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...

I'm getting into native shrubs more than ever before, so we planted our first red chokeberries at our new home. I've seen Aronia species forming nice thickets in gardens, but it recently hit that I have to have some too. We're starting with Aronia arbutifolia 'Brilliant' and will explore the...

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...

This is another of my paddle-by plants. I see it a ton from a canoe on a river. It's in native gardens too and here and there you'll see it as a surprise in regular gardens. It stands out because it flowers in the summer heat and those flowers. They...

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...

Mt. Airy Fothergilla or witch alder is the gold standard for all Fothergillas. Michael Dirr selected it from Mt. Airy Arboretum 30 years ago and no other Fothergilla has appreciated like Mt. Airy - it stands the test of time. White, 2" tall, bottlebrush-style flowers blanket Mt. Airy from top...

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 like with other perennial and annual sunflowers. The...

'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 simply had to get one of these Haas Halos smooth hydrangeas for our garden. Those plate-sized lacecaps couldn't be resisted.  Planted out in the garden, we were impressed with its heat tolerance and resistance to wilting during dry, baking summer days. The fat stems are a big deal to...

Colbalt-n-Gold Kalm St. Johnswort is a small, cheerful, decorative shrub. The small flowers cover the shrub in June and look good on top of the gray-green leaves. Everything about this plant is pretty - the small stature, the button-like flowers (albeit the showy yellow stamens would make them spiky awkward buttons),...

You must have Florida Sunshine yellow anise-tree to brighten up your winter garden. The yellow leaves glow and pulsate with sunny cheer that's especially welcome during gray days and in grayed-out garden areas, but the yellow glow is a real mood-lifter 365 days a year.  Illicium parviflorum (small anise-tree) is the quintessential native...

BananAppeal is half the size as other small anise-trees, forming a 3-4' tall by 3-4' wide, round shrub. So this one has a different shape, being a lower mound, rather than an upright-oval form like FLA Sunshine. Small anise-tree grows wild in moist, woodland soils, but this species transitions well to...

Henry's Garnet Virginia sweetspire is a favored "naturalistic" shrubs because it has multi-season interest and wears well in innumerable garden styles. In spring, the 6" long, white pendulous flowers dangle all over the shrub like a designer who loves tassels and fringe. Then it looks well-dressed all summer with arching branches and green leaves; wrapping it...

The best new naturalistic, smaller Virginia sweetspire with the flower power you expect from a Love Child. It flowers heavily in spring for several weeks with beautiful, long racemes of white flowers. Raceme is the botanically correct way of saying in this case, "pendulous, long, bottlebrush-like flowers." Fall color is...

You collect native trees, you say? Well, I bet you don't have this one! This elm-like native is a smallish, yet fast-growing tree for wet soils and the average to poor soils of a typical neighborhood. It grows 20 to 30' tall and wide in swamps of the Coastal Plain of...

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...

Decumaria barbara is the closest thing to an American hydrangea vine native in our Eastern woods. It's not a hydrangea, but it's related and has a better common name - wood vamp. The white flowers do look hydrangea-like, but aren't as showy/large. They make up for being small by being prolific and covering...

If the only smooth hydrangea you're familiar with is the Annabelle hydrangea with the bodacious mophead flowers, please pause here to consider the lacecap flowers of 'Mary Nell'. The stems of 'Mary Nell' are stout and easily hold aloft the 6-8" lacecaps without flopping over to the ground (flopping is...

This is one of the best new oakleaf hydrangeas there is. The plants themselves are shorter, more compact. It's a dense oakleaf that holds the flowers high, without the dreaded flopping. It has good posture! Jetstream's white cone-shaped flowers age to pink, then to a deeper rose. This antiquing process...