Native plants are those that occur naturally in a place. Many of the plants grown in the garden are exotic, introduced from somewhere else. Many of the plants growing in the natural landscape are naturalized. Invasive exotics can threaten ecosystems. Learning about native plants and including them in the garden is a gift to your community and the environment.
Yellow buckeye is native to a relatively narrow range of the Appalachian mountains. I love buckeyes without reserve. Their …
Freely produced panicles of white flowers are elegant and long-lasting, making the bottlebrush buckeye one of the most …
A red buckeye I planted years ago was the first to yield actual buckeye nuts. I gave one …
Plant Annabelle hydrangea in areas of the garden shaded from the afternoon sun. The flowers, when they come, …
Mrs. Scott Elliot columbine is a hybrid of Aquilegia caerulea, Rocky Mountain columbine. You tend to see Mrs. Scott Elliot …
One of the all time greats for the shade garden (can tolerate sun with good moisture), Aquilegia canadensis …
Golden columbine gets bigger and bushier than the more graceful and delicate American columbine (Aquilegia canadensis). Like American …
Yellow columbine, Aquilegia flavescens, is native to the mountainous regions of the western United States and Canada. The color …
Georgia rockcress is rare and endangered, with less than an estimated 5,000 plants in existence. The known plants …
Arisaema triphyllum (jack-in-the-pulpit) is a classic native perennial of North America. It is a solid choice for gardeners …
Before covering butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa, I pass on the best butterfly weed tip I know: it emerges …
Heath aster, Aster ericoides, starts flowering in September. When the asters and ironweed arrive, we know fall is coming. Summer …
Lucky Lady azalea is an Exbury hybrid. It is a deciduous azalea with pure crimson red flowers. On …
Twilite Prairieblues false indigo (Baptisia x variicolor ‘Twilite’) is tough and robust in the mid-spring garden. The name is …
Yellow false indigo Carolina Moonlight’s flowers are as close to the color of butter as I have seen. …
Finally, I took a good photograph of blue false indigo by taking a picture of a bee for …
Butterfly weed in early spring is….nowhere to be found. Asclepias tuberosa, also known as milkweed, comes up very …
I was seventeen the first time the fragrance of Calycanthus floridus hit me, standing in the Georgia woods. I’m …
Named after the city of Athens, Georgia, this yellow-flowered sweetshrub is a rare beauty.
Camassia leichtlinii ‘Sacajawea’, variegated camas, is native to the western United States and British Columbia. Camassia leichtlinii is …
Cephalanthus occidentalis, common buttonbush, is wild and wonderful. Buttonbush has unique one-inch diameter white spherical flowers that give …
Many redbud species have flowers that bloom directly on the trunk and branches. Both eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) and …
Every spring I go to my favorite nursery Goodness Grows to marvel at their large weeping Texas Traveller …
Looking for a medium-sized native tree (or large shrub) that is moderate to slow-growing and has blooms in …
I was introduced to the long-flowering native perennial for the shade Chrysogonum virginianum, green and gold, by the …
Clematis pitcheri ‘Pottawatomie’ is a deciduous vine native to the Midwest from Texas to Iowa. I’m a huge …
Clematis viorna, leather flower or vasevine, is a vine native to the Southeastern United States.
Coreopsis auriculata Nana has the common name ‘ear-leaved tickseed’, but I sometimes refer to it as Coreopsis Nana …
Pink dogwood, Cornus florida ‘Rubra’, is found in gardens to a lesser extent than the white flowering dogwood but …
Echinacea pallida, pale purple coneflower, is of the prairies and the hardscrabble, as tough and beautiful as a Dorothea …
From childhood onward we know purple coneflower in the American landscape.
