With the most hours of daylight, some flowers in my garden synchronize. A color scheme of yellow with a touch of blue growing in light shade. Hakone, or Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra ‘All Gold’); variegated Jacob’s ladder (Polemonium reptans ‘Stairway to Heaven’); the yellow flowered Jerusalem sage (Phlomis russeliana); violet Polemonium flowers; perennial foxglove (Digitalis grandiflora); and variegated Lysimachia punctata ‘Alexander’.

 

Jerusalem sage (Phlomis russeliana) originated in the Middle East. Digitalis grandiflora (syn. D. ambigua) comes from the mountainous regions of Europe and parts of Asia. This creamy-yellow foxglove is one true perennial in a genus that features mostly biennial species. Shade-tolerant Japanese Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) obviously comes from that country. For decades the very slow-growing variegated variety ‘Aureola’ was the most popular garden selection, but in the first decade of the twenty-first century, several cultivars have gained in popularity. These versions grow faster, including ‘All Gold’, which is a stunning yellow grass.

Greek valerian is the common name for a plant that hails from the eastern half of the United States. Also called Jacob’s ladder, one selection is Polemonium reptans ‘Stairway to Heaven’ found by Bill Cullina—the best of the variegated forms, others of which may be lax or barely perennial. Reptans means creeping (perhaps a reference to something underground), but this one grows to two feet and is topped by blue-violet flowers from late spring into early summer.

All of these plants are lovely together in a very cosmopolitan yellow planting scheme along with a touch of that color’s complement: violet blue.

Hydrangeas are not Greek. The genus is practically circum-global with species originating in Asia and North and South America, and cousins like Deutzia and mock orange (Philadelphus). The blooming season lasts most of the summer. Most scientific names for plants are Latin in origin, but not the hydrangea’s. The name means water vessel in Greek, and it describes the plants’ seed capsule. (The origin of the name of another cousin, Kirengeshoma, is Japanese.)

There are many good reasons to learn plants’ real, scientific names, be they Latin, Greek, or of any other origin. If you are hoping to find out about a plant, the scientific name is the way to go, since it is universal. Hydrangea bears the same name in Topeka, Kansas, and Tokyo, Japan—this plant’s country of origin. Few people refer to Hydrangea macrophylla by the common names mophead or Hortensia. We call them hydrangea. Learning the actual names helps each type to stand out and, therefore, receive the fine-tuned care it needs. If you think you will never be able to learn the names of the plants, consider how many you already know: hydrangea, rhododendron, chrysanthemum, philodendron, begonia, and so on!

Pure summer: a collection of single and double varieties of Hydrangea macrophylla. Hydrangea is Greek derived from the words describing the shape of the fruit or capsule—water (hydro) and jar (aggeion).