Where nature and happiness meet.

A native to the eastern United States, purple coneflowers are found in many flower gardens. Planting purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) in the garden or flower bed draws bees and butterflies, ensuring that nearby plants have plenty of pollinators. The plant also provides a tall background or repeating rows of large, often 6 inches (15 cm.) across, purple, daisy-like flowers. The sturdy stalks, which may reach 5 feet (1.5 m.) in height, rarely bend or require staking for an upright appearance.

Salvia Greggi also known as autumn sage is a soft, mounding shrub normally 2-3 ft. tall, with small, mintily aromatic green leaves that are evergreen in warmer climates. The flowers are borne on racemes from spring to frost and can be red, pink, purple, orange, or white. Its natural range is from south-central and west Texas south to San Luis Potosi in Mexico, mostly on rocky slopes.

A popular landscape plant in the Southwest, Autumn sage is delightful to use as a small, ornamental, flowering shrub in a perennial bed or as a low hedge. Its aromatic foliage quickens the senses and its flowers are sure to draw hummingbirds. The color of its blossoms in the wild is usually red but varies from area to area, with some regions dominated by red-blooming plants, others pink, others orange, others purple, and others white, plus many shades in between. The color range has been further enhanced by breeding, resulting in many cultivars over the years. It is disease and insect free and drought tolerant, and once established, should not be fertilized.

Veronica graces the garden with spires of flowers that bloom spring through fall with some reblooming for an extended show. Also known as speedwell, this easy-to- grow perennial is available in many different sizes and colors, even shades of blue. With their colorful, blooming spikes, Veronica can brighten any full-sun garden and add texture with their flowers.

Datura is a type of plant that belongs to the Solanaceae family. There are several species of datura with many common names including moonflower, devil’s trumpet, devil’s weed, loco weed, and jimsonweed. It has become naturalized in temperate and tropical regions around the world. There are annual and perennial types depending on species and climate. Datura metel have a distinctly large trumpet-shaped flower with large green leaves that grow in an alternating pattern. The majority of the flowers are open in the late evening until mid-morning.

The Endless Summer Hydrangea is the first hydrangea that blooms both on the previous year’s branches as well as the new season’s growth. This shrub has beautiful blue or pink flowers spring through summer. The color of blooms depend on soil pH, which can be amended using an acid fertilizer in the early spring. The compact size of the shrub of 4 feet tall and wide will fit almost any landscape. Makes a superior accent or specimen plant. These also make great cut flowers for arrangements.

Verbesina virginica (aka Frostweed) is an easy-to-grow plant that lends stately, dark green leaves and white, autumn flowers to the dappled shade found at the edges of woodlands, where it can form sizable colonies with its spreading rhizomes. Each stem has soft, fleshy green flanges running longitudinally down its length. When winter weather brings ice, the stems exude water that freezes into fascinating shapes, hence its common name Frostweed. This plant is best suited for naturalizing rather than formal landscapes.

The ice crystals formed on the stems of this and other plant species have been given many names – among them: ice ribbons, ice flowers, ice fringes, ice fingers, ice filaments, ice leaves, frost flowers, frost ribbons, frost freaks, frost beards, frost castle

A profusion of hot pink, semi-double blooms with golden yellow centers and glossy, dark green foliage. Flowers are perfect for cutting. Use as a colorful low hedge, espalier or high profile groundcover. An early to mid-season bloomer. It is considered an Evergreen.

Encore azaleas are a group of 25 evergreen azalea varieties developed by Robert “Buddy” Lee in Louisiana in the 1980s. Encores are hybrids of Kurume and Southern Indica parents and all cultivar names begin with the word ‘Autumn.’ They are the most sun tolerant azaleas and rebloom in the late summer and fall, advises North Carolina State University Cooperative Extension. The Encore cultivars are cold hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 7 through 9 with some varieties hardy to zone 6.

Buddleia ‘Boscranz’ (aka CranRazz Butterfly Bush) is a small, fragrant, raspberry red flowers on 8-inch panicles bloom against green foliage from summer until frost. Matures at 5 to 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide. Great for borders or landscape plantings.

Abelia x grandiflora ‘Hopley’s’ (aka Twist of Lime Abelia) are bright multi-color leaves are yellow with green centers when young and mature to ivory and green. Dainty clusters of pink buds open to pale pink-blushed flowers, summer to fall. A dense and bushy selection for large patio containers or massing as a foundation planting. Evergreen.

Brilliant golden yellow flower clusters cover this colorful, heat-loving perennial from spring to fall. Trailing growth is excellent for use as groundcover or tumbling from hanging baskets. Evergreen in warm, frost-free climates; treat as a summer annual in northern regions.

