Cimicifuga racemosa, commonly called bugbane, black snakeroot, or black cohosh, growing wild and planted it in his Pennsylvania garden. He then sent seeds to his friend Peter Collinson in England.  

The Native Americans told the colonists to use it to treat fevers, lumbago, rheumatism, and snake bites with a medicine made from the roots. Its common names became bugbane and squawroot. The leaves are coarse and toothed, and the plant produces clumps of leaves, as well as tall, slender racemes of delicate white flowers that can grow up to six feet in midsummer.  

The plant likes light shade, rich soil, and frequent water. The flowers are not available commercially but are used as cut flowers from the garden where they can be striking in arrangements. The spires have also given rise to the folk name of fairy candles.  

Note: Cimicifuga racemosa has been reclassified as Actaea racemosa. Additional common names for this plant are black cohosh and black snakeroot.

The plant variety that produces double flowers is Saponaria ‘Flora Pleno’, which is pale pink and white with a delicate scent. 

Common names are soapwort and “bouncing bet.” The plant spreads a lot, as it will grow almost anywhere and is often found along railroad tracks and even in dust heaps. In gardens, it is best confined to the outskirts not the main flower borders. My advice is that it is best grown only in pots.

Sara Coleridge wrote this poem in the 1800s.

"January brings snow, and makes our feet and fingers glow.
February brings the rain and thaws the frozen lake again.
March brings breezes loud and shrill, stirs the dancing daffodil....

If you have a garden, you probably enjoy displaying your flowers in your home. I have many small vases and bottles with narrow necks, so that I can pop just one or two flowers into them. When I come indoors after my morning walk, I usually bring what I call my "Flower of the Day." It is the flower that has really caught my eye that I want to look at close-up. 

You may like to try drying your end of summer flowers in your microwave. 

The best way to air-dry most flowers is to hang them upside down in bunches in a dry dark place for 1-3 weeks. Take the leaves off the stems and bind 6-10 stems together tightly with rubber bands.

n 1906, Beatrix Potter acquired a farmhouse in the Lake District of England. 

Her new house and garden became incorporated into her stories about the famous characters in her books, such as Peter Rabbit and Mrs. Tabitha Twitchet, that still delight children today. 

She delighted in the plants that her neighbors gave to her: roses, hollyhocks, and phlox, and the fruit trees and vegetables growing in an informal way among the flowers. She blended the practical with the beautiful. There was a long flower-edged path leading up to the house, and she described her gardening style as higgledy-piggledy. Both Beatrix and her garden were utterly unpretentious.

Even as early as the 15th century in England, a time when gardens focused mainly on plants used in medicines and for cooking, there were a few plants grown because they produced beautiful flowers. 

The poem "Glory of the Garden" by  Rudyard Kipling.

Daphne, a shrub with tiny clusters of fragrant flowers, is poisonous as well as having sap that is a skin irritant. Just a few of Daphne's brightly colored berries could kill a child.