summer than the straight species.”

Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Pure Energy’ (Pure Energy Fountain Grass)

When it comes to perennial grasses, Brent Horvath, president of Intrinsic Perennial Gardens, likes Pure Energy fountain grass. “It has wide gold foliage almost like All Gold hakone grass but for full sun and it grows 30 to 36 inches tall and 36 to 42 inches wide with ginger redcolored flowers.”

“I really like that it can give you a bright pop of color in a shady location,” said George Murphy, of Murphy Landscape Design in Aurora. “I pair it a lot with Krossa Regal Hosta and pumila astilbe (Astilbe chinensis var. pumila). The bright yellow of the Japanese forest grass seems to play well with the bluish-green of the hosta and the lavender of the astilbe.” It’s a favorite of Trecartin, too. “It’s an excellent cascading grass for shady areas,” he said. “It works really well with hosta. I couldn’t believe something this exotic looking was hardy enough for Minnesota but it is.”

Hansen said. “It has beautiful gold foliage

Hakonechloa macra ‘All Gold’ (All Gold Japanese forest grass, Hakone)

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Eden-Valders Stone • When Quality Matters

Product used:

• Eden Outcropping

• Eden Flagstone

• Eden Outcropping for Steps

• Valders Buff Paving

• Valders Buff Pool Coping

• Photo credit to: Jireh Brick and Stone