An aromatic perennial herb, Fennel is widely cultivated for its edible, licorice-flavored leaves and seeds. The variety ‘Purpureum,’ also known as Bronze Fennel, has dark, smoky foliage to a height of 6’, an attractive backdrop in perennial borders, where it adds a soft, airy, somewhat mysterious look. The large umbels of nectar-filled, yellow flowers are attractive to many butterflies and pollinators and will eventually dry and create a bountiful harvest of fennel seeds. A prized host plant for the Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly and caterpillar.

Native to the Mediterranean region and southwestern Asia, Foeniculum vulgare is the sole species in the genus. For information on growing and care, click on Growing Guide.

Phyla nodiflora (aka Texas Frogfruit) can be used as an excellent ground cover and is evergreen in warm years. It is also evergreen in areas protected from frost. It spreads vigorously. Frogfruit generally is a good nectar plant for butterflies. It is an attractive plant rambling over boulders or the edges of hanging baskets. It also can tolerate drought and flooding.

This species is a member of the verbena family (family Verbenaceae), which includes about 75 genera and 3,000 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees, mostly of tropical and warm temperate regions. Among them, teak is a highly prized furniture wood, and Vervain, Lantana, Lippia or Frog Fruit, and Chase Tree or Vitex are grown as ornamentals.

Passiflora incarnata (aka Passion Vine) is an herbaceous vine, up to 25 ft. long, that climbs with axillary tendrils or sprawls along the ground. Intricate, 3 in., lavender flower are short-stalked from leaf axils. The petals and sepals subtend a fringe of wavy or crimped, hair-like segments. The pistil and stamens are also showy. Three-lobed, deciduous leaves are dark-green above and whitish below. The fruit is a large, orange-yellow berry with edible pulp. Like some other passion vines, Maypop spreads by root suckers.

This unusual flower is widely distributed in the Southeast, especially from Florida to Texas. The plants were given the name Passionflower or Passion vine because the floral parts were once said to represent aspects of the Christian crucifixion story, sometimes referred to as the Passion. The 10 petal-like parts represents the disciples of Jesus, excluding Peter and Judas; the 5 stamens the wounds Jesus received; the knob-like stigmas the nails; the fringe the crown of thorns.

Ajuga reptans (aka Bronze Ajuga) is an excellent spreading groundcover featuring deep blue flower spikes and attractive contrasting bronze-tinged, green foliage. Forms a dense, carpet-like mat, even in shady areas! Tuck into rock walls or gardens, between stepping stones, or between shrubs in borders. An herbaceous perennial.

Cephalanthus occidentalis (aka Common buttonbush) is a multi-stemmed shrub which grows 6-12 ft. or occasionally taller. Leaves in pairs or in threes, petiolate; blade up to 8 inches long, ovate to narrower, sometimes 1/3 or less as wide as long, with a pointed tip and rounded to tapered base, smooth margins and glossy upper surface, lower surface duller. Glossy, dark-green leaves lack significant fall color. Flowers small, borne in distinctive, dense, spherical clusters (heads) with a fringe of pistils protruded beyond the white corollas. Long-lasting, unusual blossoms are white or pale-pink, one-inch globes. Subsequent rounded masses of nutlets persist through the winter. Trunks are often twisted. Spreading, much-branched shrub or sometimes small tree with many branches (often crooked and leaning), irregular crown, balls of white flowers resembling pincushions, and buttonlike balls of fruit.

Buttonbush is a handsome ornamental suited to wet soils and is also a honey plant. Ducks and other water birds and shorebirds consume the seeds.

Anethum graveolens (aka Dukat Leafy Dill) is an especially sweet and mellow dill bred in Denmark for traditional Scandinavian dishes. The fine cut, blue green leaves hold longer than other varieties. Use Dukat’s aromatic fresh leaf fronds lavishly. Sprinkle on steamed summer vegetables, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, in mixed green salads and dressings, in sauces and, most deliciously, over grilled or poached salmon and other fish. Let some plants bloom to give nectar to butterflies and then harvest the pungent seed heads to season pickles.

Milkweeds (Asclepias) get their name from the sticky white sap that oozes from the leaves when they are damaged. The petite, star-shaped flowers of milkweed are perfectly designed for pollination. Depending on the plant, milkweed flowers bloom in yellow, green, purple, pink, or orange. Equally well designed are the large seed pods that develop from the fertilized flowers. In the fall, these proficient self-sowers split open to release hundreds of seeds.

Originally it known as Chrysanthemum x superbum, the plant was renamed and is now known as Leucanthemum x superbum. Several cultivars of Shasta daisy plants are available to the gardener. Some may reach 3 feet in height while others are just a few inches tall. Shasta daisy flowers provide perky summer blooms, offering the look of the traditional daisy along with evergreen foliage that lasts year-round in many locations