The Node
Woodlander's resource center for plant education, how-to's, garden inspiration, and latest news from Woodlanders.
Watchers of the Waterways: The History of North America's Willows
In the hush of Southern dusk, where the last ribbons of gold slip off the water and vanish behind the cypress knees, the willow waits. She leans—always leans—toward the current,...
A Meditation on Cullowhee and the Celebration of Native Plants
Cullowhee. The name rolls off the tongue like the bend of a slow creek curling through the southern hills, gathering what time has forgotten and what wisdom still grows green....
The Wisdom of Withering: What a Southern Garden Teaches Us in July
There comes a time in every Southern garden when the exuberance of spring has worn itself thin. By July, the once-rhapsodic green of May has dulled to olive; leaves begin...
A Tang of Tenacity: The History of Cold-Hardy Citrus Varieties
The development of cold-hardy citrus didn’t begin in a backyard orchard—it began in the laboratories and trial fields of early 20th-century horticulturalists. These early scientists, often working in southern universities...
A Journey Through the Hypericum Genus
The name “St. John’s Wort” conjures images of golden summer blooms and herbal remedies meant to lift the spirit. Yet, behind this familiar name lies the expansive Hypericum genus, encompassing over...
The Quiet Giant: Quercus phellos and the Soul of Southern Landscapes
The willow oak (Quercus phellos) is not a tree that boasts. It does not flaunt ornate leaves or perfume the air with blossoms. It is not the stuff of children's...
The Wild Blueberries of the South
"In the leanest sandhill or beneath the pine’s green hush, there grows a shrub that asks little, gives much, and remembers a time before concrete and imported ornament. That shrub...
Milkweed and the Memory of Wings: A Garden Meditation on Asclepias
By a porch-shadowed field, where the air is sweet with summer clover and the cottony drift of seed rides the wind like the ghosts of dreams, the milkweed blooms. And...