Long bloom period. Drought tolerant. Tolerant of a variety of soil types and rainfall amount. Native. Attractive to birds …
We are planting white coneflower White Swan in the garden. Coneflowers are among the easiest of sun-loving perennials to …
Rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium) is a native perennial with the coolest name in gardening. As the name implies, …
Many gardeners know the orange flowers of the California poppy, one of the great native plants of North …
Joe Pye weed, native to the eastern United States and Canada, is one of the great herbaceous perennials …
I chose to write more about false indigo due to liking some photos of the post-flower seed pods. …
Fothergilla Mount Airy (Fothergilla major Mount Airy) hangs around in a fairly nondescript manner during summer. At the …
False sunflower Sunstruck (Heliopsis helianthoides ‘Sunstruck’) is notable for the large flowers and variegated foliage. With the exception …
Ryan Gainey hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens ‘Ryan Gainey’) solves the primary issue many gardeners experience with the most commonly …
Little Honey oakleaf hydrangea is unexpectedly great. I had seen photographs in catalogs for years and had reservations. …
Oakleaf hydrangea is a wonderful native plant with four-season interest that is beautiful in the garden. An epic …
Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) is, in my estimation, nearly the perfect garden plant. It has four-season interest. It …
Goldenseal, Hydrastis canadensis, is a native perennial under duress due to loss of habitat and illegal harvesting. I’ve …
Traub’s spider lily prefers consistently moist soil. It was growing in full sun where I photographed it. You …
Ilex verticillata, common winterberry, is a deciduous holly; with the exception of the American holly (Ilex opaca) and …
Native over a tremendously wide range of the southeastern United States, Iris cristata is tough and has nobility …
Iris cristata Tennessee White has many good attributes, starting with the pure white flowers I find so unexpected …
Native to the eastern U.S., Liatris spicata, common name ‘blazing star’, tends to be a short-lived perennial. In …
Tulip poplar is one of the finest native trees in North America. Native to vast tracts of eastern North …
Native to the swampier places of the eastern United States, Magnolia virginiana
Magnolia grandiflora is a big tree and somewhat out of fashion these days. If a gardener has a …
Bigleaf magnolia, Magnolia macrophylla, has the largest flowers and leaves of any native plant in North America. If …
Monarda didyma ‘Jacob Cline’, scarlet bee balm, rivals cardinal flower as one of the truest and deepest red …
Wild bergamot, Monarda fistulosa, is an ecologically important native perennial. Native to large swaths of the United States, Canada, …
Surprising to many, pink evening primrose, Oenothera speciosa, is native to much of the United States. It is also …
Onoclea sensibilis was originally given the common name sensitive fern because the fronds are highly sensitive to frost. …
Osmunda regalis spectabilis, royal fern, is a large fern that can grow to six feet tall and survive …
Small’s ragwort, Packera anonyma, is native to the eastern United States and wonderful in the meadow garden. Small’s ragwort can …
The flowers of native perennial Parthenium integrifolium (wild quinine, American feverfew) look like miniature cauliflower, or perhaps cotton. …
I’ve wanted to grow Virginia creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia, for a long time. I asked my favorite nurseryman where I …
Husker Red is a selected cultivar of Penstemon digitalis, an adaptable and easy to grow garden perennial native …
The eastern prickly pear cactus (Opuntia humifusa) is native to various parts of the United States. The flowers …
A scrappy and scruffy native perennial for the wildflower garden, Ratibida columnifera is reliable, easy to grow, and …
When I was nineteen I was walking down a Georgia dirt road
The fall color of smooth sumac blazes. Smooth sumac is a plant we rarely think about until the inevitable …
Rosa palustris, swamp rose, is a species rose native to the eastern United States. It is called swamp …
Prairie rose, Rosa setigera, is a species rose native to North America. Blooming in late spring to early …
Introduced in 1995, and often sold to gardeners as an annual, black-eyed Susan ‘Indian Summer’ is a short-lived …
Sarracenia leucophylla, white-topped pitcher plant, is a beautiful and valuable native perennial found in the lower parts of …
Hoary skullcap, Scutellaria incana, is also known as downy skullcap. It a native perennial widely adaptable in the …
Spigelia ‘Ragin Cajun’, a sport of indian pink, Spigelia marilandica, may be the rarest of the plants I’ve written about.
Spigelia marilandica, Indian pink or woodland pinkroot, is irresistible to hummingbirds and is a long-flowering native perennial perfectly at home …
Southern shield fern, Thelypteris kunthii or Dryopteris normalis, is an adaptable and easy to grow deciduous native fern. …
My mother loved foam flower, Tiarella cordifolia. My wife Angela likes it too. I was always cool towards …
Virginia spiderwort, Tradescantia virginiana, is a perennial native to the deciduous forests of the eastern United States. It is …
The ephemerals are intriguing plants; the great white trillium is the most iconic of the North American spring …
Trillium luteum, common name yellow trillium or yellow wakerobin, is native to the forests of the Great Smoky …
Blueberries have all the qualities of brilliant garden plants. Often seen on farms or in rural landscapes, blueberries …
Darrow’s blueberry, Vaccinium darrowii, is a native shrub that is woefully underused in the ornamental landscape. It is …
Known as tall ironweed or giant ironweed, perennial Vernonia gigantea is big, purple, and native. A member of …
Native to wide parts of the eastern and midwestern United States & found in moist environments, blackhaw viburnum …
Rarely seen in the landscape, Atamasco lily, Zephyranthes atamasca, is a native perennial also known as rain lily. Not …