A few weeks ago, driving north from Florida, we passed mile after mile of waves of lavender-blue flowers gracing the highway shoulders in South Carolina. We were thrilled to see Lyre-leaf Sage, Salvia lyrata, creating a gorgeous spectacle along an otherwise barren straight stretch of road.
Read MoreTrailing Arbutus is one of our earliest blooming wildflowers and has been considered a “herald of spring” with its extremely fragrant clusters of pink to white flowers blooming from late February to April in our area.
Read MoreOne of my favorite sights while walking in winter woodlands are the beautiful evergreen leaves of Downy Rattlesnake Plantain, Goodyera pubescens. This eye-catching beauty is one of our most common woodland orchids and instantly recognizable by its exquisitely etched leaves with an intricate network of fine white veins on either side of a broader white midvein.
Read MoreThe January Plant of the Month, Eastern Red Cedar, Juniperus virginiana, goes by many names such as Eastern Juniper, Red Cedar or even Pencil Juniper. This widespread handsome native tree is found from Nova Scotia and Ontario south to northern Florida and Texas and west across the Great Plains and is extremely cold and heat tolerant.
Read MoreAs I write this in early December, most of the fall leaves have fallen from our deciduous trees and their architecture and bark has taken center stage helping to brighten the landscape. Birch trees are known for their colorful bark and our River Birch, Betula nigra, is no exception with its exquisite pale pink to salmon exfoliating bark making it one of our most stunning and picturesque trees.
Read MoreSassafras, Sassafras albidum, is one of our most distinctive and colorful native deciduous trees. Its brilliance is especially vibrant in fall when its leaves ignite into a glorious kaleidoscope of reds, golds, oranges and even purples. Even in summer, the blue-green leaves of Sassafras are distinctive with three different leaf shapes on a single tree.
Read MoreSlender Flat-top Goldenrod is a beautiful deciduous, perennial closely related to goldenrods and is an underused but superior pollinator plant. Its nectar-rich flowers bloom over a long period from September into late fall, often lasting into November or even December.
Read MoreBushy Bluestem, also called Bushy Bluebeard, is a compact, beautiful native grass often reaching only 2 – 4’ high, with attractive foliage and distinctive dense, feathery inflorescences that glow silvery white with pinkish tints in the fall light.
Read MoreSpotted Beebalm or Eastern Horsemint is an eye-catcher with plenty of charm when it blooms from late July to September and is easy to fall in love with. The flowers are not quite as large and impressive as some other Beebalms but they make up for it with intricately beautiful and showy flowers.
Read MorePickerelweed is a standout in any garden pond, or freshwater coastal stream or river when its showy lavenderblue flowers are held above the foliage on tall stems. This perennial grows in shallow water where it tolerates up to 2’ of occasional flooding but prefers less than one foot of water.
Read MoreRoyal Fern, Osmunda spectabilis, is one of our most imposing native ferns and is distinctive in every way. Growing 5 or 6’ tall with a light textured, elegant habit it is nothing short of spectacular.
Read MoreVirginia Sweetspire, Itea virginica, is a stunning deciduous to semi-evergreen shrub and the perfect choice for our May Plant of the Month as the long racemes of white flowers are just beginning to open on this first day of May.
Read MoreCarolina or Yellow Jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens, is a stunning evergreen vine native to the southern United States and Mexico south to Guatemala. In Virginia, Carolina Jessamine is a coastal beauty, common along the southern and central Coastal Plain north to Lancaster and Northampton Counties but rare in the adjacent outer Piedmont.
Read MoreIn honor of our Pop-up field trip to see the very early blooming Bloodroot just beginning to bloom in member’s Lucy and Frank’s beautiful woodland garden, I thought Bloodroot would be the perfect plant for our March Plant of the Month.
Read MoreOne of the earliest signs of spring is the bloom of the Round-lobed Hepatica or Liverleaf, Hepatica americana. The lovely small flowers of this woodland wildflower look fragile but this hardy perennial blooms in the face of winter often in February. An array of adaptations helps it survive this period of winter-spring.
Read MoreAs we celebrated the New Year with our annual New Year’s Day walk at Hickory Hollow NAP, many participants were intrigued by a small, common terrestrial orchid, the Cranefly Orchid, Tipularia discolor, that greeted us along the paths. Some were even more surprised to realize they had this orchid growing on their own properties! Oddly, this orchid is unique in having dark green leaves that appear in mid fall and remain handsome and dark green through the winter months despite the vagaries of winter weather and then wither away in late spring and early summer when the canopy closes overhead.
Read MoreOur evergreen Wax Myrtle or Southern Bayberry is handsome in every season of the year but it particularly sparkles in the winter after the leaves of deciduous trees have fallen leaving a gray and brown landscape.
Read MoreEverything about the November Plant of the Month is distinctive and picturesque. This small to mid-sized tree typically grows to about 35 - 60’ with crooked artistic branches, broad rounded crown, and pendulous lower branches - similar in structure to a Japanese Bonsai.
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