Styrax obassia, the fragrant snowbell, is the bold-leaved cousin of the more familiar Japanese snowbell, a small deciduous tree from the mountain woodlands of Japan, Korea, and China. Where Styrax japonicus hides small bells beneath fine, layered branches, the fragrant snowbell wears large, rounded, almost tropical leaves up to eight inches across, and hangs long, drooping chains of white, bell-shaped flowers that carry a sweet perfume through the late-spring garden.
In the open oak-hickory woodlands and fire-maintained savannas that once covered the upland South, Georgia aster was a fixture, a late-season native sending up violet-blue flowers in October and November at the precise moment when almost everything else had finished. That landscape is largely gone now, and the aster went with most of it.
A native aster with a regional accent. Most of the asters Americans plant are wide-ranging species that turn up from Maine to Texas and read essentially the same wherever they grow. Symphyotrichum grandiflorum is more particular, with a native range small and specific: the Atlantic Coastal Plain of Virginia and the Carolinas, plus the Piedmont of the Carolinas, and little more. A few hundred miles of sandy roadsides, dry pine-oak woods, abandoned fields, and forest edges from the Tidewater into the rolling country west of the fall line. For a gardener in the Carolinas or Georgia, this is one of the few asters that is genuinely here, a piece of the actual Atlantic Coastal Plain flora rather than a borrowed prairie species filling in for a missing native.
Syringa meyeri 'Palibin', the dwarf Korean lilac, is a Southern-friendly lilac with old-world charm and clouds of spring fragrance. For gardeners who have long admired the lilac's perfume but found themselves too far south to grow one with confidence, this compact deciduous shrub offers the romance of the traditional lilacs, dense clusters of icy-pink to pale lavender bloom, without the northern fussiness.
Copper Canyon daisy is a big, aromatic, autumn-flowering marigold from the mountains of southern Arizona and adjacent northern Mexico, grown as much for the scent as the show. Brush against the finely divided, fern-like foliage and the plant releases a strong, distinctive fragrance, a mix of citrus, anise, and marigold that some find intoxicating and others frankly pungent. Tagetes lemmonii builds a soft, shrubby mound three to four feet high and wider still.
Tagetes lucida is the herb that does it all. Known as Mexican tarragon, Mexican mint marigold, pericón, and, in the old Aztec tongue, yauhtli, this fragrant perennial from Mexico and Central America earns every name. The narrow, glossy, deep-green leaves carry a warm anise-tarragon scent and flavor, and in late summer and fall the plant scatters small, single, golden-yellow marigold flowers across a tidy foot-and-a-half mound.
Imagine a shrub that looks like a conifer caught in an airy, pink-flowering daydream. Tamarix ramosissima, often called tamarisk or saltcedar, is a deciduous shrub or small tree with fine, scale-like leaves that read as cedar from ten feet away, yet drop in winter. That contradiction is the charm: conifer-like texture on a plant that is no conifer at all.
Pond cypress is the quieter of the two native bald cypresses, a deciduous conifer closely related to the more widespread Taxodium distichum but smaller, tidier, and distinct in leaf. Where bald cypress wears soft, feather-like foliage, pond cypress carries fine, scale-like leaves pressed close and ascending along the shoots, giving the young tree a narrow, almost columnar, pyramidal outline.
Florida yew is one of the rarest conifers in North America, a shrubby evergreen restricted to a single stretch of steep, cool ravines along the eastern bluffs of the Apalachicola River in the Florida Panhandle, and nowhere else on Earth. A shrub or small tree of the shaded understory, the plant carries flat, soft, dark-green needles and, on female plants, the fleshy scarlet arils that mark every yew.
Cape honeysuckle is a rangy, vine-like evergreen shrub from southern Africa, grown for glossy, compound leaves like a trumpet vine's and, above all, for the showy clusters of orange to orange-red tubular flowers that hummingbirds and, in the wild, sunbirds cannot resist. A member of the trumpet-vine family, Bignoniaceae, the plant can be trained up a support, clipped into a loose informal hedge, or left to cascade over a wall or bank.
Silver germander is a Mediterranean evergreen grown above all for foliage. Teucrium fruticans wears small, aromatic, gray-green leaves backed in silvery white felt, on pale, white-woolly stems, so the whole shrub reads as a soft silver mound that lights a hot, sunny border and cools the greens around it. A member of the mint family, Lamiaceae, the plant carries the square stems and aromatic foliage of that clan.
