{"title":"Winter @ Woodlanders","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eResilience and Beauty\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Winter @ Woodlanders collection features plants that have proven their strength time and time again, with every passing winter. Evergreen classics, like Cryptomeria japonica and Morella pumilla, provide steady structure, while variegated wonders, like Serissa foetida 'Kowloon' and Pittosporum tobira 'Variegata', provide color all year round. Some plants in this collection, like Camellia reticulata x fraterna 'Crimson Candles', burst forth with seemingly impossible colorful blooms on cold, gray days. This collection is carefully curated to make sure your garden brings you joy in every season!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHardy Southeastern Natives\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMany of the plants featured in the Winter @ Woodlanders collection are native to the Southeast. Pinus glabra, Magnolia virginiana var. australis, Vaccinium myrsinites, and Ilex opaca 'Selected Red' are just a few examples of plants with overwhelming ecological value. For even more options, see our \u003cstrong\u003eSoutheastern Natives Collection.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"buddleia-cordata-ssp-tomentella","title":"Buddleia cordata ssp. tomentella","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBuddleia cordata\u003c\/em\u003e ssp. \u003cem\u003etomentella\u003c\/em\u003e is a striking, large evergreen shrub with broad, somewhat heart-shaped leaves in soft gray-green, the lighter undersides flashing in every breeze. First collected by Yucca-Do Nursery near Los Lerios in Coahuila, Mexico, the plant was originally offered by Woodlanders as Buddleia sp. 'Los Lerios', and the true identity was later confirmed by Dr. Jon Lindstrom of the University of Arkansas, a longtime customer and plantsman of note.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRemarkably hardy for a Mexican evergreen, reliable in zone 8, this robust shrub thrives in a sunny site with well-drained soil. In summer, dense terminal clusters of tiny greenish to creamy-white flowers gather at the branch tips, an unusual but quietly handsome display. In form and effect, Dr. Lindstrom notes, the shrub can resemble a sumac, lending a soft, architectural presence to the garden.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs a specimen or part of a mixed border, Buddleia cordata ssp. tomentella offers year-round gray-green foliage, summer bloom for pollinators, and a fascinating backstory, a plant for the collector and the adventurous gardener. Drought-tolerant once established.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057819062387,"sku":"BUDD-CORD-SSP-TOME-01G","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Buddleiacordatassp.tomentellaWoodlanders1.jpg?v=1755116341"},{"product_id":"callistemon-rigidus-clemson","title":"Callistemon rigidus 'Clemson'","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn exceptional cold-hardy bottlebrush, \u003cem\u003eCallistemon rigidus\u003c\/em\u003e 'Clemson' is a compact to medium evergreen shrub hung with brilliant red, brush-like flowers that bloom heavily in late spring and often rebloom through summer. Native to Australia, this selection defies expectations for the genus by thriving outdoors in upstate South Carolina, where winters are usually too cold for bottlebrushes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe cultivar was introduced by Ted Stephens of Nurseries Caroliniana, who noticed the plant's resilience and long bloom in Clemson, South Carolina. The bright red, nectar-rich flowers draw bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, and the dense, fine-textured foliage gives structure to sunny borders, foundation plantings, and large containers in milder climates.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith a proven track record in Southeastern gardens, 'Clemson' brings a touch of the exotic to temperate landscapes without giving up durability.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057821552755,"sku":"CALL-RIGI-CLEM-01G","price":31.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Callistemon_Clemson_Woodlanders-3.jpg?v=1750633928"},{"product_id":"camellia-x-williamsii-donation","title":"Camellia x williamsii 'Donation'","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCamellia\u003c\/em\u003e × \u003cem\u003ewilliamsii\u003c\/em\u003e 'Donation' is widely counted among the finest hybrid camellias ever raised, and a long-standing favorite in our own garden. The cross is between \u003cem\u003eCamellia saluenensis\u003c\/em\u003e and the old japonica 'Donckelaeri', made by Colonel Stephenson Clarke at Borde Hill in England; the \u003cem\u003ewilliamsii\u003c\/em\u003e group to which the plant belongs began with J.C. Williams at Caerhays, whose saluenensis crosses gave the genus a new hardiness and an unmatched freedom of bloom. 'Donation' carried that promise furthest, and the Royal Horticultural Society has long honored the plant with an Award of Garden Merit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe flowers are the reason: large, semi-double, and a clear orchid-pink, up to four or five inches across, the petals threaded with faintly deeper pink veins around a center of gold stamens. Bloom comes in abundance through the mid and late season, late winter into spring, on an upright, vigorous evergreen frame clothed in glossy dark foliage. Like the better williamsii hybrids, 'Donation' drops the spent flowers cleanly rather than holding onto browning blooms, so the plant stays tidy through a long flowering.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrow 'Donation' in semi-shade, in sandy, slightly acidic soil kept mulched and watered, as a specimen, an informal screen, or the flowering anchor of a shaded border. A classic for good reason, and an easy, generous camellia for the gardener who wants proven performance with the bloom to match.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057822863475,"sku":"CAME-WILL-DONA-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-312.jpg?v=1720136886"},{"product_id":"camellia-euryoides","title":"Camellia euryoides","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCamellia euryoides\u003c\/em\u003e offers a quiet counterpoint to the camellias most familiar to American gardeners. Where \u003cem\u003eCamellia japonica\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eCamellia sasanqua\u003c\/em\u003e have long defined the genus in cultivation here, those two represent only a sliver of a far broader Asian lineage. \u003cem\u003eC. euryoides\u003c\/em\u003e, a shrub or small tree of the subtropical forests of Fujian, Guangdong, and Jiangxi, belongs to that richer world of species camellias: subtler, finer in texture, and made for gardeners curious about the genus beyond its showiest forms.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWoodlanders gave the plant the common name Mockorange Camellia, a nod to an unusual character. The small leaves and the profuse, modestly scaled white flowers of early spring read more like a \u003cem\u003ePhiladelphus\u003c\/em\u003e than the bold, lacquered blooms most people expect of a camellia, and one of the real pleasures here is the quiet taxonomic surprise: many visitors do not recognize the shrub as a camellia at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe value lies in nuance rather than extravagance. Finer foliage lets the Mockorange Camellia settle naturally into woodland plantings, semi-shaded borders, and gardens where scale and leaf texture are weighed with care, the kind of place a broad-leaved evergreen would feel too heavy or too formal. What the plant gives instead is a restrained evergreen presence through the year, followed by a delicate early-spring flowering that reads with unusual clarity in shade.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCulturally, the Mockorange Camellia asks for what most camellias want: semi-shade, sandy and slightly acidic soil, steady moisture, and a dependable layer of mulch. In those conditions the shrub rewards an attentive gardener twice over, as a lovely evergreen and as a reminder that camellias are far more varied, and far more interesting, than the standard garden palette suggests.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057823715443,"sku":"CAME-EURY-01G","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1129.jpg?v=1720136892"},{"product_id":"camellia-reticulata-x-fraterna-crimson-candles","title":"Camellia reticulata x fraterna 'Crimson Candles'","description":"\u003cp\u003eThere is a quiet poetry in a camellia's defiance of the cold, a flowering that comes not in spring's abundance but in the leanest stretch of the year. Few cultivars speak that winter sonnet as clearly as \u003cem\u003eCamellia\u003c\/em\u003e 'Crimson Candles', a hybrid of \u003cem\u003eCamellia reticulata\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eCamellia fraterna\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe cross came from the careful hands of Dr. Clifford Parks of Camellia Forest Nursery, a pivotal figure in American camellia breeding with deep ties to research at the University of North Carolina and to the practical art of propagation. Parks set out to expand what camellias could be and where they could thrive, pairing the grandeur of \u003cem\u003eCamellia reticulata\u003c\/em\u003e, long cultivated in the temples and mountains of Yunnan, with the cold hardiness and free-flowering nature of \u003cem\u003eCamellia fraterna\u003c\/em\u003e, a smaller, white-flowered species of humble but enduring qualities.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe result proved as resilient as it is lovely: a shrub that blooms through Southern winters with upright rose-pink flowers rising like lit tapers in the grey season, aptly named for the candle-shaped buds and luminous color. From the Carolinas to California, 'Crimson Candles' is prized as one of the earliest camellias to flower, opening in December or January and carrying into February in zone 7 and warmer. Unlike the many camellias that droop or hang shyly downward, this cultivar holds the blossoms upright and alert, unbothered by the chill, the tidy dark evergreen foliage setting off the vivid flowers like velvet behind a gemstone. Compact at six to ten feet, dense and well-furnished, the plant suits a woodland border, a foundation, or a part-shaded bed in moist, acidic soil, a living bridge between Chinese mountains and the Southern garden. The Royal Horticultural Society granted the cultivar an Award of Garden Merit in 2012.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057825747059,"sku":"CAME-RETI-CRIM-CAND-01G","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/CamelliaCrimsonCandles.png?v=1752250464"},{"product_id":"camellia-japonica","title":"Camellia japonica","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn honest admission to start: we do not know her name. \u003cem\u003eCamellia japonica\u003c\/em\u003e has been bred and named for the better part of three centuries, the roll of registered cultivars runs well into the thousands, and behind those stand thousands more good selections that were grown, loved, handed over a fence, and quietly parted from their labels along the way. This is one of the latter, a pale-pink japonica of real quality and no surviving paperwork, the kind of plant that turns up in old Southern gardens where someone's grandmother knew exactly what it was and never thought to write it down.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat we can tell you is what she shows. Soft, clear pink flowers open in the cool months, late winter into earliest spring, in the unhurried, many-petaled manner of a good japonica, set against the thick, glossy evergreen leaves the species is named for; tsubaki, in Japan, means something close to thick-leaf tree. She carries the upright, well-mannered habit you want from a camellia, and performs the way camellias have performed in the South since they reached the gardens of the Old South in the early 1800s and declined to leave.