Smooth winterberry is similar to the common winterberry, Ilex verticillata, but is much less common in cultivation, and the differences reward a close look. The finely toothed deciduous leaves are glossy above rather than dull, which gives the whole shrub a cleaner and lighter quality through the growing season. Female plants produce attractive red berries, larger and slightly more orange than those of common winterberry, ripening in autumn and eaten by birds. The habit is upright and open, ten to twelve feet in time on a narrow four to six foot frame, with smooth gray bark and a fine twiggy silhouette once the leaves drop.
Ilex spinigera is a holly with a deep past, a rare evergreen from the Hyrcanian forests that ring the southern Caspian Sea in northern Iran. Small, glossy, dark green leaves edged with fine spines clothe a dense small tree or large shrub, and on female plants such as this one bright red berries glow against the foliage through fall and into winter, the classic holly effect on an uncommonly ancient plant.
Yaupon is the small-leaved evergreen holly of the Southeast, native along the coastal plain from Virginia to Texas and a member of the holly family, Aquifoliaceae. Salt tolerant, drought tolerant, and willing in sun or shade, Ilex vomitoria shears as cleanly as boxwood and has long been a Southern mainstay for hedges and clipped structure, the females carrying translucent scarlet berries into winter. ‘Yawkey’ rewrites that last detail in a rarer color: this is a yellow-berried yaupon, hung each winter with soft amber-gold fruit instead of red, on an upright, somewhat open and spreading frame.
Hardiness
Zones 7–10
Light
Full Sun / Part Shade
Height
8–12 ft.
Spread
6–10 ft.
Bloom
White
Plant type
Shrub
Traditional use
general wellness, mental & emotional well-being, detoxification & cleansing
Yaupon is the small-leaved evergreen holly of the southeastern coastal plain, native from Virginia to Texas and a member of the holly family, Aquifoliaceae. Tough, salt tolerant, drought tolerant, and endlessly shearable, the species has anchored Southern gardens for generations. 'Gold Top' rings a color change on the familiar green: each spring the new growth flushes a bright yellow-green, gilding the tips of a compact, dense female shrub, and in fall the same plant hangs the usual red yaupon berries when a male grows nearby.
Hardiness
Zones 7–10
Light
Full Sun / Part Shade
Height
8–10 ft.
Spread
6–8 ft.
Bloom
White
Plant type
Shrub
Traditional use
general wellness, mental & emotional well-being, detoxification & cleansing
The Foster hollies are among the most planted evergreens in the South, a group of hybrids between the native dahoon, Ilex cassine, and the native American holly, Ilex opaca, raised at Foster Nursery in northern Alabama. They carry narrow, dark, lightly spined leaves on a neat pyramidal frame and fruit heavily in red. 'Alagold' is the exception in color: a yellow-berried seedling of Foster number two, hanging clear amber-gold fruit each winter against dark olive-green foliage, on the same dependable, upright, tree-like holly.
The anise trees, genus Illicium, are aromatic broadleaf evergreens of the star-anise family, Schisandraceae, named from the Latin illicium, an allurement, for the spicy scent the crushed leaves give off. Illicium anisatum is the Japanese anise, called shikimi in its homeland, a glossy, upright evergreen shrub or small tree with leathery, anise-scented leaves and pale creamy-yellow, star-shaped flowers in earliest spring.
The anise trees, genus Illicium, are aromatic broadleaf evergreens of the star-anise family, Schisandraceae, their Latin name meaning an allurement, for the spicy scent of the leaves. Illicium floridanum, the Florida anise, is a Southeastern native of shaded streambanks and moist ravines from Georgia to Louisiana, valued as one of the finest flowering evergreens for shade. This is a variegated selection, carrying the usual two-inch, starfish-shaped maroon flowers over foliage marked with a subtle, quiet green-on-green variegation.
Illicium floridanum var. album is the uncommon white-flowered form of the Florida anise, all the beauty and aromatic foliage of the species, with starry spring flowers of clean white in place of the usual deep maroon. Against the glossy, dark green, anise-scented leaves, the pale, many-petaled stars seem to float, lighting up a shady corner where the darker form would simply recede. A choice and seldom-seen selection, the white Florida anise is a connoisseur's evergreen for shade.
The anise trees, genus Illicium, are aromatic broadleaf evergreens of the star-anise family, Schisandraceae, their name from the Latin illicium, an allurement, for the scent of the leaves. Illicium henryi, the Henry anise, is the Chinese member of the group, a handsome, dense, pyramidal to rounded evergreen with waxy flowers in shades of coppery pink to deep carmine red and aromatic, glossy foliage. The plant honors Augustine Henry, the great Irish plant collector who botanized central China at the close of the nineteenth century.
