Yellow buckeye, a giant flowering tree of the Appalachians, comes down the mountain and does just fine away from the other mountain folk (mountain trees, in this case). Stately, showy, native, and shady. If you have space to let it dominate and you want something a little different than typical...

Bottlebrush buckeye is a captivating, native, and mammoth-sized shrub with tremendous white "bottlebrush" flowers. The flowers are perfectly named: bottlebrush buckeye aptly describes both the whiskery flowers and the buckeye-looking seeds. The compound palmate leaves, reminiscent of windmill palm fronds, are distinctive. You'll see this buckeye shrub in big parks or expanse...

Red buckeye is a feast for the eyes when in flower and the parent tree of these seedlings has flowers that are a TRUE deep red (we mention this because we read that sometimes the tree flowers greenish, though we've never seen that). Can you name many another native southeastern...

Athens was the first sweetshrub I purchased; not only that, it was one of the first shrubs I purchased. Relaying that Athens was one of the first shrubs purchased by a young horticulturist is meant to portray that this is a sweetshrub to covet.  The flowers are yellowish or creamy greenish - but...

Sweetshrub or Carolina allspice is a favorite native plant; the flowers being like no other. The petals on these flowers are actually tepals. Another famous example of a tepal is the "petals" on Magnolia flowers. Variety purpureus is extra special due to rich purple color of the backsides of leaves, maturing leaves especially (i.e., not...

Since the day I saw a fistful of red winter stems of this silky dogwood at Dr. Dirr's I had to have it. Dr. Michael A. Dirr found Cayenne growing in a swamp in Virginia and brought twigs home to propagate. I'm sure glad he did - I've long coveted...

We like Table Mountain willow-leaved sunflower because it's significantly more compact (1-2' tall) than the typical species (8' tall). This means you can actually see the flowers on Table Mountain because they're at knee-level rather than towering over you in the stratosphere. The little yellow sunflowers are prolific! The plant...

'Balsam' is also knows as 'Highland Lace' because of the lacy mophead flowers (see pic for 1,000 words of explanation). These flowers are remontant - if you prune off the spent flowers, you will likely get a second flush. The texture of the leaves are evocative of the Appalachian forests...

We were fond of elderberry bushes when we'd float by them in a canoe - all in flower during summer paddles on Georgia rivers. Then we learned the dried berries can be steeped in vodka for a medicinal concoction and we had to plant a few for ourselves. We planted...

If Vincent van Gogh gardened, I think he'd favor yellow shrubs. They do so much to lighten dark garden nooks and improve my mood. This native shrub is a colorful variation on the typically green, native viburnum theme - use it in shady shrub borders and for naturalizing in woodlands. The yellow new...