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is a particular pleasure in an unnamed plant. No registry to consult, no cultivar to measure her against, nothing to live up to but the flower itself, which is lovely and entirely sufficient. \u003cem\u003eCamellia japonica\u003c\/em\u003e was named by Linnaeus for the Jesuit Georg Joseph Kamel and reached English gardens before 1739; by the 1830s dozens of cultivars had found ready acceptance in the Old South, and the thousands grown today all trace back to that first wave. For the gardener who would rather keep one good camellia with a lost name than three famous ones with their papers in order, here she is: pink, anonymous, and asking only for part shade and a little patience.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057825779827,"sku":"CAME-JAPO-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1669.jpg?v=1720136960"},{"product_id":"chamaecyparis-obtusa-filicoides","title":"Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Filicoides'","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eChamaecyparis obtusa\u003c\/em\u003e 'Filicoides', the fernspray hinoki cypress, is grown for one quality above all: foliage held in flattened, fern-like sprays that gather along the branches in dense, layered clusters and cascade in soft, pendulous fans. The effect is unmistakably oriental, deep green the year round, and unlike anything else in the conifer border.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe species comes from Japan, where hinoki cypress has been revered for centuries. The timber, close-grained, fragrant, and famously durable, is the wood of temples and shrines, and the tree carries associations of endurance and sanctity that run deep in Japanese culture. From this venerable species gardeners have selected scores of forms; 'Filicoides', whose name means fern-like, was chosen for the curious congested sprays that set the plant apart, and the cultivar has long been prized in Japanese gardens and as a subject for bonsai.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the garden, the fernspray hinoki makes a slow, characterful evergreen, in time an open shrub or small narrow tree, the branches growing a little straggling and irregular with age, which is part of the charm. Site where the textured foliage can be read at close range, beside a path, a gate, or a quiet corner, and give a darker backdrop to set off the green. Handsome with stone, with moss, and among other fine-textured evergreens in a Japanese-inspired planting. The crushed foliage is aromatic.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057831284851,"sku":"CHAM-OBTU-FILI-01G","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Chamaecyparisobtusa_Filicoides_1.jpg?v=1722693154"},{"product_id":"cliftonia-monophylla-berry-pink","title":"Cliftonia monophylla 'Berry Pink'","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCliftonia monophylla\u003c\/em\u003e 'Berry Pink' is a rare, pink-flowered selection of the Black Titi, a native evergreen shrub or small tree of the southeastern coastal plain that normally blooms in white. The species haunts the acid bogs, pond margins, and titi swamps from the Carolinas to the Gulf, where the early flowers make the buckwheat tree one of the first and most important nectar sources of the southern year, the source of the prized titi honey.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis exceptional pink form was found by the noted plantsman Jim Berry in the Florida Panhandle, and we named the clone in his honor. 'Berry Pink' carries delicate rosy-pink flowers in early spring, warmed by orange anthers, in such profusion that the whole crown becomes a soft cloud of color above glossy evergreen leaves. As a garden plant the shrub is graceful and substantial, lovely as a specimen or a flowering backdrop in the moist, acidic ground where the roots run happiest.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere is a further curiosity for the collector: \u003cem\u003eCliftonia\u003c\/em\u003e is a monotypic genus, meaning \u003cem\u003eCliftonia monophylla\u003c\/em\u003e stands alone as the only species in the whole lineage, with no close cousins anywhere. Site 'Berry Pink' in sun to part shade at a pond edge, a rain garden, a native or pollinator planting, or the moist margin of a woodland, and let the early pink bloom feed the first bees of the season.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057843507315,"sku":"CLIF-MONO-BERR-PINK-01G","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/IMG-7555.heic?v=1771974031"},{"product_id":"cryptomeria-japonica","title":"Cryptomeria japonica","description":"\u003cp\u003eJapanese cedar is a tall, pyramidal to conical evergreen conifer, and the great timber tree of Japan, where the sugi soars past a hundred feet and lines temple avenues and mountain forests alike. The blue-green needles are held close and awl-shaped, taking on a bronzy, purple-bronze cast through cold winters before recovering their color in spring. The reddish-brown bark peels in long fibrous strips down a straight, buttressed trunk.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the garden, Japanese cedar makes a stately evergreen specimen or a tall screen, best given an open site with deep, permeable, acidic soil and room for the broad, columnar form to develop. Plant the sugi where the winter bronzing and the handsome bark can be read at close range, and give a deep soaking through dry spells while the tree establishes. Native to Japan, long revered there, and a graceful presence in any large Southern garden.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057854287987,"sku":"CRYP-JAPO-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Cryptomeri_japonica__6iDNUYDyRbud.jpg?v=1736722502"},{"product_id":"edgeworthia-chrysantha","title":"Edgeworthia chrysantha","description":"\u003cp\u003ePaper bush, \u003cem\u003eEdgeworthia chrysantha\u003c\/em\u003e, spends the growing season as a quiet, blue-green shrub and saves the show for the dead of winter. In late winter and earliest spring, while the branches are still bare, the shrub hangs rounded, downward-facing clusters of small tubular flowers from the tips of every stem, silvery-furred buds opening to warm yellow throats that carry a sweet, daphne-like fragrance across cold air. A cousin of \u003cem\u003eDaphne\u003c\/em\u003e and the native leatherwood \u003cem\u003eDirca\u003c\/em\u003e in the family Thymelaeaceae, paper bush shares the tribe's supple, hard-to-snap branches and honeyed scent.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe common name is earned. In Japan, where the shrub has been grown for centuries under the name mitsumata, the long, fine fibers of the inner bark are one of the three traditional sources of washi paper, alongside kozo and gampi, and were long used for the country's banknotes, prized as among the hardest currency in the world to counterfeit. In Chinese folk medicine the plant has a second life: the flowers, bark, and roots have been used for their anti-inflammatory and pain-easing properties, and the flower buds in particular served as a traditional remedy for ailments of the eyes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the garden paper bush earns a spot near a door or path where the winter fragrance and the odd, architectural branching can be met up close. The plant builds a rounded, softly tropical-looking mound five to six feet tall and about as wide, with bold blue-green leaves through summer and a distinctive forking, three-into-three branch pattern that shows beautifully once the leaves drop. Give the shrub rich, moist, well-drained woodland soil and dappled shade, and pair the plant with hellebores, snowdrops, and early species crocus for a winter picture that smells as good as it looks.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePaper bush asks for little beyond shelter and a kind soil. Hardy in USDA zones 7 through 9, the shrub prefers protection from harsh afternoon sun and drying wind, resents soggy ground, and rewards a yearly mulch with steady health and heavier bloom. Slow to make a large plant but worth every season of waiting, \u003cem\u003eEdgeworthia chrysantha\u003c\/em\u003e is one of the great winter luxuries of the mild-climate garden.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057864052851,"sku":"EDGE-CHRY-01G","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1434.jpg?v=1720137975"},{"product_id":"euonymus-fortunei-wolong-ghost","title":"Euonymus fortunei 'Wolong Ghost'","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis luminous evergreen groundcover came into gardens through Heronswood Nursery, from a collection the plantsman Dan Hinkley made on the slopes above the Wolong Panda Preserve in western China. The long, dark green, sharply pointed leaves are laced with bold silver-white veins, a ghostly netting that gives the cultivar the second half of the name and lifts a shaded corner out of the gloom.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEuonymus fortunei, the wintercreeper, belongs to the staff-vine family, Celastraceae, and is famous for leading a double life: a flat, ground-hugging carpet in youth that, given a wall or a trunk, throws out clinging rootlets and climbs like ivy into a taller, shrubbier, flowering form. The genus name comes from the Greek for good name, an old euphemism, and may in truth honor Euonyme, mother of the Furies in myth, a wry nod to the poisonous nature of the tribe; the epithet fortunei remembers Robert Fortune, the Scottish plant hunter who carried so many East Asian plants west.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeauty here comes with a frank caution, one Dan Hinkley himself raised. Wintercreeper is vigorous to a fault, and across much of the United States the species has proven aggressively invasive, climbing and smothering trees and escaping into woodlands where birds spread the seed. All parts are toxic if eaten. None of this need rule the plant out of a garden, but it does argue for planting with intent, in a bed that can be watched and clipped rather than turned loose near wild ground.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePut to considered use, 'Wolong Ghost' is a superb foliage plant for shade, the silver veining glowing against ferns and coarser leaves such as autumn fern (Dryopteris erythrosora), Japanese climbing fern (Lygodium japonicum), and Selaginella braunii. Grow the plant as a flat evergreen carpet at the foot of a wall, along a woodland path, or down a shady bank, or let the stems climb a surface for a living green tapestry. Give any soil that drains, sun to deep shade, and a yearly edit with the shears to keep the spread honest.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057868836979,"sku":"EUON-FORT-WOLO-GHOS-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-2021.jpg?v=1720138081"},{"product_id":"hamamelis-virginiana","title":"Hamamelis virginiana","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHamamelis virginiana\u003c\/em\u003e does everything backwards, and that is the entire appeal. When the rest of the woods has shut down for the year, when the leaves are gone and nothing else is in flower, witch hazel chooses that exact moment to bloom: spidery yellow flowers, all thin crimped strap-like petals, scattered along the bare branches through late fall and into the cold. They carry a faint sweet scent on a mild day and they wait, patiently, for whatever gnat or late fly is still working, because almost nothing else is. This is the shrub that flowers when flowering makes no sense, and is all the more loved for the defiance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe name written into the genus tells you the other half of the trick. \u003cem\u003eHamamelis\u003c\/em\u003e comes from Greek for \"fruit at the same time,\" because this is very likely the only native woody plant in America to carry this year's flowers, last year's ripening seed capsules, and next year's leaf buds on the branch all at once. And those capsules do something worth waiting for: when they finally dry and split, they fire their hard black seeds as far as twenty-five feet, with an audible snap, then hang on the twigs afterward like little open beaks. A plant that blooms in the cold and flings seed across the clearing is not trying to be ordinary.