Smooth hydrangea is a cherished shrub that has two check marks in its favor: ✔ it's a native hydrangea ✔ it's a slow colonizer We love plants that colonize an area. Colonizers do the work of filling in gaps for us, so we think down the road and give them...

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...

There's nothing like climbing aster and what it brings to the garden, being one of the treasured fall bloomers that are such a refreshing joy during the transition from sweltering summer to bleak brown winter.  The garden gets a second wind when this and other autumn flowering plants, like Helianthus salicifolius Table...

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...

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. Plus, BananAppeal's cheery yellow leaves resist bleaching caused by an abundance of sun. That's a strong asset because...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 other's gardens, but it recently hit that I have to have some now too. We're starting with Aronia arbutifolia 'Brilliant' and will...

Henry's Garnet Virginia sweetspire is one of my favorite "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...

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 cute - the small stature, the button-like flowers (albeit the showy yellow stamens would make them spiky awkward...

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...

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...