Bushy 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.

Spotted 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.

Pickerelweed 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.

Royal 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.

Virginia 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.

Carolina 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.

In 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.

One 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.

As 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.

Our 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.

Everything 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.

At our recent fall plant sale a number of shoppers requested shade tolerant perennials that bloom in shady woodland gardens in late summer and fall, long after spring bloomers have faded. The October Plant of the Month, Blue-stemmed Goldenrod, Solidago caesia, fits the bill beautifully and like other Goldenrods, has the added benefit of supporting a large variety of pollinators and butterflies.

Little Bluestem is one of our finest native grasses and was once one of the dominant grasses of the vast Tallgrass Prairies that covered much of central North America. This beautiful warm-season perennial is one of the most widespread grasses in our area and found in nearly every county in Virginia.