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen there's the name itself, which is half the romance. Early settlers, confusing the plant with the European hazel and borrowing an old Anglo-Saxon word for \"bend,\" watched Native peoples cut the forked branches into divining rods and walk them over the ground to dowse for water, the fork dipping where the well should go. The Mohegan are credited with teaching the practice, which followed well-diggers into the twentieth century. The famous astringent came later: in 1866 Thomas Dickinson built a distillery and turned the steeped twigs into the witch hazel still sold in every pharmacy, a recipe learned in part from the Cherokee and Iroquois.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor all that history, this is an easy plant. A large multi-stemmed shrub or small tree of the eastern woods, adaptable to most soils and sites, sun to shade, with leaves that turn a clean buttery gold before they drop to reveal the flowers beneath. Notably, after centuries in cultivation the species has produced no garden cultivars worth keeping, a quiet endorsement of the original: nobody has improved on the wild plant, because the wild plant is already right. \u003cem\u003eHamamelis virginiana\u003c\/em\u003e is native magic, the kind you plant once and watch do something strange and lovely every November when everything else has called it a year.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhotos courtesy of \u003ca rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/plants.ces.ncsu.edu\/plants\/hamamelis-virginiana\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eKurt Wagner and Randy Harter\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057878077555,"sku":"HAMA-VIRG-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Hamamelisvirginiana_Kurt_Wagner.jpg?v=1723299375"},{"product_id":"ilex-glabra-leucocarpa","title":"Ilex glabra 'Leucocarpa'","description":"\u003cp\u003eIlex glabra 'Leucocarpa' is the white-berried surprise among the inkberries, a native evergreen holly that trades the usual near-black fruit for berries of clean ivory white. On the ordinary inkberry the dark berries all but vanish against the deep green leaves, but here the pale fruit stands out cleanly and holds on the branches from fall right through to spring, a quiet, unexpected show in the winter garden.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBehind the novelty stands one of the finest native broadleaf evergreens of eastern North America. Ilex glabra, the inkberry or gallberry, ranges along the coastal plain from Nova Scotia to Florida and west to the Gulf, growing in sandy, acid, often boggy ground. The epithet glabra means smooth, for the neat, spineless, glossy leaves that set inkberry apart from the prickly hollies, and 'Leucocarpa', white-fruited, names this pale-berried form.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor all the focus on fruit color, the small greenish-white flowers matter most to the bees. Inkberry nectar yields the celebrated gallberry honey, a mild, light honey long tied to the pinewoods and bogs of the South, so a stand of these hollies feeds pollinators as generously as the plants decorate the garden. As with any holly, the berries, white in this case, appear only on female plants, so a male inkberry set nearby is needed to insure the crop.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNeat, rounded, and evergreen to the ground, inkberry 'Leucocarpa' works as a low informal hedge, a foundation planting, a massing in a rain garden, or a companion to azaleas, camellias, and other acid-loving plants. Give the roots moist, acidic soil in sun to part shade, keep the ground from drying out, and the white winter berries will repay the spot. Pair the shrub with sweetbay, itea, and native ferns in the same damp company.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057888923763,"sku":"ILEX-GLAB-LEUC-01G","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-401.jpg?v=1720138751"},{"product_id":"ilex-vomitoria-yawkey","title":"Ilex vomitoria 'Yawkey'","description":"\u003cp\u003eYaupon 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, the species 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe species behind this oddity is no ordinary shrub. Roasted yaupon leaves and twigs were the source of the caffeinated 'black drink' that Indigenous peoples of the Southeast brewed for ceremony, council, and trade, and that coastal colonists later drank as a homegrown coffee or tea. Yaupon remains North America's only caffeine-bearing native plant. The unkind species name, vomitoria, records a European misreading of the ritual purging that sometimes attended the drink, a fault the holly does not carry, being no emetic in normal use; the common name, from the Catawban ya'pa, means simply 'small tree.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe yellow-fruited form was found by F.G. Tarbox, Jr. on the T.A. Yawkey Plantation in Georgetown County, South Carolina, and introduced by Brookgreen Gardens, where a single rescued seedling first fruited in 1943. Tarbox described the plant as Ilex vomitoria variety yawkeyii, the berries yellow, four to six millimeters across and slightly flattened; at the time only a couple of other plants were known to exist. Even now the yellow yaupons remain scarce in the trade, which is much of the appeal for collectors and designers hunting something out of the ordinary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the garden 'Yawkey' plays against every expectation of a holly. The amber-gold fruit glows where scarlet would shout, lovely against dark evergreens, a gray wall, or a winter sky, and pairs beautifully with a red-berried yaupon for a two-tone planting. The upright, open habit suits an informal screen or a specimen more than a tight clipped hedge, though the plant shears if asked. Site in sun for the best fruit, keep a male yaupon such as 'Dewerth' within range for pollination, and enjoy a native evergreen that shrugs off salt, drought, and heat. \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/blogs\/the-node\/ilex-vomitoria-yawkey-the-yellow-berried-yaupon-that-sells-out-in-winter\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eRead our field notes and design guide for this holly here.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057890365555,"sku":"ILEX-VOMI-YAWK-01G","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-111.jpg?v=1720138794"},{"product_id":"ilex-opaca-female-selected-red","title":"Ilex opaca (female) 'Selected Red'","description":"\u003cp\u003eIlex opaca, the American holly, is the classic evergreen holly of eastern woods, a medium tree with tough, spine-edged, leathery leaves and the bright red berries that have meant Christmas for generations. 'Selected Red' is one of the good ones, a female clone Woodlanders propagated from a group of hollies planted many years ago in Aiken, South Carolina, chosen for very good foliage and an abundant crop of bright red fruit.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat sets this clone apart is the form. 'Selected Red' grows into a dense, pyramidal tree with a slight, graceful weep to the branches, a softer silhouette than the stiff pyramids of many American hollies, and the habit is close enough to the old variety 'Croonenburg' that the two may be one and the same. Dense to the base and evergreen, the tree reads as a solid green cone all year, then lights up with red in fall.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe name opaca means dull or opaque, for the matte, un-lacquered surface of the American holly leaf, which sets the species apart from the glossy Asian and English hollies. Native across the eastern United States, from Massachusetts to Florida and west to Texas, American holly grows on well-drained woodland soils and ranks among the most widely planted native evergreens, valued for form, winter berries, and the birds the fruit feeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs a female, 'Selected Red' needs a male American holly in range to set that heavy red crop, so pair the tree with a pollinizer such as 'Jersey Knight' nearby. Slow and long-lived, the plant makes a fine specimen, a tall evergreen screen, or a woodland-edge anchor, in full sun to part shade and moist, acidic, well-drained soil. The berried branches are a natural for holiday greenery, and the winter fruit feeds songbirds when little else is left.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057890857075,"sku":"ILEX-OPAC-FEMA-SELE-01G","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-105.jpg?v=1720138803"},{"product_id":"ilex-verticillata-red-sprite","title":"Ilex verticillata 'Red Sprite'","description":"\u003cp\u003eIlex verticillata 'Red Sprite' is winterberry shrunk to garden size and cranked up in intensity. Where much of the landscape fades to gray, this compact native holly turns into a beacon, the bare stems packed with heavy clusters of large, glossy scarlet berries that color in fall and cling deep into winter, a living ember at the pond's edge or against fresh snow.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBarely three to five feet tall and about as wide, dense and neatly rounded, 'Red Sprite' is the smallest of the well-known winterberries, sometimes sold under the older names 'Compacta' or 'Nana'. That restraint is the whole appeal: the plant delivers the full winterberry fireworks on a frame that fits a small garden, a foundation planting, or the front of a wet border, where a six-foot clone would overwhelm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWinterberry is a deciduous holly of eastern North American wetlands, a shrub of swamp edges, pond margins, and wet woodland from Canada to the Gulf, and the finely toothed, spineless leaves look nothing like a Christmas holly until the flowers appear. Only female plants fruit, and only with a male blooming at the same time nearby. 'Red Sprite' flowers early, so an early male such as 'Jim Dandy' is the standard partner, and the long-blooming 'Raritan Chief' will serve as well, set within about fifty feet.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGive 'Red Sprite' the moist to wet, acidic soil the species loves, in full sun to part shade, and the little shrub will earn a place three seasons out of four and steal the show in the fourth. Robins, cedar waxwings, and mockingbirds strip the berries through late winter, so a planting feeds birds when the landscape is otherwise lean. A few cut stems bring the same red glow indoors for the holidays. Abundance, as this small holly proves, need not be large to matter.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057892495475,"sku":"ILE-VERT-RED-SPRI-01G","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Ilexverticillata_RedSprite_OSU.jpg?v=1762292253"},{"product_id":"ilex-cornuta-x-aquifolium-edward-j-stevens","title":"Ilex cornuta x aquifolium 'Edward J. Stevens'","description":"\u003cp\u003eIlex 'Edward J. Stevens' is the male companion to one of the most popular hollies in American gardens, and a robust evergreen quite apart from that role. The plant builds a dense, broadly pyramidal shrub or small tree, to fifteen feet and more, clothed in lustrous dark green leaves with only light spining. In spring the small white flowers open thick with pollen, and that pollen is the whole point.