-
If you’re searching for a graceful, low-maintenance plant that brings life to shady corners of the garden, Ice Dance grass deserves a spot at the top of your list. Botanically known as Carex morrowii ‘Ice Dance,’ this evergreen Japanese sedge is a standout among ornamental grasses for its striking variegated foliage and remarkable adaptability. Hardy…
-
For gardeners who dream of harvesting fresh fruit earlier than almost anything else in the garden, Indigo Treat honeyberry is a revelation. Botanically known as Lonicera caerulea ‘Indigo Treat,’ this deciduous fruiting shrub produces sweet-tart, blueberry-like berries weeks before strawberries are ready and long before most other edible plants even begin to flower. Developed by…
-
Few plants in the edible garden generate as much excitement as a productive kiwi vine, and Issai hardy kiwi makes that dream accessible to gardeners well beyond the mild climates where fuzzy kiwifruit is typically grown. Botanically known as Actinidia arguta ‘Issai,’ this vigorous, deciduous climbing vine produces clusters of small, smooth-skinned kiwi fruits that…
-
Dark Towers penstemon (Penstemon digitalis ‘Dark Towers’) is a showstopping native perennial that earns its keep in the garden through not one season but two distinct acts of beauty. In late spring and early summer, it sends up tall spikes of soft blush-pink tubular flowers that attract hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies in droves. But even…
-
Dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) is one of the most remarkable trees you can plant in a home landscape, and its story alone is enough to make any gardener take notice. Long thought to be extinct and known only from the fossil record, a living population was discovered in a remote valley in central China in…
-
Desert King fig (Ficus carica ‘Desert King’) is a beloved heirloom variety that has earned a devoted following among home gardeners and fruit enthusiasts for its exceptional cold hardiness, reliable productivity, and outstanding fruit quality. If you’ve ever wanted to grow figs but worried that your climate was too cool or unpredictable, Desert King is…
-
Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) is one of the most iconic and ecologically significant trees in North America, a towering conifer that has shaped the forests, economies, and landscapes of the Pacific Northwest for millennia. Despite its common name, it isn’t a true fir at all; it belongs to its own genus, Pseudotsuga, which translates roughly…
-
Dragon’s Blood sedum (Sedum spurium ‘Dragon’s Blood’, also listed as Phedimus spurius ‘Dragon’s Blood’) is one of the most reliably attractive and hardworking groundcovers available to home gardeners, and it earns that reputation through sheer versatility and visual impact across multiple seasons. Its common name is wonderfully apt: the foliage is a deep, rich green…
-
Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) is one of the most beloved flowering trees in North American horticulture, and it’s easy to understand why. Each spring, before a single leaf has emerged, the bare branches erupt in dense clusters of small but intensely vivid magenta-pink to rosy-purple flowers that coat the twigs, branches, and even the trunk…
-
Emerald Green arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis ‘Smaragd’) is one of the most popular and widely planted evergreen shrubs in North American horticulture, and it has earned that status through a combination of qualities that are genuinely hard to find in a single plant. It’s dense, tidy, naturally narrow, and exceptionally uniform in form. It holds its…