Wayside Gardens has maintained a reputation for excellence in the horticultural world since its founding in 1920. This catalog provides access to a curated selection of rare and high-performance plants that serve both novice gardeners and seasoned landscape designers. Unlike standard nursery offerings, the varieties found here are chosen for their unique aesthetic qualities, disease resistance, and overall vigor. The catalog acts as a bridge between professional breeders and home gardeners, offering specimens that have undergone rigorous testing to ensure they can thrive in diverse North American climates. By focusing on perennials, bulbs, and ornamental shrubs that provide multi-season interest, this resource helps individuals create landscapes that evolve and mature beautifully over time. Reliability remains a hallmark of their operation, with a strong emphasis on delivering healthy, well-rooted plants directly to the customer’s doorstep during the optimal planting windows for their specific hardiness zones.
Navigating the extensive selection within the Wayside Gardens Catalog allows for a deep exploration of botanical diversity. The collection includes everything from sun-loving perennials and shade-tolerant groundcovers to majestic flowering trees and hardy vines. Each entry provides essential data on growth habits, mature sizes, and maintenance requirements, enabling informed decisions that lead to long-term gardening success. Beyond the plants themselves, the catalog offers specialized tools and garden accents designed to enhance the outdoor experience. This comprehensive approach ensures that every aspect of the garden—from the soil quality to the final decorative flourish—is addressed with expert-level guidance. Gardeners looking to solve specific landscape challenges, such as finding deer-resistant varieties or plants for heavy clay soil, will find targeted solutions within these pages. The focus on quality over quantity ensures that every specimen listed meets high standards for health and performance, making it a trusted companion for anyone serious about elevating their outdoor living spaces.
Expanding the Perennial Border with Unique Varieties
Perennials form the backbone of a successful garden, coming back year after year to provide color and structure. The catalog highlights a wide array of choices that go beyond the typical garden center fare. For instance, Hellebores, often called Lenten Roses, are a favorite for their ability to bloom in late winter or early spring when most other plants are still dormant. These shade-loving plants offer leathery evergreen foliage and delicate, nodding flowers in shades of burgundy, cream, and speckled green. They are incredibly hardy and once established, they require very little maintenance, making them ideal for gardeners who want high impact with low effort. These plants are also notably deer-resistant, which is a significant plus for those living near wooded areas.
Another standout category includes the modern cultivars of Echinacea, or Coneflowers. While the classic purple variety is a staple, the catalog features newer hybrids in vibrant hues like hot orange, lemon yellow, and deep tomato red. These plants are famous for their drought tolerance and their ability to attract pollinators like butterflies and bees. They thrive in full sun and well-drained soil, making them perfect for meadow-style plantings or traditional borders. The catalog provides specifics on which varieties offer the best branching habits and the longest bloom times, ensuring that the garden remains a riot of color from mid-summer through the first frost of autumn.
The Charm of Peonies and Early Summer Blooms
Peonies are legendary for their massive, fragrant blooms and their longevity, often outliving the gardeners who plant them. The selection includes herbaceous, tree, and Itoh (intersectional) peonies. Herbaceous peonies are the traditional favorites that die back to the ground in winter, while tree peonies have woody stems that remain above ground. Itoh peonies are a cross between the two, offering the massive flower size of tree peonies with the sturdy, self-supporting stems of the herbaceous types. Planting these in the fall ensures they have enough time to establish roots before the heat of the next summer. The catalog details the specific planting depth for these tubers, which is critical for ensuring they actually produce flowers rather than just foliage.
Shade Garden Solutions with Hostas and Heucheras
Finding plants for those tricky north-facing walls or under old canopy trees can be a challenge, but the catalog offers a robust selection of foliage-heavy stars. Hostas are the kings of the shade garden, ranging from the tiny ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ to giant varieties that can reach four feet across. Their leaves come in various textures and colors, including chartreuse, deep forest green, and variegated white. Heucheras, or Coral Bells, add even more versatility with their stunning leaf colors like lime, purple, and copper. These plants provide visual interest through their leaves alone, but they also produce delicate flower spikes that attract hummingbirds. The catalog helps gardeners mix and match these textures to create a lush, cool retreat in the shadiest corners of the yard.
Structural Beauty in the Landscape: Trees and Shrubs
Shrubs provide the essential mid-level structure that connects the tall canopy of trees to the lower-growing perennials. Hydrangeas are among the most popular offerings, with varieties spanning the classic blue mopheads to the newer, hardier panicle types. Panicle hydrangeas, such as ‘Limelight,’ are particularly valued for their upright growth and large, cone-shaped flower heads that transition from creamy white to pink as the season progresses. These are much more forgiving when it comes to pruning and sun exposure compared to their big-leaf cousins. The catalog offers clear instructions on when to prune each type—a common point of confusion for many gardeners—ensuring that flower buds are never accidentally removed.