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe story starts in the garden of Nellie R. Stevens in Oxford, Maryland, where a Chinese holly, Ilex cornuta, and an English holly, Ilex aquifolium, crossed on their own and dropped vigorous hybrid seedlings. One became the celebrated female 'Nellie R. Stevens', heavy with red fruit; another, named 'Edward J. Stevens', turned out male. The two share the same fine hybrid parentage, glossy foliage, dense habit, and easy vigor, but only the male carries the pollen the female needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat partnership is the reason to grow this holly. 'Nellie R. Stevens' fruits far more heavily with a compatible male in range, and 'Edward J. Stevens' is the classic choice, blooming in step and setting the female shrubs alight with berries. Carrying no fruit, the male stays cleaner underfoot, an advantage in commercial and institutional plantings where fallen berries and seedlings are a nuisance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEven without berries the plant earns a place. The dense pyramidal form and dark evergreen foliage make a fine screen, a tall hedge, a windbreak, or a background layer behind flowering shrubs, in full sun and well-drained soil. Set 'Edward J. Stevens' within pollinating distance of 'Nellie R. Stevens' or other compatible hollies, and one male will service several females.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057896329331,"sku":"ILEX-CORN-AQUI-EDWA-01G","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1902.jpg?v=1720138925"},{"product_id":"ilex-verticellata-winter-gold","title":"Ilex verticillata 'Winter Gold'","description":"\u003cp\u003eIlex verticillata is the winterberry, the native deciduous holly grown not for evergreen leaves but for the astonishing display that comes after they fall: bare gray stems packed end to end with bright fruit, lit up across the dead of winter. 'Winter Gold' plays that trick in an unexpected color, trading the usual fire-engine red for warm gold blushed with soft orange-pink, a glowing, gentler note against snow.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWinterberry belongs to the wet places of eastern North America, the swamp edges, pond margins, and damp thickets from Canada to the Gulf, and the finely toothed, spineless leaves look nothing like a Christmas holly until the flowers give the family away. The name verticillata, whorled, describes the way those small flowers and leaves cluster along the twigs. 'Winter Gold' arose as a sport of the famous red 'Winter Red', keeping the heavy crop but changing the color.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs with all winterberries, only female plants fruit, and only when a male of matching bloom time grows nearby. 'Winter Gold' flowers late, so a late-blooming male such as 'Apollo' or 'Southern Gentleman' is needed within about fifty feet, not the early 'Jim Dandy'. Get the timing right and one male will set a whole group of females heavy with berries; get it wrong and the branches stay bare.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGive 'Winter Gold' the moist to wet, acidic soil winterberry loves, in full sun to part shade, and let the shrub do what it does best: light a rain garden, a pond edge, a wet swale, or a mixed border through the coldest months. Songbirds strip the fruit in late winter, and a few cut branches of gold berries bring something rare to a holiday arrangement. Woodland settlers knew the plant as fever bush, a nod to the folk history behind this quietly spectacular native.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057896919155,"sku":"ILE-VERT-WINT-GOLD-01G","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-2147.jpg?v=1720138946"},{"product_id":"ilex-paraguariensis","title":"Ilex paraguariensis","description":"\u003cp\u003eIlex paraguariensis is the holly behind maté, the caffeine-rich tea poured from a gourd and sipped through a metal straw across Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and southern Brazil. As a plant, yerba maté is a broadleaf evergreen holly, a shrub or small tree with dark, leathery, serrated leaves, closely resembling the native dahoon holly, Ilex cassine, of the southeastern United States, and carrying the same small white flowers and, on female plants, small red berries.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor the Guaraní and Tupi peoples of subtropical South America, maté was food, medicine, and ritual long before Europeans arrived, drunk as a stimulant, a digestive, and a general tonic, and shared hand to hand as a gesture of welcome. That custom grew into a daily habit for whole nations, and the leaf, dried and steeped, remains one of the great social drinks of the continent, now carried worldwide for the lift and the antioxidants alike. The medicinal notes below set out that tradition and the research around it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYerba maté remains rare in North American gardens, grown mostly by collectors drawn to plants with real cultural and economic weight. Woodlanders has long sought out exactly this kind of plant, the useful and the unusual, well beyond the ordinary nursery list, and yerba maté sits squarely in that tradition: a working tea plant that also happens to be a handsome evergreen.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the garden yerba maté wants what the wild plant knows: fertile, well-drained, acidic soil, steady moisture, and light shade or sun in a warm, humid climate. The upright, glossy evergreen form suits an edible landscape, a cultural or ethnobotanical collection, or a specimen where the story can be told, and in zones eight and warmer the leaves can be dried and brewed for homegrown maté. Where frost is hard, grow the plant in a large pot and move the container under cover for winter.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057896984691,"sku":"ILEX-PARA-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/IlexparaguariensisOregonStateWoodlanders3.jpg?v=1747854095"},{"product_id":"illicium-parviflorum-florida-sunshine","title":"Illicium parviflorum 'Florida Sunshine'","description":"\u003cp\u003eIllicium parviflorum, the Ocala or small anise, is a rare Florida endemic, an aromatic evergreen of the star-anise family, Schisandraceae, tougher and more sun-tolerant than its showier cousin the Florida anise. 'Florida Sunshine' is the selection that made the species famous: a form whose foliage glows chartreuse-gold through spring and summer, holding the anise scent of the genus in leaves that light up a shaded corner.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe real show comes with the cold. As the weather cools in fall the gold brightens to a near-screaming yellow, then softens toward parchment by midwinter, and at the same time the upper stems flush a brilliant red that plays against the pale leaves. Few evergreens do anything so dramatic in January. The winter foliage will scorch in strong sun, so light or part shade keeps the color clean, a stunning beacon in the cold-season garden.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Florida Sunshine' was selected and introduced by Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery, grown from three golden seedlings of the wild species that Avent brought back from a 2000 visit to the Florida plantsman Charles Webb. After several years of evaluation one plant was chosen and named, and the selection has become one of the most popular gold-leaved shrubs in Southern gardens. As with the other ornamental anises, the aromatic foliage is toxic if eaten and unrelated to culinary star anise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUse 'Florida Sunshine' as a living light source in shade: at the back of a woodland border, against dark evergreens, beside a path, or massed to lead the eye through a shady garden. The gold reads from across the yard, and the red winter stems reward a close look. Give light to part shade and moist, well-drained soil, and pair with ferns, hostas, dark-leaved hollies, and hellebores that set off the glowing foliage. Deer leave the aromatic leaves alone.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057898295411,"sku":"ILLI-PARV-FLOR-SUNS-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/44A56333-9483-4C59-8F59-4297C27F791C.jpg?v=1727269766"},{"product_id":"jasminum-nudiflorum","title":"Jasminum nudiflorum","description":"\u003cp\u003eJasminum nudiflorum, the winter jasmine, is the great cold-weather bloomer of the genus, a deciduous scrambling shrub from western China that opens bright yellow, six-petaled flowers on bare green stems in the depth of winter, often from January into March, long before the leaves return. The name says as much: nudiflorum, the naked-flowering jasmine, blooming on stripped, leafless wands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnlike the perfumed white jasmines, winter jasmine is scentless, trading fragrance for the far rarer gift of color in the coldest, barest weeks of the year. The arching green stems spread from a central crown and root where they touch the ground, so the plant makes an easy cascade over a wall or bank, a loose mound in the open, or, tied to a support, an informal climber. In China the flower is beloved as yingchun, the one that welcomes spring.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat Chinese name carries more than sentiment. Winter jasmine, yingchun, has a long place in traditional Chinese medicine, where the leaves and flowers were used to cool fevers and inflammation and, applied externally, to treat cuts, bruises, swellings, and wounds, and were sometimes brewed as a tea. Modern phytochemical work has found antioxidant and antibacterial compounds in the plant, though the research is still early. This is traditional-use and early-research information, shared for interest only, and not medical advice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWinter jasmine is one of the toughest and easiest of the clan, hardy to zone 6, thriving in ordinary soil in sun or part shade, and asking only a hard cut every few years to renew the tangle of stems. Use the plant to spill down a slope or retaining wall, to cover a bank as a groundcover, to soften a fence, or trained up a trellis for a winter show. Full sun brings the heaviest bloom; plant where the yellow flowers can be seen from indoors in the cold months.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057901637747,"sku":"JASM-NUDI-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-423.jpg?v=1720139092"},{"product_id":"lavendula-dentata","title":"Lavandula dentata","description":"\u003cp\u003eThere are plants that offer fragrance, and then there are plants that conjure memory. Lavandula dentata, with silvery, sawtoothed leaves and near ever-blooming lavender plumes, belongs firmly to the second kind, a bearer of the sort of scent that lingers in a sun-warmed linen chest or in the folds of a well-worn book left on a porch rail.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe botanical name tells the plant's story twice over. Lavandula descends from the Latin lavare, to wash, a nod to the Romans who scented their baths and laundry with lavender flowers, while dentata means toothed and points straight to the leaves, each grey-green blade edged with tidy scallops as though pinking shears had been drawn along the margin. A member of the mint family, Lamiaceae, French lavender is native to the sun-baked Mediterranean and reaches out to the Canary Islands, Madeira, and the Arabian Peninsula, everywhere favoring the same lean, stony, sun-struck ground.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKnown to old-world gardeners as French or fringed lavender, this hardy evergreen herb would have been right at home in the physic gardens of Carolina planters and the cottage borders of Provence. Lavender has always been a working plant as much as an ornamental one, strewn on floors, tucked among linens to keep them sweet, distilled for the calming oil that folk tradition reached for against headaches, sleeplessness, and frayed nerves. The perfume of the fringed lavender is less cloying than that of the English kinds, cleaner and greener and touched with resin, and speaks of Mediterranean hillsides, dry winds, and the whispered liturgy of bees.