Browse Plants

'Henry's Garnet' Virginia sweetspire is a very dependable, showy plant. It is an arching, 3- to 5-foot-tall shrub that holds its leaves well into fall, allowing the maroon, yellow, and orange tones to develop and reveal themselves over time. Virginia sweetspire also produces an early-summer show, featuring slender, drooping racemes of white flowers that attract all sorts of pollinating insects. Its suckering, slowly spreading, 6-foot-wide habit makes it a good choice for slopes and mass plantings.

Like the popular 'Henry's Garnet' Virginia sweetspire, Little Henry® has mildly fragrant white blooms in summer and red to orange leaf color in fall, but grows to just 2 to 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide. Use it in massed plantings, mixed borders, and containers. -Allan Armitage, Plants to know and grow, Fine Gardening issue #121

This slender, deciduous shrub has arching green shoots and dark green leaves divided into three oval-oblong leaflets. Solitary bright yellow flowers borne on leaf axils appear before the leaves in winter and early spring. They do not have the jasmine fragrance.

This evergreen shrub has a low, spreading habit and attractive, two-toned foliage. The pendulous foliage tips are frosted with gold on the upper surface and blue-green foliage on the underside. 'Daub's Frosted' reaches 15 inches tall by 5 feet wide at maturity. Dark purple fruit becomes paler later.

This evergreen shrub has rich, bright-green fine-textured foliage in summer. The compact habit is fountain-like, as its branches arch at a 60° angle out from its base. Reaches a mature size of 4 to 5 feet tall and 6 to 8 feet wide.

This is a slow-growing evergreen shrub with a formal appearance, with its narrow, columnar form and outstanding gray-green foliage. It grows to 15 feet tall and 10 feet wide at maturity. Its growth remains dense as it matures. Silvery-blue, waxy berries are highly decorative.

'Shoosmith'  is an evergreen shrub with a broad spreading habit, reaching 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide at maturity. Light-green juvenile foliage and rich dark-green adult foliage on the same plant creates a two-toned effect.

This creeping shrub has a prostrate form and dense, steely blue foliage. The mature height is 1 foot tall. Scale-like green leaves turn a dull purple in winter. Blue rug juniper creates a flat ground cover. It grows 6 to 12 inches per year and bears ovoid dark blue fruit.

This spreading, low-growing shrub has attractive bluish-green foliage and unusual upturned branches that create the appearance of a miniature blue forest. The mature size is 10 inches tall, with a spread that can reach 4 feet wide.

'Blue Star' jumiper is a slow-growing, compact, evergreen shrub with a mounding shape. Its silver blue foliage is attractive in all seasons, and its blue, berry-like, female cones each contain one seed, hence its common name.

'Holger' is a prostrate shrub with a semi-spreading form and narrow pointed leaves. Young growth emerges a soft sulfur-yellow, contrasting with steel-blue mature leaves. This plant bears glossy black fruit.

This upright bushy perennial has softly hairy, mid-green lower leaves to 3 inches long and lance-shaped upper leaves to 1 inch long. White, double flowers, resembling chrysanthemums, bloom almost constantly from spring to fall. Kalimeris is closely related to Boltonia.

Beautiful variegation brightens the green and grey mottled foliage. A wide creamy-golden margin blends to the edge of the cut-leaf foliage. Its spreading branches mingle softly with its garden neighbors. Blooming in early fall, 12-  to 15-inch stems produce light lavender aster-like flowers with a yellow center.

This U.S. native shrub has glossy, dark green leaves. Bowl- or cup-shaped pink to white flowers are borne in large clusters from late spring to midsummer. Cultivars include white-flowered 'Pristine', suitable for Zone 8; red-budded, pink-flowered 'Olympic Fire' and 'Sarah'; compact 'Elf' and 'Minuet'; and, for Zone 5, red-budded ‘Nathan Hale’ and 'Ostbo Red'.

This plant is a double-flowered cultivar of a suckering shrub from China and Japan. 'Pleniflora' is a very vigorous grower and bears large, fluffy yellow flowers in spring. It is slightly less hardy than the species. Leaves are sharply toothed and bright green. Grow in a shrub border or an open woodland area.

(1 user review)

This hardy, clump-forming perennial bears pendulous, shuttlecock-shaped soft-yellow blossoms in late August and early September. The plant has attractive, glossy, 4- to 8-inch-long, maple-leaf-shaped leaves.

(3 user reviews)

This clump-forming perennial reaches 2 to 3 feet in height and nearly as wide. Small but long-lasting wine-red pincushion-like flowers form on slender stems. The rosettes of pinnatifid basal leaves overwinter.

These tall spikes top off the perennial border with a burst of tropical-red racemes. The fine foliage makes the base of the plant equally attractive.

Deciduous, suckering shrub bearing a profusion of bell-shaped flowers, pale to deep pink with a yellow throat, in late spring and early summer. Dark-green foliage adds appeal when not in bloom.