The Mexican Illicium is a close relative of the southeastern native Illicium floridanum, and the differences are worth having. The leaves are longer and somewhat more pointed, glossy and aromatic when bruised. The flowers are slightly larger and a deeper red, with the same many-strapped starry outline, and where Florida anise is largely finished by late spring these carry on through summer. The habit is an evergreen small tree or large shrub, ten to twelve feet in time, upright and narrow at four to six feet across, holding good dark foliage the whole year in the shade where the plant belongs.
The anise trees, genus Illicium, are aromatic broadleaf evergreens of the star-anise family, Schisandraceae, prized as some of the finest flowering shrubs for shade. 'Woodland Ruby' is a Woodlanders introduction and one of the showiest of the group, a hybrid between the Mexican anise, Illicium mexicanum, and a white-flowered form of the native Florida anise, Illicium floridanum. The cross carries ruby-pink, star-shaped flowers larger than those of either parent, dangling from long slender stalks over glossy, aromatic evergreen leaves.
Itea, the sweetspires, are graceful shrubs of the family Iteaceae, named from the Greek word for willow after their willow-like leaves. Itea oldhamii is a little-known evergreen sweetspire from Taiwan, a compact shrub with an unusual party trick: the juvenile leaves can be holly-like, edged with small teeth, while the mature leaves settle to a smooth, entire margin. In late spring the plant carries racemes of small white flowers over glossy evergreen foliage.
Itea virginica, the Virginia sweetspire, is a native shrub of eastern wetlands and streambanks, grown for arching, fragrant white flower spikes in early summer and brilliant fall color. 'Sarah Eve' is the exception in the family, the first pink sweetspire: the small flowers are essentially white, but they are carried on rosy-pink pedicels that tint the whole arching raceme a soft, distinctive pale pink, a color no other Itea offers.
Itea, the sweetspires, are graceful shrubs of the family Iteaceae, their name taken from the Greek word for willow. Itea yunnanensis is the Yunnan sweetspire, an evergreen species from southwestern China, close to the Chinese sweetspire but lower and more spreading, with more leathery, darker green leaves that are somewhat holly-like and toothed on juvenile plants and smooth-edged at maturity. In spring the plant carries slender four-inch racemes of small white flowers.
Jasminum beesianum, the red jasmine or Bee's jasmine, breaks the mold of a genus known for white and yellow flowers. This vigorous, semi-evergreen twining climber from the mountains of Yunnan and Sichuan carries small, star-shaped blooms in a deep rose to velvet-red, an unusual color among the jasmines, softly and sweetly fragrant, opening in late spring over slender stems and small, pointed green leaves.
Some plants arrive at the nursery already wearing a mystery, and this jasmine is one of them. The stock was gathered high on a mountain pass above the White Water River in northwestern Yunnan, at roughly ten thousand feet, in the tumbled country of travertine terraces and snow peaks near Baishuitai that the Naxi people hold sacred. The collector, hedging as any honest collector will, noted only that this was probably a scandent shrub, and that guarded phrase is still the truest thing anyone can say about the plant's habit.
Juniperus communis, the common juniper, is the most widespread conifer in the world, a circumboreal shrub of northern latitudes and high elevations, and the source of the aromatic berries that flavor gin. The variety depressa is the low, ground-hugging North American form, a prostrate mat of prickly, blue-green needles. 'Hitchcock' is a Woodlanders selection of that low form, and hangs on one of the more remarkable botanical stories in the Southeast.
Hardiness
Zones 3–8
Light
Full Sun / Part Shade
Height
8–12 in.
Spread
4–6 ft.
Bloom
Blue
Plant type
Conifer
Traditional use
detoxification & cleansing, digestive health, topical applications, general wellness
Juniperus rigida, the temple or needle juniper, is a graceful conifer of the windswept hills and old temple gardens of China, Korea, and Japan, distinctive for long, slender, sharply pointed needles that catch the light. 'Pendula' is the weeping form, unfurling those bright needles from arching, drooping limbs in a cascade of green that moves with the wind, a plant of quiet, sculptural dignity.
Kadsura japonica, the Japanese kadsura, is an evergreen twining vine of the star-anise family, Schisandraceae, a close relative of the medicinal magnolia-vine Schisandra, native to the woodlands of Japan, Korea, and southern China. 'Fukurin' is the variegated form, glossy dark green leaves edged in a clean cream-yellow margin that lights up a shaded wall or fence and holds through the year.
Kadsura longipedunculata is an evergreen twining vine of the star-anise family, Schisandraceae, native to the moist forests and shaded stream banks of southern and southwestern China. The leaves are narrow, glossy, dark green, and lightly toothed, carried on stems that climb without menace. The genus name comes from kazura, a Japanese word for a twining vine, and the species epithet means long-peduncled, for the slender stalks that let each flower hang clear of the foliage. Chinese gardeners and herbalists know the plant as nan wu wei zi, the southern five-flavor fruit, a nod to the close cousin Schisandra, whose berries are said to carry all five tastes at once. The French botanists Achille Finet and François Gagnepain gave the vine a formal name in 1905.
