Plant Profile: Indian Bean Tree (Catalpa bignonioides )
Karen Also called cigar tree, this native of southeastern United States is a deciduous tree with a thick short trunk and pithy, brittle branches that are prone to wind damage. The…
Plant Profile: Cassiope ‘Edinburgh’
This dwarf alpine shrub is evergreen and native to North America. It has flexible branches that form an attractive clump covered with tiny dark green lance-shaped, overlapping leaves. The white…
Plant Profile: Himalyan Lily (Cardiocrinum giganteum)
This giant lily is awesome but takes time and patience to realize its potential. Although a true lily it lacks the strap-like leaves of its relatives and has heart-shaped glossy…
Plant Profile: Beautyberry (Callicarpa bodinieri var. giraldii ‘Profusion’)
This compact deciduous shrub has open arching branches and lanceolate leaves two to five inches long with long pointed tips. They are bronze-purple when young, dark green through most of…
Plant Profile: Orange Golfball Tree (Buddleja globosa)
Endemic to forests in Chile and Argentina, this semi-evergreen, woody shrub is more hardy than other Buddlejas and losses its leaves only in the coldest winters. The dark green leaves…
Plant Profile: Golden Angel’s Trumpet (Brugmansia aurea)
Native to central Columbia and Ecuador, where it grows on the slopes of the Andes, is an evergreen shrub or small tree. It is considered extinct in the wild but…
Plant Profile: Monroe’s Ragwort (Brachyglottis monroi)
Native to New Zealand and Tasmania, this evergreen shrub forms a compact dome that tolerates the dry windy conditions of its natural maritime habitat on cliffs. The oblong leaves are…
Plant Profile: Queen’s Tear (Billbergia nutans)
Also known as friendship plant, this evergreen tender perennial is a bromeliad native of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay where it grows as an epiphyte in low trees and as…
Plant Profile: Himalayan White Birch (Betula utilis var jacquemontii )
The Himalayan white birch is a deciduous tree admired for its very white paper-like bark, considered whiter than even the European white birch. Native to the Himalayas, it is a…
Plant Profile: Barberry (Berberis temolaica)
Found in Tibet in 1924, this barberry is relatively unknown. It has gracefully arching stems that are whitish gray at first, turning purple to shiny brown as they mature. The…