Romantic, loose, and full of life, the Cottage Garden Set brings together six native perennials and grasses chosen for their long season of beauty, soft movement, and deep connection to pollinators and garden history. From the spring bloom of Baptisia alba var. macrophylla to the late golden daisies of Rudbeckia fulgida var. fulgida, this collection creates the layered, story-rich abundance that defines a true cottage garden.With nodding flowers, fragrant foliage, airy grass, and old-fashioned charm, this set offers a planting that feels both curated and delightfully unruly... the kind of garden that seems to have gathered itself naturally, yet blooms with intention from spring into fall.
№ 853A native-forward planting for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds
The Pollinator SetA native-forward planting for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds
Build a garden that hums, flutters, and feeds life from early spring through late fall. Our Pollinator Set brings together six powerhouse perennials chosen for their layered bloom, ecological value, and ability to support pollinators across the seasons. From the early golden flowers of Packera aurea to the final autumn feast provided by Symphyotrichum oblongifolium, this collection creates a richly planted nectar corridor for bees, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, and other beneficial insects.
Rain Garden SetTurn a wet spot into one of the most dynamic parts of the garden. Our Rain Garden Set brings together six moisture-loving plants chosen for their bold texture, long season of interest, and ability to thrive where water lingers. From the elegant spring flowers of Iris virginica to the vivid late-season color of Boltonia asteroides and Vernonia noveboracensis, this collection creates a richly layered planting that feels lush, architectural, and alive from spring through fall.
Think of this as a living blueprint. The Southern Structure Kit brings together six bold, beautiful, and botanically significant plants that offer backbone, texture, and seasonal brilliance to the Southeastern landscape. These plugs aren't fleeting fillers — they are the shrubs and perennials that define borders, screen views, feed birds, and turn heads.
The Thomasville citrangequat is more than a fruit tree, a living piece of Southern horticultural history. First fruited in Thomasville, Georgia, this remarkable hybrid was raised in 1909 by the legendary USDA citrus breeder Walter T. Swingle and formally named in 1923. The tree stands as a pioneering achievement in citrus breeding: a three-way cross combining the cold-hardy Willits citrange, itself a cross of sweet orange and trifoliate orange, with the Nagami kumquat, Fortunella margarita.
Tibouchina urvilleana, the princess flower or glory bush, is a Brazilian subtropical grown for some of the most saturated purple flowers in the garden. Soft, velvety, prominently veined leaves clothe the arching stems, and against that green the large, five-petaled, royal-purple blooms, each with a spray of curved violet stamens, seem almost to glow. In all but essentially frost-free areas the shrub grows as a dieback perennial, returning from the roots each spring.
American basswood is one of the great shade and honey trees of eastern North America, a fast, stately deciduous tree with large, heart-shaped, softly toothed leaves and a broad, rounded, generous crown. Tilia americana has been cherished by Indigenous peoples, European settlers, and naturalists alike, and goes by a string of names: linden, bee tree, and lime, though the tree is no relation to the citrus lime. In late spring and early summer, hanging clusters of pale yellow, sweetly fragrant flowers open and hum with bees.
Hardiness
Zones 3–8
Light
Full Sun / Part Shade
Height
60–80 ft.
Spread
20–30 ft.
Bloom
Yellow
Plant type
Tree
Traditional use
mental & emotional well-being, respiratory support, digestive health
Stinking Cedar is a beautiful conifer despite the name. The foliage actually smells pleasant! It is a medium size pyramidal evergreen tree with Yew-like leaves and purple nutmeg-like fruit on female plants. Needs light organic soil, adequate moisture and part shade. This very rare conifer is native to a very limited area on the Apalachicola River in northwest Florida and adjacent Georgia where it is now almost extinct. It is a FEDERALLY LISTED ENDANGERED SPECIES. CANNOT BE SOLD IN INTERSTATE COMMERCE.
This is a highly variegated form of Trachelosperumu asiaticum (which see). The name 'Ogon Nishiki' translates to Gold Brocade. This is an extremely colorful plant with leaves splotched with green, yellow, and orange.
