In late August and September, Purple Lovegrass casts a lovely purplish haze over the roadsides and low fields. This lowgrowing, warm season bunch grass lights up the early fall landscape with airy clouds of small reddish-purple flowers that seem to float above the dense tufts of low foliage that grows only 6 -12” high. The airy inflorescence has an intricate whorled branching structure with three delicate wiry stems rising from the main pedicel and holds the small flowers, then seeds, above the foliage reaching 12 – 20” high.

Great Blue Lobelia is a lovely late-blooming perennial in the Bellflower family that flaunts tall blue spires of flowers for weeks on end in the late summer-fall. Also called Blue Cardinal Flower or just Great Lobelia, this relative of the well-known red Cardinal Flower is native to most of eastern North America and is naturally found in moist to wet habitats such as floodplain forests, moist cove and slope forests, seeps, stream banks and bars, and wet meadows, often over limestone or calcium-rich soils.

One of my all-time favorite pollinator plants, Short-toothed Mountain-mint, has just recently been added to the flora of the Northern Neck and I am thrilled to include it as the July Plant of the Month. Several large populations of this incredible pollinator powerhouse were recently discovered near Fone’s Cliff in Westmoreland County and are now listed in the Virginia Digital Atlas for this county.

The showy white flowerheads of American Elderberry can reach up to 10% across American Elderberry is a common, deciduous shrub that lights up our landscape from mid-May through June with huge and profuse clusters of white flowers that literally form a lacy veil over the shrub.

Did you know we have a wonderful native Wild Strawberry, also known as Scarlet or Virginia Strawberry?  It is an adaptable low, herbaceous perennial that spreads by runners to form handsome, ground-covering semi-evergreen colonies.

With the arrival of spring this month, I always look forward to finding one of my favorite early wildflowers, Virginia Pennywort. This herbaceous perennial is a diminutive spring ephemeral that emerges as early as February in the Coastal Plain but is often hidden in the leaf litter and visible only to those with the sharpest eyes.

Red Maples, also called Swamp or Scarlet Maples, are known for their brilliant fall color. Now they may seem to be a surprising choice for the February Plant of the Month, but they are a true harbinger of spring, blooming in late winter often as early as February in Coastal Virginia.

One of my favorite plants during winter walks in the woods is the Common Running-cedar. This lovely but distinctive evergreen plant is common across Virginia in moist to dry acidic forests, especially in disturbed or successional forests with mixed pines, oaks or tulip poplars.

Inkberry or Gallberry is a great choice for the December Plant of the Month. This handsome broadleaf evergreen shrub typically grows slowly to about 5 – 8’ high and wide and has plenty of winter interest with its small narrowly ovate to lance-like dark green leaves that sparkle in the winter sun.