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a plant for the contemplative soul, for the keeper of heirlooms, the reader of landscape, the one who knows that not all beauty is meant to dazzle. Some beauty is meant to endure. Plant Lavandula dentata in lean soil with sun on the shoulders of the border, and the lavender will return the favor tenfold, even in the warmest Southern gardens where English lavenders faint.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the garden French lavender earns a place where the English kinds sulk. Give the plant lean soil, sharp drainage, and full sun and the low, silvery shrub will bloom for much of the year in mild climates, sending up wands topped with violet flowers and a pair of showy bracts like little rabbit ears. Set a low hedge of the lavender along a gravel path, mass the silvery shrub on a hot bank, tuck a plant into a herb garden or a terracotta pot, and let the bees and butterflies do the rest. Pair the grey foliage with the gold of santolina, the blue of rosemary, or the pink of dianthus for a dry, fragrant border that shrugs off heat and drought.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a lavender that asks for little and gives much: bloom, balm, and a brush with timelessness.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057909731443,"sku":"LAVA-DENT-01G","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/JFLavanduladentata4.jpg?v=1743522536"},{"product_id":"lyonia-lucida-morris-minor","title":"Lyonia lucida 'Morris Minor'","description":"\u003cp\u003eLyonia lucida 'Morris Minor' is Woodlanders' own compact selection of the native fetterbush, a tidier, smaller-leaved form of one of the Southeast's finest evergreen shrubs. The name is a small joke and a tribute at once: the little, rounded leaves recall the Morris Minor motorcar, and the selection honors the landowner, Mr. Morris, on whose property the original plant was found.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFetterbush is a Southeastern native, growing wild in acidic wetlands and damp pine woods from Virginia south through Florida and west to Louisiana. The shrub belongs to the heath family, Ericaceae, in company with azaleas, blueberries, and mountain laurel, and shares the family's love of moist, acidic, humus-rich soil. Like the rest of that clan, the foliage carries grayanotoxins and is not for grazing, so deer pass the plant by.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat sets 'Morris Minor' apart is restraint. Where the ordinary fetterbush arches to six or eight feet, this selection keeps to a dense, upright-arching three to five, with smaller, glossier, rounder leaves that give the shrub a refined, well-groomed look the year round. In spring the branches hang with the classic fetterbush bells, soft white to pink, nodding beneath the foliage and offering early nectar to bees.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe compact habit makes 'Morris Minor' far easier to place than the wild species: a natural for smaller gardens, foundation plantings, low native hedges, and the front of a moist, acidic border or rain garden. Give sun to part shade and steady moisture, mulch with pine straw, and the shrub asks little. A hard cut in early spring rejuvenates an older plant and keeps the neat, arching form at its best.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057916678259,"sku":"LYON-LUCI-MORR-MINO-01G","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-447.jpg?v=1720139452"},{"product_id":"magnolia-virginiana-var-australis","title":"Magnolia virginiana var. australis","description":"\u003cp\u003eMagnolia virginiana, the sweetbay magnolia, has long been a tree of distinction in the American landscape, ranging from the cool wetlands of Massachusetts to the Gulf Coast. Across that span the species wears two very different guises. In the northern states the sweetbay is a smaller, often shrubby tree that drops its leaves in winter; in the Deep South the species reaches fullest expression as Magnolia virginiana var. australis, the evergreen southern sweetbay, a large and enduring tree of great grace.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis southern form, native to the coastal plain from the Carolinas through Florida and west to Texas, is one of the most ornamental of the native magnolias. The lustrous, evergreen foliage gives the tree a presence unmatched by the northern kin, glossy dark green above and silvered beneath. In summer come fragrant, creamy-white flowers that open in slow succession, each carrying the clean lemon perfume that William Bartram praised as he wandered the southern woods, blooms of understated elegance, never gaudy and always refined.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe evergreen sweetbay is a tree of wetlands and bottomlands, at home along streams, swamps, and coastal hammocks, yet in gardens the tree proves wonderfully adaptable, flourishing wherever the soil stays moist, acidic, and reasonably drained. A tolerance for periodic flooding, paired with the evergreen beauty, makes the southern sweetbay invaluable where a garden needs both native resilience and year-round green.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUnlike the shrubby northern variety, var. australis can rise to true tree stature, sometimes past sixty feet, with a straight trunk and an airy crown. The tree lends itself to use as a shade tree, a specimen, or a native alternative to exotic evergreens, especially in southern landscapes where gardeners want plants with cultural and ecological integrity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor the gardener who plants one, the southern sweetbay offers not only fragrance and beauty but a tie to the Deep South's natural heritage, a tree that has stood along swamps, river margins, and old homesteads for centuries and still marks the seasons with quiet constancy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057918840947,"sku":"MAGN-VIRG-AUST-01G","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Magnoliavirginianavar.australisSonniaHill_759f06bb-e4c4-4841-82d1-c3c83f133e1f.jpg?v=1755938694"},{"product_id":"myrica-pumila","title":"Morella pumila","description":"\u003cp\u003eMorella pumila is the dwarf waxmyrtle, a low, native evergreen that keeps everything gardeners love about the common wax myrtle, aromatic foliage, waxy berries, and a tough constitution, and shrinks it all to knee height. Native to the frequently burned pinelands of the southern United States, the plant is an adaptation to that fiery world, staying small and spreading slowly into dense patches and colonies by underground runners.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe small leaves are aromatic, releasing the clean, resinous bayberry scent when brushed or crushed, and on female plants small, dark, waxy berries ripen along the stems, the same wax that scents a bayberry candle and a welcome winter food for birds. The plant belongs to the bayberry family, Myricaceae, and like the rest of the clan fixes nitrogen from the air, thriving in the lean, sandy, acid soils that starve other shrubs. Once listed as Myrica pusilla or Myrica cerifera pumila, the dwarf is now placed in the genus Morella.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWoodlanders may have been among the first nurseries to offer this useful little native to gardeners, and it deserves the wider audience. As a low, evergreen, colony-forming groundcover, dwarf waxmyrtle covers dry, sunny banks, binds sandy soil against erosion, and knits together the front of a native or coastal planting, all with the salt tolerance and toughness of the family. Deer leave the aromatic foliage alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGive dwarf waxmyrtle a sunny, well-drained, sandy or acid spot and let the plant spread into a soft evergreen mat one to two feet high. Little care is needed once established, since heat, drought, poor soil, and salt are all taken in stride. Pair with wiregrass, muhly, and other pineland natives for a low-maintenance, wildlife-friendly groundcover, and shear if a tidier edge is wanted. Additional photos courtesy of Will Cook.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057926279283,"sku":"MORE-PUMI-01G","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Morellapumila-WillCook.jpg?v=1750682566"},{"product_id":"myrica-pumila-willow-leaf","title":"Morella pumila 'Willow Leaf'","description":"\u003cp\u003eMorella pumila 'Willow Leaf' is a distinctive, fine-leaved form of the native dwarf waxmyrtle, selected for narrow, elongated, willow-like leaves that give the low shrub an unusually elegant, airy texture rarely seen in the species. Like the wild plant, this is a low, spreading, colony-forming evergreen of the fire-adapted pinelands of the southeastern United States, once listed as Myrica pusilla and now placed in the genus Morella.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe selection is a Woodlanders introduction, made from a plant found in Wheeler County, Georgia, and the fine willow-leaf foliage sets it apart from the ordinary dwarf waxmyrtle at a glance. As in the whole clan, the leaves are aromatic when crushed, carrying the clean bayberry scent, and female plants bear small, dark, waxy berries that ripen along the stems, the same wax that scents a bayberry candle and valuable winter food for birds.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe low, running habit makes 'Willow Leaf' a fine native groundcover, dense enough to cover ground and hold sandy banks against erosion, and useful in naturalistic plantings, coastal gardens, and restoration work. A member of the bayberry family, Myricaceae, the plant fixes nitrogen from the air, improving lean, acid, sandy soil and thriving where more demanding shrubs would starve.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGive 'Willow Leaf' full sun to light shade and sandy, acid, well-drained soil, and the plant asks almost nothing: drought, poor soil, and salt are all taken in stride, and deer pass the aromatic foliage by. Let the fine-textured mat spread as a groundcover, a low informal edge, or a wildlife planting two to three feet high, and enjoy an uncommon native with a texture rarely seen. Photos courtesy of the JC Raulston Arboretum.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057926410355,"sku":"MYRI-PUMI-WILL-LEAF-01G","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/MyricaWillowLeafWoodlanders2.jpg?v=1750778950"},{"product_id":"myrica-rubra","title":"Myrica rubra","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrica rubra\u003c\/em\u003e, the Chinese bayberry or yangmei, is a fruiting evergreen tree from the misty mountains of East Asia, revered for centuries across China and Japan for tangy-sweet berries and an elegant, shapely form. Imagine cherries and cranberries with a botanical lovechild that had the moodiness of a plum and the antioxidant punch of a superfruit, and something close to yangmei would be the result. The current stock is female, tissue-cultured clones of a named selection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe selection offered is 'Wuzi', either a newly chosen form from the famed Dongkui-growing region or a hybrid of Dongkui and Biqi. The name Wuzi translates as dark purple, a nod to the richly pigmented fruit, which runs darker and tastier than Dongkui if a touch smaller, and in the native region ripens about five days earlier, an early-season treat prized for both flavor and beauty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYangmei has always held a special place at Woodlanders. A beautiful mature specimen has grown in Aiken for years, quietly admired for evergreen grace and seasonal magic, but more than two decades have passed since the nursery could last offer this elusive gem to customers. Thanks to the meticulous work of a new partner, the Plant Propagator behind yangmei.us and a leading voice for yangmei cultivation in the United States, Woodlanders is proud to reintroduce this rare species to American gardens.