(Common Olive, Little Ollie® Common Olive)

The beauty of the olive tree is now available in this shrub selection, ‘Montra,’ opening new uses for gardens in suitable climates. The parent species is a native of well-drained Mediterranean hill country where oil pressed from its fruits fueled the lamps of great, early civilizations. An evergreen, ‘Montra’ has larger green leaves with light green undersides for a remarkably lush-looking drought-resistant shrub. This plant produces multiple shoots from the base to produce a dense, upright mass....

(Desert Ironwood)

Amazingly heat and drought tolerant, desert ironwood has frilly gray-green foliage that is punctuated with lavender-pink, pea-like blossoms for a short time in spring. An evergreen, upright but spreading small thorny tree, it is native to the Sonoran Desert of the extreme southwestern United States southward into Mexico's Baja California. Its thorned, gray trunk is smooth but becomes fissured with age; the wood of this tree is so dense as to sink in water.

Feather-like leaves are gray-green,...

(Highest-most Dancing Lady Orchid, Wydler's Dancing Lady Orchid, Wydler's Oncidium Orchid)

One of the plants brought to England by Captain Bligh, Wydler's dancing lady orchid bears a gigantic branched stem laden with hundreds of glossy yellow blooms mottled with olive and sienna. A tender epiphyte from hot, humid lowland forests across the Lesser Antilles in the eastern Caribbean Sea, it is most commonly found growing on palms and other tropical trees.

The plants consist of clusters of flattened, oval pseudobulbs cloaked with papery sheaths. Each pseudobulb holds two long, strap-like...

(Colombian Buttercup, Hand-carrying Orchid, Miniature Dancing Lady Orchid)

The Colombian buttercup is a delightful miniature fall-blooming orchid revered for its bright yellow flowers and compact size. This tropical epiphyte is native to the mid-elevation forests of Nicaragua to Colombia where it clings to the upper branches of the tree tops.

Plants form small, handsome clusters of rounded pseudobulbs, each bulb with one strap-like leaf of light green. In early fall, each mature pseudobulb develops a slender, angled flower stem from its base. The small, long-lasting...

(Ophiopogon)

Valued for their neat, tidy grass-like appearance Ophiopogon, a genus of about 65 tufted perennials, is distributed across temperate, subtropical and tropical regions of Asia. They are carefree and grow best in full to partial shade.

These evergreen perennials are members of the lily family and spread by both rhizomes (underground lateral stems) and stolons (aboveground lateral stems). The roots can be fibrous or fleshy and tuberous. Many strap-shaped leaves arise directly from the rhizomes...

(Blue Snake's Beard)

A clumping grass-like evergreen perennial with arching,leathery, strap-shaped leaves. The small white bell-shaped flowers appear in loose clusters at the end of upright or arching stalks in late summer, followed by small violet-blue fruits. There are cultivars with strikingly variegated leaves. For example, 'Vittatus' and 'White Dragon.' There is also a dwarf cultivar, 'Nanus,'useful between pavers.

This plant grows best in full sun with midday shade, or partial shade on humus-rich, well-drained...

(Blue Snake's Beard, Variegated Blue Snake's Beard)

This perennial, ‘Vittatus,’ is descended from an elegant shade-loving, clumping plant traditional in the Asian garden and native to the woodlands of Japan where it came into cultivation early on. It offers the fine texture of an ornamental grass with attractive flowers quite similar to those of the closely related genus, Liriope. It produces many ground-level growing points from which numerous tightly packed ribbon-like leaves rise in a relaxed fountain shape. These leaves are medium-green...

(Dwarf Lilyturf, Dwarf Mondo Grass, Japanese Lilyturf)

A popular evergreen groundcover in the South, dwarf lilyturf is a tough, creeping, grass-like perennial native to Japan, Korea and China. It’s very compact, less aggressive than Liriope, and there are lots of pleasing cultivars to choose from. Its tidy beauty and ability to grow well in partially shaded spots are key to its desirability. Wild populations exist in moist, shaded or partially sunny spots along forests, ravines, cliffs or slopes. The Chinese have cultivated it for centuries...

(Dwarf Lilyturf, Japanese Lilyturf)

The beautifully variegated dwarf lilyturf, ‘Kigimafukiduma’, has strap-shaped, leathery blades elegantly striped along their length by narrow green edges and pale centers. Small, white, bell-shaped flowers appear in loose clusters in summer. ‘Kigimafukiduma’ is sometimes sold by the name, ‘Silver Mist.’

A popular evergreen groundcover in the South, dwarf lilyturf is a tough, creeping, grass-like perennial native to Japan, Korea and China. It’s very compact, less aggressive than Liriope,...

(Dwarf Lilyturf)

This Mondo grass, ‘Kyoto,’ is a dwarf selection of an evergreen perennial native to Japan. It grows in a clump, almost a tuft, of short, strap-shaped, arching dark green leaves. The small white bell-shaped flowers appear in loose clusters at the end of upright or arching stalks in summer, followed by small blue-black berries.

Like other lilyturf, ‘Kyoto’ grows best in full sun with midday shade, or in partial shade, and humus-rich, well-drained but moist soil. It makes a thick, tall, turfy groundcover,...