Blue Vervain, Verbena hastata is the August Plant of the Month and enhances any landscape in which it grows. It is one of my favorite mid to late summer native perennials for any number of reasons.

Turk’s-cap Lily, Lilium superbum, is one of our most spectacular wildflowers in eastern North America. Its stunning flowers bloom right now in July and August. Native to wet meadows and rich moist cove forests and bogs from New Hampshire south to Georgia and Alabama, it is found in most counties in Virginia.

One of my favorite Northern Neck native perennials, Yellow Wild Indigo, Baptisia tinctoria, is coming into bloom right now and its neat, compact habit fits the bill for many requests for low maintenance, small, native plants.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Arisaema triphyllum, is one of our most intriguing and curious woodland wildflowers and is blooming now.

The April Plant of the Month, Pawpaw, Asimina triloba, is a handsome small tree that is as fascinating as it is curious. Pawpaw is a member of the Custard-Apple Family, the Annonaceae, a large family of tropical and subtropical species.

Trout Lily is one of our earliest woodland wildflowers to bloom each spring with exquisite nodding yellow flowers with back-swept petals. The entire plant is only 4 -6” high with smooth lance to oblong gray-green leaves exquisitely mottled with purplish brown, supposedly resembling dappled coloring of a Brook Trout.

Our deciduous woods are graced by many native ferns, but in winter the evergreen Christmas Fern, Polystichum acrostichoides, takes center stage. It literally lights up the woods with its rich green, lustrous foliage that catches the low-angled winter sun, adding sparkle and color. Christmas Ferns are one of the most common ferns in the Southeast and occur in every county in Virginia.

The December Plant of the Month, American Mistletoe, goes by several common names - American, Eastern, Oak, False, or Hairy Mistletoe. This evergreen shrub grows high in the branches of deciduous trees where it is most visible in winter after the leaves fall. While not a plant you would “plant” in your garden, it has a fascinating history centered around the holidays and winter solstice.

Baldcypress, Taxodium distichum, our November Plant of the Month, is an unforgettable sight all year but in late fall when its soft foliage turns vibrant shades of copper-orange, it lights up the entire landscape.

In honor of the Halloween season, the October Plant of the Month is Ghost Plant or Indian Pipe – a very unusual member of the Heath family which includes blueberries, rhododendrons, and azaleas. This small perennial is often mistaken for a fungus with its ghostly white, green waxy, translucent stems and flowers. It completely lacks chlorophyll which gives plants their green color, so cannot photosynthesize or obtain energy from the sun. Instead, it obtains its nutrients by parasitizing the fungi that have symbiotic relationships with trees such as oaks and pines.

Mistflower, Blue Mist Flower or Hardy Ageratum, Conoclinium coelestinum, is aptly named for the soft clouds of fuzzy, lavender-blue flowers that top the plant in late summer and fall. Mistflower is a mounded and often densely branched, spreading perennial. Formerly classified in the genus Eupatorium, along with its larger cousins, the Joe-pye-weeds and Bonesets, Mistflower is much smaller, reaching only 1.5 - 3’ tall and wide. It also differs from its taller cousins in having opposite leaves that are rhomboid or triangular in shape with blunt teeth along the margins instead of having leaves in a whorl around the stem, and for the soft blue flowers unlike the soft mauve flowerheads of the Joe-pye-weeds and the white flowers of the bonesets. The lovely soft blue flowers cover the plant from late July well into fall, blooming for two months or more. The flowers consist entirely of tubular “disk” florets without the showy ray flowers of many daisies and asters. These small lavender-blue tubular florets are held in flat clusters about 1 – 3” across, with 40 – 50 disk florets in each flowerhead. The style (female reproductive part) extends beyond the corolla and is divided into 2 threadlike parts giving the flowerheads a distinctive misty or fuzzy look. In fact the soft blue flowers look much like the annual garden ageratum, and it is sometimes called hardy or wild ageratum.

Joe-pye-weeds, Eutrochium, are among our most dramatic late summer perennials lighting up both fields and gardens. They have distinctive leaves arranged in whorls at intervals along sturdy stems, topped with large rosy- purple to soft mauve pink flowerheads. These late season beauties begin to bloom in late July and often continue blooming well into September and are superlative pollinator plants, attracting clouds of butterflies, bees, and more.

Hollow Joe-pye-weed, Eutrochium fistulosum, is one of the most dramatic, with tall statuesque stems that can soar to 8 or 9’ in height (more typically 5 – 7’) creating a stunning spectacle.

All of the species of Mountain-mints are virtual pollinator and butterfly magnets! They are always ‘humming’ with butterflies and pollinators and their handsome foliage and long-lasting flowers make them summer garden stars. Of the twelve species in Virginia, Narrow-leaf Mountain-Mint is certainly one of the most attractive and is one of the easiest to grow. It is found in both Richmond and Lancaster Counties in Northern Neck and most other counties in Virginia. It is common in the Mountains and Piedmont but occurs less frequently in the coastal plain.

June is always an exciting month in the many freshwater wetlands in Northern Neck and beyond as many plants come into bloom. And one of the showiest blooms belongs to our beautiful Swamp Rose, Rosa palustris, an upright, deciduous shrub typically reaching 3 – 6’ high and wide, with arching stems and profusion of richly fragrant rose-pink blooms from late May through June.