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe reward is a shapely evergreen of shimmering, softly lanceolate leaves and, on a pollinated female, clusters of bumpy, jewel-like fruit in deep crimson to purple-black, sweet-tart and faintly resinous, rich in the anthocyanins that make yangmei a celebrated functional food in East Asia. A word for the determined gardener: yangmei is not for the faint of heart, slow to establish and sensitive to transplant, yet remarkably resilient once settled, and needing a male plant nearby for the females to fruit. Those who commit are rewarded with a plant that bridges the ornamental and the edible. \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/blogs\/the-node\/myrica-rubra-yangmei-the-fruit-that-won-t-wait\"\u003eRead this plant's full story here.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"1 Gallon","offer_id":44014729724019,"sku":"MYRI-RUBR-01G","price":89.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"2 Gallon","offer_id":44014729756787,"sku":"MYRI-RUBR-03G","price":115.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/MyricarubraWoodlanders1.jpg?v=1753824919"},{"product_id":"olea-yunnaensis","title":"Olea yunnanensis","description":"\u003cp\u003eA true olive for the shade, \u003cem\u003eOlea yunnanensis\u003c\/em\u003e is the sort of plant that rewards the gardener who reads labels twice. The genus is the olive genus, kin to the ancient Mediterranean fruit tree and to the sweet olives and privets of the same family, yet this species hails from the mountains of Yunnan in southwestern China rather than the sun-baked hills of the Old World. The narrow, leathery, dark green leaves carry an unmistakable \u003cem\u003eOsmanthus\u003c\/em\u003e cast, glossy above and paler beneath, and build into a dense, rounded evergreen canopy that holds the year.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWoodlanders grows this little-known evergreen from stock sourced from the renowned Camellia Forest Nursery in North Carolina, raised from a collection made near a temple in China at roughly seven thousand feet. The high-elevation origin hints at a useful hardiness, and since introduction the plant has proven a vigorous grower, quickly building into a large shrub in semi-shade. A fine, flourishing specimen stands at Armstrong Atlantic University in Savannah, Georgia, a quiet demonstration of what the species can do in a Southern garden.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn early summer come loose panicles of small, creamy-white flowers, modest to the eye but carrying a delicate, sweet fragrance that recalls the bloom of the European olive, and the pollinators find them readily. Small olive-like drupes follow, green at first and ripening to a deep purplish-black by late autumn, ornamental in their own restrained way and a welcome food for birds. In the native range the fruit has been turned to oil and other traditional uses, a reminder that the olive family has fed and scented human households for millennia.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGive \u003cem\u003eOlea yunnanensis\u003c\/em\u003e full sun to part shade and well-drained, neutral to slightly alkaline soil, and site the plant where a handsome, uncommon evergreen is wanted: a specimen, an informal screen, or a structural anchor in a Mediterranean or collector's planting. Drought tolerant once established, the shrub pairs naturally with lavender, rosemary, and other sun-loving companions, and offers year-round green with a genuine backstory. For the gardener who values rarity as much as reliability, this Yunnan olive is a quiet prize.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057930408051,"sku":"OLEA-YUNN-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Olea_yunnaensis_Mark-Weathington.jpg?v=1724764057"},{"product_id":"persea-borbonia","title":"Persea borbonia","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePersea borbonia\u003c\/em\u003e, the redbay, is a handsome broadleaf evergreen native to the southeastern United States, ranging from coastal Virginia through Florida and west along the Gulf. A member of the laurel family and a close relative of the avocado, the redbay carries the same aromatic oils, and the glossy leaves have long been used in the southern kitchen much as bay laurel (\u003cem\u003eLaurus nobilis\u003c\/em\u003e) is, to season soups, stews, and gumbo.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRedbay is often confused with the closely related swampbay (\u003cem\u003ePersea palustris\u003c\/em\u003e), but the two can be told apart by small marks: the redbay lacks the rusty, star-shaped hairs on the leaf undersides, holds the fruit on short stalks, and favors somewhat drier ground, the coastal dunes, sandy ridges, and well-drained hammocks where the evergreen canopy lends shade and structure to the native landscape.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBeyond the kitchen, redbay carries a deep ethnobotanical history. The small dark fruits feed birds and small mammals, and the foliage is a host for the caterpillars of the Palamedes swallowtail. The Seminole and other Southeastern peoples used the leaves medicinally, chiefly as an emetic and cleanser and in infusions for fevers and headaches, one thread in a long human relationship with the tree.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn recent years the redbay has met a formidable threat. Laurel wilt, a fungal disease carried by the introduced redbay ambrosia beetle, has swept through much of the native range and killed redbays across the coastal plain. That loss makes garden plantings inland, or beyond the beetle's reach, quietly valuable, a way of holding the species where the wild has been unkind.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs an ornamental, redbay offers year-round green on a moderate, densely branched frame suited to gardens and parks, thriving in acidic, sandy soils and adapting to a range of well-drained sites. Grow the tree as an evergreen specimen or in a native grouping where permanence, fragrance, and ecological value are wanted, and site where a passing hand can brush the aromatic leaves.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057937191027,"sku":"PERS-BORB-01G","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1447.jpg?v=1720140041"},{"product_id":"pinus-palustris","title":"Pinus palustris","description":"\u003cp\u003eBefore the South was farms and pavement it was, in great part, longleaf: an open, sunlit forest of widely spaced pines over a ground layer so rich a single square yard could hold dozens of species, the whole thing held together by fire. They ran across tens of millions of acres of the coastal plain, by some counts as many as ninety million, from Virginia to east Texas, and \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/blogs\/the-node\/longleaf-pine-restoration-and-the-art-of-restraint-in-modern-landscape-design\"\u003ealmost all of it is gone now\u003c\/a\u003e, which is the quiet grief behind every longleaf you meet. They gave the South tar, pitch, and turpentine, the naval stores that caulked the wooden fleets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and earned North Carolinians the nickname tar heels. \u003cem\u003ePinus palustris\u003c\/em\u003e is the patient one. A seedling spends years as a dense green tussock, looking for all the world like a clump of grass and fooling everyone who doesn't know better, while underground they drive a deep taproot and wait out the fires that clear their rivals. Then they bolt, throwing up a single thick candle of a stem before they bother with branches. The needles are the longest of any eastern pine, well past a foot, hanging in soft fountains and catching wind like nothing else in the genus. Give one sun and room and you are planting the architecture the gopher tortoise and the red-cockaded woodpecker were waiting for. They ask only for patience, and they reward it for three hundred years.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057941778547,"sku":"PINU-PALU-01G","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-184.jpg?v=1720140132"},{"product_id":"pinus-glabra","title":"Pinus glabra","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlmost everything about \u003cem\u003ePinus glabra\u003c\/em\u003e argues against their being a pine at all. The bark is smooth and gray, close-grained, so like the bark of an oak or hickory that people walk straight past a mature one without taking the tree for a conifer; it is the single most reliable way to know the tree. The needles are soft, short, and paired, a cool dark green, worn in a dense rounded crown rather than the open candelabra of their relatives. And most usefully, they tolerate shade. Where nearly every other southern pine demands full sun and open, burned ground, spruce pine settles happily into the wooded margins just above the bottomlands, growing in the understory beneath oaks, beech, and magnolia. They were named by Thomas Walter, the English-born botanist of the Santee whose \u003cem\u003eFlora Caroliniana\u003c\/em\u003e appeared in London in 1788, the year before he died; the epithet glabra, meaning smooth and hairless, marks those glabrous young twigs. Even the timber keeps its own counsel, drying at so different a rate from other southern pines that mills cannot season it in the same batch. This is a pine for the places pines aren't supposed to go: the shaded corner, the woodland edge, the spot where you wanted evergreen structure and assumed you couldn't have it. Once you can recognize one, you start wanting them everywhere the light runs thin.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057942007923,"sku":"PINU-GLAB-01G","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-182.jpg?v=1720140136"},{"product_id":"pittosporum-tobira-variegata","title":"Pittosporum tobira 'Variegata'","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn Japan they call the shrub tobira, short for tobira no ki, the door tree, because the cut branches were hung in the doorway at Setsubun to turn back demons at the threshold of spring. The broken wood smells rank, which was rather the point: bad spirits, like most of us, would rather not walk through a bad smell. The genus name is kinder and more exact, \u003cem\u003epitta\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003esporos\u003c\/em\u003e, pitch and seed, for the resin that coats the black seeds and glues them to whatever bird carries them off.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou meet none of that at the doorstep. What you meet is the scent of the flowers, pure orange blossom, carried on creamy five-petaled stars clustered at the branch tips through late spring. This is the variegated form, and the foliage is the reason to reach for the plant: oval, leathery, gray-green leaves rimmed in irregular cream, their edges rolled softly under, holding the two-tone all year. By autumn the spent flowers have become small woody capsules that split into three and show a lining of bright orange-red seeds set in that same resinous gloss.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTough in the way coastal plants are tough, unbothered by salt wind, heat, or a hard shearing, and asking only for sharp drainage and a little sun. A hedge that perfumes the whole garden for a fortnight in spring and stays composed the other fifty weeks of the year. Site the shrub where you pass close by, beside a gate or a door, where the scent can ambush you on the way in.