Abutilon megapotamicum Little Imp is raved over in our garden. Seems hard to not love the bi-colored yellow and red Turk's cap-like flowers that abundantly cover this Brazilian bellflower.  This little imp would flower all year, if Jack Frost would let it. In some of the mild winters of late, it's...

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...

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...

Dichroa is weirdly similar, but wonderfully different than bigleaf hydrangea. Even though it's called "blue evergreen hydrangea" the flowers turn pink in alkaline soil and purple in neutral - this trait is the main floral similarity to bigleaf hydrangea. Texture and shape of Chinese quinine leaves are similar to bigleaf hydrangea,...

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...