{"title":"Coming Winter 2026","description":"\u003cp\u003eWinter in Aiken is a working season, not a dormant one. While the borders rest, dormant woody plants move well, bare of leaf and easy to establish, and the propagation house keeps its own quiet schedule under the short days. The plants here are due in that cool stretch, many of them trees and shrubs that would rather be planted cold than pushed through summer heat. If patience suits you, this is a good shelf to watch; add your name and we will write when the dormant season delivers them.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"clethra-tomentosa-cottondale","title":"Clethra tomentosa 'Cottondale'","description":"\u003cp\u003eClethra alnifolia and the southern Clethra tomentosa are stoloniferous deciduous shrubs commonly called Summersweet or Sweet Pepperbush. They form colonies in moist acid soil and make good garden subjects. They are valued for their terminal spikes of fragrant white flowers in summer. Plant in sun or semi-shade and provide adequate moisture. This clone of the southern species has light colored backs of leaves and amazing flower racemes up to 16 inches long! This Woodlanders introduction is a plant we selected from the wild in the Florida Panhandle. It was the highest rated Clethra clone tested in trials at Longwood Gardens. Clethra tomentosa is native to the southern U.S.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057843343475,"sku":"CLET-TOME-COTT-01G","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1348.jpg?v=1720137506"},{"product_id":"cornus-kousa","title":"Cornus kousa","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis elegant small tree carries a graceful, vase-shaped habit that rounds out with age. Blooming two to three weeks after \u003cem\u003eCornus florida\u003c\/em\u003e, the kousa dogwood opens striking, pointed flower bracts in late spring to early summer, extending the dogwood season. The bracts surround clusters of tiny true flowers in a star-like display that sets this dogwood apart.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn late summer come vibrant, raspberry-like fruits, red and rounded, that draw birds and are edible for people too, sweet-pulped if a little soft in texture. The exfoliating bark peels away in patches, revealing a mosaic of rich brown, gray, and tan that adds real winter beauty once the branches are bare.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNotably more drought-tolerant and more disease-resistant than \u003cem\u003eCornus florida\u003c\/em\u003e, the kousa dogwood suits a wide range of North American climates, at home in both city gardens and naturalized landscapes. Whether set as a standout specimen or woven into a border, this dogwood offers four seasons of interest, from lush foliage to flowers, fruit, and bark.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057847734387,"sku":"CORN-KOUS-01G","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/CornuskousaMBG4.jpg?v=1731871642"},{"product_id":"gardenia-sp-kleims-hardy","title":"Gardenia jasminoides 'Kleim's Hardy'","description":"\u003cp\u003e'Kleim's Hardy' is a small, mounding evergreen gardenia with lustrous black-green leaves and single, star-shaped ivory flowers, and one of the most cold-tolerant gardenias in the trade. Where most gardenias pile petal on petal, this one opens flat and simple, five or six broad ivory petals flaring around a boss of creamy-yellow stamens, and carries the same heavy, sweet perfume in a lighter, cleaner frame.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe plant earned a following after reports that a specimen came through 3 degrees F in Raleigh, North Carolina untouched. Dr. Michael Dirr, in his Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, has questioned whether the gardenia is truly that hardy, and honesty says the jury is still out at the very cold edge; even so, 'Kleim's Hardy' ranks among the toughest of a tender tribe and is well worth a sheltered try where ordinary gardenias will not survive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGardenia jasminoides comes from the warm woodlands of China and Japan, where the plant has been grown for well over a thousand years and the fragrant flowers scent tea and perfume. In the Southern garden 'Kleim's Hardy' behaves like the rest of the clan, wanting a semi-shaded site with fertile, acid soil, and makes an excellent container plant given winter protection in cold areas.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLow and neat, reaching only two or three feet, 'Kleim's Hardy' suits the front of a border, an edging along a path, a foundation bed, or a large pot by a door where the summer fragrance can be met at close range. Plant among camellias, azaleas, and other acid-lovers, give steady moisture and a cool root run, and enjoy a gardenia scaled for small spaces and stretched a little further into the cold.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057872998515,"sku":"GARD-JASM-KLEI-HARD-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Gardeniajasminoides_Kleim_sHardy_Woodlandersfront.jpg?v=1730235530"},{"product_id":"hydrangea-macrophylla-mariesii","title":"Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Mariesii’","description":"\u003cp\u003e'Mariesii' is a piece of hydrangea history still in commerce. In the late 1870s the English plant hunter Charles Maries, collecting in Japan for the famous Veitch nursery, sent home the first lacecap hydrangea to reach the West, at a time when European gardeners knew only the round mopheads. That introduction, named 'Mariesii' in his honor, opened Western eyes to the wild, flat-topped grace of the lacecap and became the parent of a whole line of classic cultivars, among them 'Mariesii Grandiflora', 'Mariesii Lilacina', and the blue 'Mariesii Perfecta'.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhere a mophead crowds every flower into a solid ball, a lacecap tells the truth about how the flower head is built. Hydrangea macrophylla 'Mariesii' spreads a flat, delicate plate of tiny fertile flowers across the center, then rings the edge with a lace of large, showy, sterile florets, the whole effect airier and more naturalistic than the mophead. Like all bigleaf hydrangeas, the plant reads the soil: acid ground turns the florets blue, alkaline ground shifts them toward pink, and gardeners can steer the color with sulfur or lime.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe bigleaf hydrangeas carry a quiet cultural history in their Japanese homeland, where a sweet-leaved relative yields amacha, the fermented-leaf tea poured over images of the Buddha each spring; the ornamental garden forms are not that tea plant, and hydrangea foliage should not be eaten. Unlike the wholly sterile mopheads, the lacecap's true flowers at the center offer nectar and pollen, so 'Mariesii' earns the visits of bees and other pollinators that a snowball hydrangea cannot.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the garden, 'Mariesii' brings an old-fashioned, woodland-edge softness that the mopheads lack. Set the shrub in a shaded border, along a path, or against a dark backdrop of evergreens where the pale lacecaps seem to float, and give the plant morning sun with afternoon shade in hot climates. Trim faded heads to tidy the shrub and coax a later flush, keep the soil moist, and hold the pH below six if a true blue is the goal. Four to six feet high and wide, the shrub settles easily into a mixed planting without taking over.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057885876339,"sku":"HYDR-MACR-MARI-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-383.jpg?v=1720138668"}],"url":"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/collections\/prophouse-winter-2026.oembed","provider":"Woodlanders","version":"1.0","type":"link"}