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057942958195,"sku":"PITT-TOBI-VARI-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Pittosporumtobira_Variegata_Woodlanders3.jpg?v=1736447808"},{"product_id":"polystichum-acrostichoides","title":"Polystichum acrostichoides","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor a plant this common, the Christmas fern carries an oddly specific origin for the name. The fern was christened, the story goes, by one John Robinson, a botany professor at the Peabody Academy in Salem, Massachusetts, sometime in the late 1800s, and set down for posterity in a 1923 volume with the irreproachable title \u003cem\u003eThe Fern-Lover's Companion\u003c\/em\u003e. Robinson's reasoning was seasonal. When the other ferns of the eastern woods go brown and crisp at the first hard frost, \u003cem\u003ePolystichum acrostichoides\u003c\/em\u003e holds green straight through December, which made the plant the fern people cut for wreaths and mantels at Christmas. There is a second theory, quieter and harder to settle, that the name comes from the leaflets themselves: look closely and each pinna carries a small lobe at its base, an ear or a thumb, that gives the leaflet the outline of a Christmas stocking. Both camps are probably right.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Latin, for once, is plain description rather than flourish. \u003cem\u003ePolystichum\u003c\/em\u003e means many rows, for the ranks of spore cases lined up beneath the fertile fronds; \u003cem\u003eacrostichoides\u003c\/em\u003e means resembling \u003cem\u003eAcrostichum\u003c\/em\u003e, a leather fern whose spores cover the leaf almost completely. The botanists named the fern twice for the same modest feature and left the poetry to the common name. The plants grow in a tidy fountaining clump, eighteen inches to two and a half feet, the fronds leathery and dark and lance-shaped, rising from a central crown rather than running off across the bed. In spring the new growth uncurls as silvery, scaly fiddleheads, the most ornamental moment in an otherwise composed year. The fronds that come up first are usually the fertile ones, held stiffly upright with their upper third contracted and browned beneath with sori. The sterile fronds follow, lower and looser, and those are the ones that stay green.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat the fern does in winter is the whole reason for the name, and one of the more endearing habits in the genus. As the cold sets in, the evergreen fronds give up their upright posture and lie flat to the ground, pressed low under the leaf litter and the snow. It reads as collapse and is in fact strategy: flattened against the earth, the fronds ride out a freeze that would shred them standing, and rise again when the ground warms. Give the plants organically rich, acidic, well-drained soil in part to full shade, hardy across a remarkable run from Nova Scotia to the Florida panhandle, zones 3 through 9. They want moisture while establishing and turn surprisingly drought-tolerant once settled, holding their ground in the dry rooty shade beneath big trees where most things sulk. The one thing they will not forgive is wet feet in winter, which rots the crown. Deer and rabbits walk past them. Massed on a shaded slope, they knit the soil and hold it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA fern that decked the halls before anyone thought to plant the species on purpose: green at the solstice, flat under the snow, and standing again before you have quite registered that winter is over. The quiet backbone of the eastern woods, and one of the few green things left when the rest of the garden has gone to sticks.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057945383027,"sku":"POLY-ACRO-01Q","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/PolystichumacrostichoidesSAWasowskiWoodlanders1.jpg?v=1750347586"},{"product_id":"prunus-laurocerasus-parkway","title":"Prunus laurocerasus 'Parkway'","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe English laurel is a large broadleaf evergreen shrub grown for bold, glossy foliage, spires of small white flowers, and, at times, small cherry-like red-to-black fruits. The species is variable, with a number of cultivated forms, and the plant is native to eastern Europe and Asia Minor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe selection Woodlanders offers as 'Parkway' may be the large-leaf form known as 'Magnoliifolia'. Our stock was propagated from a large old specimen growing along one of the historic parkways of Aiken, South Carolina, and carries that local pedigree forward.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Parkway' makes an excellent large evergreen shrub for a semi-shaded site with well-drained, acid soil, useful as a tall hedge, a screen, or a bold specimen. The glossy leaves take shearing well and give year-round structure. Like others in the genus, the leaves and seeds contain cyanogenic compounds and are poisonous if eaten, so site away from grazing animals and keep the clippings out of reach.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrow in full sun to part shade and well-drained, acid soil, water through the first season to establish, and shear in late winter or lightly through the season to hold a formal hedge. Give shelter from harsh, drying winter wind at the cold edge of the range.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057947152499,"sku":"PRUN-LAUR-PARK-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-191.jpg?v=1720140289"},{"product_id":"rohdea-japonica-claudia-phelps","title":"Rohdea japonica 'Claudia Phelps'","description":"\u003cp\u003eRohdea japonica, the sacred lily or Nippon lily, is a bold, slow, tufted evergreen perennial grown above all for foliage, and this selection carries the darkest leaves of all, an almost black, glossy green that anchors a shaded planting through the whole year and lights up a winter landscape when little else holds. Rather sizeable red berries ripen in tight clusters, half-hidden at the base of the leaves, a quiet second season for anyone who looks closely.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFew plants carry so much cultural weight. Known in Japan as omoto, meaning evergreen, and prized for at least five hundred years as a symbol of long life and good fortune, Rohdea became the subject of a genuine craze: the sale of the plant was banned in 1852 to cool the speculation, and the Japan Rohdea Society today registers some six hundred named cultivars, the more dwarf, contorted, and variegated the more highly prized. As the old saying that Woodlanders is fond of repeating goes, in Japan old men devote their declining years to the culture of the various forms of this plant. The small, pale flowers, carried in a short dense spike among the leaves, are pollinated, remarkably, by snails.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn China the plant is wan nian qing, again evergreen, and the roots and leaves have a long place in traditional Chinese medicine as a cardiac and general tonic, a reminder that Rohdea, like foxglove and lily of the valley, carries potent cardiac glycosides and is poisonous if eaten. This particular clone has a home-ground story: the plant comes from Rosehill, the Aiken estate of the late Claudia Phelps, and was named for her by our friend Ted Stephens of Nurseries Caroliniana.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGrow 'Claudia Phelps' in shade to part shade, in rich, well-drained soil, as a bold evergreen groundcover, a foliage anchor at the front of a shaded border, or an accent in a courtyard or container where the near-black leaves can be read at close range. Slow and long-lived, deer-resistant, and drought-tolerant in shade once established, the plant pairs beautifully with ferns, hellebores, hostas, and other shade companions, and rewards the patient gardener with decades of quiet, sculptural presence.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057978249331,"sku":"ROHD-JAPO-CLAU-PHEL-01G","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-710.jpg?v=1720140901"},{"product_id":"rosmarinus-officinalis","title":"Rosmarinus officinalis","description":"\u003cp\u003eRosemary is a timeless classic in both the garden and the kitchen, an aromatic evergreen shrub of the sun-baked Mediterranean coast, so distinctive that botanists long kept rosemary in a genus apart, Rosmarinus officinalis, before recent study moved the herb into the sages as Salvia rosmarinus. The old genus name means dew of the sea, for the plant's love of bright, salt-swept coastal hillsides. Slender, needle-like, deep green leaves clothe the woody stems the year round, and soft blue flowers open along them from winter into spring.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFew herbs carry so much lore. For thousands of years rosemary has stood for memory, loyalty, and protection: ancient Greek students wore sprigs in their hair while studying, Romans wove the herb into wedding garlands, and for centuries the plant was hung by doorways to guard against misfortune. That association with memory runs from Shakespeare's Ophelia, rosemary for remembrance, straight through to modern research into the plant's neuroprotective compounds.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the kitchen rosemary is indispensable, the piney, resinous seasoning for roasted meats, breads, potatoes, and oils, and the leaves have an equally long place in traditional European medicine, taken as a tea to settle digestion and lift the spirits and applied to the hair and skin. Modern work has focused on the rosmarinic and carnosic acids behind the plant's antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. The flowers and foliage also draw bees, and the aromatic leaves are reliably left alone by deer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGive rosemary the hot, bright, sharply drained spot the plant evolved for: a herb garden, a sunny border, a gravel or Mediterranean planting, a raised bed, or a large container by the kitchen door. Full sun, lean well-drained soil on the neutral to slightly alkaline side, and room for air to move are the whole secret; overwatering and wet winter soil are the surest ways to lose the plant. Pair with lavender, sage, thyme, and other Mediterranean herbs, and where hard freezes threaten, grow rosemary in a pot that can shelter under cover.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057980280947,"sku":"ROSM-OFFI-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/RosmarinusofficinalisWoodlanders1.jpg?v=1745772241"},{"product_id":"ruscus-aculeatus","title":"Ruscus aculeatus","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eRuscus aculeatus\u003c\/em\u003e, Butcher's Broom, is a low evergreen shrub of the asparagus family, native to the woodlands of southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East, and reaching north into the milder parts of the British Isles. What look like glossy, spine-tipped leaves are not leaves at all but flattened stems called cladodes, which take over the work of photosynthesis while the true leaves are reduced to tiny scales. The generic name comes from the Latin \u003cem\u003eruscum\u003c\/em\u003e, the old word for a butcher's broom, and the epithet \u003cem\u003eaculeatus\u003c\/em\u003e means prickled, for the sharp point that tips each cladode.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn spring, small greenish-white, six-tepaled star-shaped flowers appear singly or in pairs in the very center of each cladode, an arresting detail once noticed. The species is dioecious, so male and female flowers grow on separate plants, and only the female bears fruit: bright red berries set directly on the face of the cladode, holding from late fall through winter against the dark green. These are seed-grown plants and so include both sexes, unlike many of the unisexual clones sold in the United States that never fruit, and with a male and a female planted together a berry crop is likely.