Mar

The Black cherry is an important southern tree for both wild life and commercially. Young black cherries tend to have a conical crown but when given enough room, the mature trees develop long limbs and arching branches giving it an oval shaped crown. The Black cherry’s fall foliage is a golden…

Virginia Bluebells is a magical spring ephemerel plant, an absolute must for every garden with a spot of shade! It is an early spring riser with soft, floppy, grey-green, oval shaped leaves. The flower buds are pink, bluish pink or lavender as they uncoil near the top of each stem, then…

Recognized by its paired, green-and-brown/maroon spotted leaves (like trout), the Trout Lily is sometimes called Dogtooth Violet for its white underground corm. Trout Lily is a lily, not a violet. It is a common spring ephemeral wildflower that grows in woodland colonies in Eastern North America, except for Florida. In North…

Jack in the Pulpit is easily recognizable and is a unique spring ephemeral. The fleshy stalk and leaves lend an almost tropical aura to the plant. This perennial plant is about 1-2′ tall and wide. It loves part to full shade in woodland gardens and moist to wet conditions. Flowering plants…

Carolina Jessamine is a vigorous, evergreen, high-climbing woody vine native from Virginia to Florida, west to East Texas and down into Central America. It is a staple ornamental in the south because it has bright golden, fragrant flowers attractive to bees, butterflies and birds, including hummingbirds. Jassamine is a twining vine,…

Rosa’s Blush’ is a cultivar of a small Vaccinium species native to sandy pinelands and sand dunes in counties along the Gulf Coast as far West as Louisiana, and frost tolerant to zone 8a (some say, zone 7). There is disagreement as to whether this shrub should be grown for its…

Xantho (yellow) rhiza (root) simplicissima (most simple, as the stems are unbranched) — what a wonderful name!! — is a very interesting, deciduous, rhizomatous subshrub native to shady, damp depressions and stream banks in wooded habitats throughout the mountains and piedmonts of our Southeastern states. It has lacy foliage to a…

Solomon’s Seal is a graceful plant which enriches the woodland haitat without competing with the larger specimens there. It grows slowly but surely in the deer-protected understory to be a beautiful show throughout the growing season. The individual plant is an arching single stem with alternate, shiny leaves and pairs of…

A bright spring ephemeral and one of the first flowers to emerge in the brown, still-dormant forest, the Bloodroot is an exciting harbinger of wonderful things to come. The delicate white flower with prominent golden stamens emerges on a single stalk arising from a woody rhizome, opening during the day and…

Yellow Pitcherplant is an herbaceous perennial up to 3′ tall found in sandy bogs in the coastal plain regions of Virginia and south to Florida and west to Alabama. Like all pitcherplants, S. flava thrives in full sun. The long throat or tube is quite slender, and the hood is reflexed,…

White-topped Pitcherplant, according to Wikipedia, is not a N.C. native, but an introduction, actually endemic to Deep South gulf coastal areas. It is a popular pitcherplant because of its lovely coloration — with white pigmentation, delicately cut by green or red veins, on the hood and the uppermost part of the…

Wild Sweet William or Woodland Phlox is a beautiful and beloved wildflower that can brighten a shady area in need of spring color, — ranging from a soft exquisite true blue to lavender and occasionally, white. It occupies a position between the low groundcover phloxes and the tall garden phloxes. During…

Wax Myrtle is an amazingly versatile evergreen shrub or small tree which is such a great wildlife plant that it could be useful for increasing the pollinators and birds in your yard. Its foliage is very fragrant, and evergreen, and the blue berries are attractive to people as well as to…

This plant is not currently for sale.  This is an archive page preserved for informational use.  Allegheny or Mountain Spurge is a short, shrubby ground cover which barely reaches a foot tall. Grown in dappled sun to full shade, it spreads by rhizomes to form a carpet of semi-toothed, crisp blue-green…

Eastern Red Cedar is a sturdy, aromatic, evergreen, pyramid-shaped or columnar tree which usually grows to about 60 feet, though it can reach 90 feet. This species is considered a pioneer tree that colonizes sunny areas that are relatively dry and sterile. Adapted to dry habitats, it is native throughout central…

‘Blue Arrow’ is a cultivar of Eastern Red Cedar, an evergreen tree of wide variability in form, seen on roadsides and hedgerows throughout the eastern U.S. ‘Blue Arrow’ was selected to provide a reliable, vertical evergreen accent in a more formal landscape. Red Cedar (the species) is dioecious, with seed cones…

Juniperus virginiana is a tough, widely distributed native evergreen tree with many outstanding attributes (see our listing for the species) and ‘Poyo’ is a dwarf, spreading cultivar which displays most of the attributes of the species, but answering a need for a shrub-like form. Since it is asexually propagated (is a…

Shining Fetterbush (“lucida”) is a commonly encountered evergreen shrub of the south, 3-5 feet tall and wide (or occasionally taller), found mostly in counties of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains from Virginia south to Florida and west to Louisiana. The leaves are alternate, smooth, thick, and leathery. The sweetly fragrant…

Dutchman’s Breeches is a shade-loving, spring ephemeral wildflower found in undisturbed mesic woods of most of the eastern U.S. In NC it is reported to occur in several mountain and piedmont counties, including our own Chatham County. Averaging six to ten inches tall, it has a basal rosette of finely-divided leaves…

Ironwood is a small to medium-sized (twenty to thirty-five feet) deciduous, understory tree that grows in woods throughout Eastern North America. It has handsome, smooth-textured, rippling bark (“Musclewood”) and alternate, doubly-serrated, oval leaves with a corrugated texture. The timber of Ironwood is of greater-than-average hardness and durability as suggested by its…

Allegheny Chinquapin is a colonial, multi-stemmed shrub or small tree usually around 15 feet tall, taller if grown with single stem or cultivated with little competition. It is native to dry woods and ridges in the Southeastern states, and grows well where summers are hot. It is considered undervalued as a…

Eastern Redbud is a lovely, small, (15-20 feet tall x 15-20 feet across) understory tree occurring along streams and wet bottoms as well as on dry slopes and ridges in the Piedmont and some of the mountain counties of the Carolinas. Eastern Redbud is deciduous, very hardy (tough as nails) and…

This plant is not currently for sale.  This is an archive page preserved for informational use.  The majestic Atlantic White Cedar is actually a Cypress, not a Cedar. It is a medium-to-large (50-ft), coniferous, evergreen, wetland tree well known for the excellent quality of its light, strong wood. Its range is…

Chalk Maple is a small, deciduous tree native in the Southeast from NC to Texas. In NC, it occurs in slightly acid to circum-neutral rocky soils, in full sun, part shade and full shade, on riverbanks and ravines in the Piedmont counties. Chalk Maple is desirable because it has all the…

Tag Alder is a multi-stemmed, deciduous shrub or small tree found on stream banks and in wet meadows in Eastern North America (Main to Florida; as far west as Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois). Leaves are alternate, elliptical, with serrated margins, deep green turning to yellow tinged with red in the fall.…

Eastern Bluestar, or Willow Amsonia, is a showy, dependably beautiful, clump-forming hardy perennial about three feet in height and spread. The leaves are shiny, medium-green and willow-shaped, and can turn yellow in the fall. The flowers of Eastern Bluestar are a bright unusual blue color. They are star-shaped, and borne in…