Hopleys abelia is sought after for the year-round pop of foliage color and the summer-long flowering. The leaves are multi-colored variegated - that means they are green with gold and cream streaks up the sides. In winter those streaks turn pink on the youngest leaves. This color change is so...

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...

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...

Hartlage Wine sweetshrub brings bodaciousness to the otherwise demure-looking flower of a never-the-less beloved native shrub. It's a strange and captivating flower, but prone to blending in amongst the leaves - thus, demure. Hartlage Wine gives gardeners the visual wow factor from bigger and showier flowers, borne more abundantly on...

This is the true tea bush. Yes, indeed, the beverage is also a garden-worthy evergreen shrub. Why isn't everybody talking about what a massive block of leaves this shrub forms? This plant should be used more in gardens! We had two in front of our former house and they were vigorous...

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...

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,...

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...

Sweet Tea Gardenia has large, tennis ball-sized, double flowers. It's a strong rebloomer and a zone cold hardier than most. Gardenias are beloved members of every southern garden, but they do sometimes cause heartbreak due to lack of winter hardiness. We admonish to select a cold hardy variety (there aren't...

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...

We adore our Red Pixie lilac bush because she's not only a lilac for regions with sizzling hot summers, but her flowers are what one wants out of a lilac - compelling, confident, and colorful. (I don't want to knock the two other zone 8a heat tolerant lilacs that I...