Roses are another centerpiece of the Wayside Gardens collection. The focus here is on high-performance shrub roses and climbing varieties that offer repeat blooms and exceptional disease resistance. Unlike old-fashioned roses that required constant spraying and fussing, the modern selections listed are designed to be rugged. Many are self-cleaning, meaning they drop their spent petals naturally without the need for deadheading. From the romantic, multi-petaled look of David Austin English Roses to the vigorous growth of climbing roses that can cover a trellis in just a few seasons, these plants bring classic beauty without the traditional headaches. Detailed descriptions help buyers choose based on fragrance intensity, bloom shape, and mature size.
Adding Vertical Interest with Climbing Vines
Vertical gardening is an excellent way to maximize space in smaller yards or to add a layer of privacy to a patio. Clematis is the star of the vine category, often referred to as the queen of climbers. The catalog organizes these into three pruning groups, making it easy for gardeners to know how to care for their specific variety. Group 1 varieties bloom on old wood and need little pruning, while Group 3 varieties bloom on new growth and can be cut back almost to the ground each spring. Beyond Clematis, the catalog features other climbers like Honeysuckle and Wisteria, which provide not only height but also incredible fragrance that can waft through open windows on summer evenings.
Seasonal Interest Through Bulbs and Tubers
The catalog is an excellent resource for planning ahead, especially when it comes to spring and summer-flowering bulbs. Fall-planted bulbs like Tulips, Daffodils, and Hyacinths are essential for that first burst of color after a long winter. The selection includes “naturalizing” daffodils, which are varieties that will multiply over time, creating larger and more impressive drifts of yellow and white each year. For a more dramatic look, the catalog offers Parrot Tulips with their ruffled, multi-colored petals that look almost like tropical birds. Because these bulbs arrive at the correct time for planting in the customer’s specific zone, there is no guesswork involved in the timing.
Summer bulbs like Dahlias and Lilies provide high-impact drama when the rest of the garden might be starting to lag in the summer heat. Dahlias are particularly prized for their incredible range of sizes, from the small pompon types to the massive “dinner plate” varieties that can reach ten inches in diameter. These tubers are planted in the spring and bloom continuously until the first frost. The catalog provides tips on staking these tall plants and how to over-winter the tubers in colder climates. Lilies, including Oriental, Asiatic, and Trumpet varieties, offer some of the most intense fragrances in the botanical world. By planting a mix of these, a gardener can ensure a succession of blooms and scents that last for months.
Designing for Specific Ecosystems and Challenges
Modern gardening often involves more than just aesthetics; it is about creating a functional ecosystem. The catalog includes sections dedicated to pollinator-friendly plants, which are vital for supporting local bee and butterfly populations. Plants like Asclepias (Milkweed) and Buddleia (Butterfly Bush) are highlighted for their ability to provide food and habitat for these essential insects. Additionally, for those dealing with heavy browsing from local wildlife, there are curated lists of deer-resistant and rabbit-resistant plants. These include aromatic herbs like Lavender and Russian Sage, which animals generally avoid due to their strong scent and fuzzy texture.
Soil conditions can also be a major hurdle, but the catalog offers solutions for various environments. For areas with heavy clay soil that stays wet, there are recommendations for moisture-loving plants like Hibiscus and Siberian Iris. Conversely, for dry, sandy slopes where water drains away quickly, the catalog suggests drought-tolerant options like Sedum and Ornamental Grasses. These grasses add a modern, architectural element to the landscape and provide winter interest when their dried seed heads catch the snow and move in the wind. By matching the right plant to the existing site conditions, the catalog helps ensure that the garden thrives with less supplemental watering and fewer soil amendments.
Essential Tools and Quality Assurance
A beautiful garden requires the right tools, and the catalog provides a selection of professional-grade equipment. From ergonomic pruners that reduce hand strain to specialized fertilizers formulated for specific plant types, these accessories are chosen to complement the plant collection. High-quality soil amendments and mycorrhizal fungi starters are also available, which help new plants establish strong root systems more quickly. The goal is to provide a complete gardening system where the plants and the tools work together to produce the best possible results. Every item in the catalog is backed by a commitment to quality, ensuring that gardeners receive healthy specimens that are true to their variety names.
The logistical side of the operation is handled with care, as shipping live plants requires precision. The catalog explains the packing process, which uses specialized containers to protect delicate foliage and maintain moisture during transit. Plants are shipped at the appropriate time for planting in each geographical region, taking the guesswork out of the process for the customer. This regional timing is crucial for survival, as it prevents plants from sitting in freezing warehouses or sweltering delivery trucks. Detailed planting guides are included with every order, offering step-by-step instructions on hole size, soil preparation, and initial watering needs to give every new addition the best start in its new home.
Creating a vibrant and enduring landscape is a rewarding endeavor that begins with selecting the right botanical specimens. By utilizing the expert guidance and diverse selection found within this collection, gardeners can confidently tackle any project, from a small container garden to a sprawling estate. The focus on high-quality perennials, robust shrubs, and spectacular bulbs ensures that every planting season brings new beauty and success. To explore the full range of unique varieties and professional gardening essentials, visit the Wayside Gardens Catalog and start planning your next outdoor transformation today.