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe common name is earned. The tough, wiry stems and bristled tips were once bound into stiff brooms that butchers used to scour scraps and blood from their blocks and stalls, and the plant has carried the country name Knee Holly as well. Old herbals put the plant to work internally too: the rhizome and root have a long European history in the treatment of venous complaints, and modern research has isolated the steroidal saponins ruscogenin and neoruscogenin as the active agents behind that reputation. The medicinal thread is developed further in the fields below.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the garden Butcher's Broom does the difficult work few shrubs will take on. The plant thrives in heavy, dry shade, shrugs off root competition, and holds a tidy evergreen presence beneath trees, along a woodland edge, or in the sooty, sunless corners of a city garden where little else persists. Slow and long-lived, drought-tolerant once settled, and left alone by deer, this is a shrub to plant and largely forget, rewarded each winter by the red berries lit against the dark cladodes.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057982935155,"sku":"RUSC-ACUL-01G","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1408.jpg?v=1720140990"},{"product_id":"serissa-foetida-kowloon","title":"Serissa foetida \"Kowloon\"","description":"\u003cp\u003eSerissa foetida 'Kowloon', now more correctly placed as Serissa japonica, is a small, dense evergreen shrub known by a string of affectionate names: snow rose, tree of a thousand stars, and Japanese boxthorn. The genus stands alone in the coffee family, Rubiaceae, a surprising cousin to coffee, gardenia, and pentas. The unlovely species name foetida records the one fault, since bruised leaves and roots give off a faintly unpleasant smell, a small price for so much charm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNative to open subtropical woodlands, wet meadows, and riverbanks from India through China to Japan, Serissa has been loved in gardens and on the bonsai bench for centuries, prized for a neat, twiggy habit, a handsome pale-grey trunk that lightens with age, and an unusually long flowering season. 'Kowloon' adds a bright cream-to-yellow leaf margin to the picture, so that the small, glossy foliage carries color even between the flushes of bloom.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe flowers are the source of the prettiest common name. From spring into summer, and often again through the warm months, the shrub scatters itself with small, white, star-shaped blooms, a thousand tiny stars against dark, variegated leaves. In the plant's native range, Serissa has a modest place in folk medicine as well, the roots and leaves used in traditional preparations, though the shrub is grown in Western gardens strictly for ornament.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the garden, use 'Kowloon' as a low evergreen edger, a foundation or pathway plant, or a container and bonsai subject where the fine foliage and long bloom can be enjoyed at close range. The compact, well-branched frame holds shape with little effort and takes readily to clipping. Give full sun to part shade and moist, well-drained soil, shelter from hard freezes at the cold edge of the range, and site the shrub where the thousand small stars can be met up close.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057996107891,"sku":"SERI-FOET-KOWL-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-533.jpg?v=1720141221"},{"product_id":"vaccinium-myrsinites","title":"Vaccinium myrsinites","description":"\u003cp\u003eShiny blueberry is the little evergreen groundcover blueberry of the Southern Coastal Plain, a low, dense native rarely more than knee-high, spreading gently by rhizome into a fine, glossy-leaved mat. The species name myrsinites likens the small, lustrous leaves to those of myrtle, and the common name shiny blueberry says the same: the whole plant catches light on foliage barely an inch long.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn early spring, clusters of small, waxy, white to pink, bell-shaped flowers stud the low mounds, mildly fragrant and busy with bees, and give way to small, glossy, dark blue berries. The fruit is modest in size but flavorful, sweet enough for fresh eating, jams, and baked goods, and as welcome to birds and other wildlife as to the gardener.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNative across the Coastal Plain from the Carolinas through Florida and west along the Gulf, shiny blueberry grows in pine flatwoods and sandy scrub on lean, acid ground, an easy, fire-adapted survivor of hot, sandy country. That toughness makes the plant a natural for a naturalistic garden, a native or pollinator planting, or a restoration bed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGrow shiny blueberry in well-drained, sandy, acid soil in full sun or part shade, and use the low, dense mounds as a native groundcover, an edging, or a fine-textured filler that gives structure, spring bloom, and edible fruit at once. Pair with wiregrass, other pineland natives, and taller blueberries for a layered, wildlife-friendly planting. Photo courtesy of Bob Peterson.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42058007380083,"sku":"VACC-MYRS-01G","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/VacciniummyrisnitesBobPeterson.png?v=1725391538"},{"product_id":"vaccinium-darrowi-john-blue","title":"Vaccinium darrowii 'John Blue'","description":"\u003cp\u003eDarrow's blueberry is the silver-leaved evergreen of the group, a low, fine-textured native of the pine flatwoods and sandy scrub from southern Georgia through Florida to eastern Louisiana. The species honors George M. Darrow, the United States Department of Agriculture scientist whose breeding work built much of the modern blueberry, and the wild plant has passed its own heat tolerance into many of today's Southern highbush cultivars. 'John Blue' is a North Carolina State University selection chosen for looks as much as fruit, and the leaves are the reason.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSmall, fine, and glaucous blue-green, the evergreen foliage gives 'John Blue' a cool, silvered presence that few blueberries can match, held on a naturally dense, tidy frame. The color reads beautifully against darker greens and burgundy foliage, so the plant works as an ornamental first, in a native plant garden, an edible landscape, or a mixed shrub border, and as a fruiting blueberry second.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn spring the branches carry the small, white, bell-shaped flowers typical of the blueberries, mildly fragrant and busy with native bees, followed by small dark blue berries that are edible and as welcome to birds as to gardeners. The crop is modest beside a rabbiteye, but the pollinator and wildlife value is real, and the fruit is a pleasant bonus on a plant grown chiefly for the foliage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNative to the hot, sandy pinelands of the Deep South, 'John Blue' wants full sun and well-drained, sandy, acid soil, and dislikes any spot that stands wet. Give the plant a bright, sharply drained bed, avoid low ground that holds water, and the reward is year-round blue-green structure, spring bloom for the bees, and a touch of Southern heritage in a compact, resilient shrub.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42058007707763,"sku":"VACC-DARR-JOHN-BLUE-01G","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/VacciniumJohnBlue_2.jpg?v=1746648968"},{"product_id":"viburnum-japonicum","title":"Viburnum japonicum","description":"\u003cp\u003eCarl Peter Thunberg, the Swedish physician who talked his way onto the Dutch trading island of Dejima in 1775 and used the post to become one of the first Europeans to seriously botanize a closed Japan, was the first to describe this plant to science. Richard Oldham, the last of the great Kew collectors, gathered the shrub again near Nagasaki in 1862 and called the plant, a little dismissively, a small tree on the hills. In a garden the plant never quite loses that ambition, settling instead into a sturdy, slow evergreen bush.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe leaves are the first thing you notice: thick, glossy, dark green, and leathery enough to look lacquered. Turn one over and the underside is finely stippled with tiny dark dots, a quiet diagnostic that confirms the true plant and not Viburnum odoratissimum, with which the Japanese viburnum has been muddled in gardens for more than a century. Early summer brings rounded clusters of white flowers carrying a true jonquil sweetness, the kind of scent that travels across a yard, and red berries follow to hang on well past the leaves.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSlow is the operative word, and patience is the cost of admission. Hardy to about zone 7 and content in sun or near-full shade, the shrub is happiest set against a warm wall where the cold cannot find it. Japanese viburnum remains uncommon in American gardens and is likely to stay that way, which is most of the reason to grow one.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUse the plant as a glossy evergreen specimen, a fragrant anchor near a path or doorway where the early-summer scent can be caught, or a slow, substantial backbone in a sheltered shrub border. Pair with camellias, tea olive, and other broadleaf evergreens, give a warm, protected spot at the cold edge of the range, and let the lacquered foliage and jonquil-scented bloom reward the wait.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42058008756339,"sku":"VIBU-JAPO-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/viburnum-japonicum-5_Woodlanders.jpg?v=1747249886"},{"product_id":"viburnum-x-globosum-jermyns-globe","title":"Viburnum x globosum 'Jermyn's Globe'","description":"\u003cp\u003eA neat, dome-shaped evergreen bred for foliage and form. Viburnum x globosum is a garden hybrid between Viburnum calvum and the well-known Viburnum davidii, and 'Jermyn's Globe' was selected as the best seedling from a batch raised at the celebrated Hillier Nurseries in England around 1964, chosen for the way the plant rounds into a dense, self-shaping globe. The cultivar name honors Hillier's Jermyns arboretum in Hampshire.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe leaves are the making of the plant. Leathery, elliptic, and prominently veined, they emerge and hold a deep, undulating green, glossier and more refined than those of the familiar David viburnum, and they clothe the rounded frame from the ground up. The dense, even dome needs almost no pruning to keep the shape, which is precisely what recommends the shrub for structured, low-maintenance planting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn late spring, flat-topped clusters of small white flowers open from pink buds and draw bees and other pollinators, and where more than one plant grows to allow cross-pollination, ovoid berries follow in a striking metallic blue-black, an inheritance from the David viburnum parent. The bloom is quiet and the fruit a bonus; the year-round foliage and form are the reason to grow this hybrid.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSlowly building a compact dome of roughly three to five feet, 'Jermyn's Globe' suits a low evergreen border, a structured bed, a foundation, or a large container, and performs reliably in filtered sun to part shade across the mild South, where trials in South Carolina have shown the plant at ease. Give moist, well-drained soil and shelter from the harshest sun and wind, and enjoy a tidy, deer-resistant evergreen that holds a neat dome with almost no help. Additional photo courtesy of the RHS.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42058010361971,"sku":"VIBU-X-GLOB-JERM-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Viburnumxglobosum_Jermyn_sGlobe__Winwood_April_2017_115_12451.jpg?v=1744988818"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/collections\/DETA-1434.jpg?v=1762882598","url":"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/collections\/winter-woodlanders.oembed?page=3","provider":"Woodlanders","version":"1.0","type":"link"}