(Fiery Spike, Red Aphelandra)

Fiery scarlet, cockscomb-like flower heads top the red aphelandra in summer or fall. A frost tender evergreen shrub, it is native to the rainforests of northern South America and the West Indies. It becomes an upright-stemmed plant with a spreading habit.

The medium green leaves are flared ovals, having a waved wider midsection. Flowering in the warm months, often delayed into late summer or well into autumn, each stem tip forms an architectural "hand". It has a primary upward stem that bears...

(American potato-bean, Ground-bean, Groundnut)

This twining herbaceous perennial from central and eastern North America is grown primarily for its edible tubers, which were a staple food of American Indians and early European colonists.

This hardy plant forms a network of underground rhizomes laced with spherical to ellipsoid tubers that resemble small potatoes. Cooked tubers are edible. Long twining stems with alternate compound leaves arise from the rhizomes in spring. The pinnate leaves have five to nine leaflets. In summer plants produce...

(Celery)

Celery is a vegetable that's taken for granted. It's cheap in the store, so most don't bother growing it, but it is an easy highly garden-worthy crop.

Grown for its yummy crisp fleshy leaf stems (petioles) and fragrant seeds, celery originates from Europe, northern Africa, India and Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and is a staple herb in many dishes across the world. In the United States it flavors our Thanksgiving stuffing, is the favorite compliment to buffalo wings and...

(Celeriac)

Little known in the United States, celeriac is grown for its homely edible rootstock. The cultivar 'Brilliant' has relatively smooth, medium to large, buff-colored bulbs with firm, white flesh. Thought to have originated in northern Europe, celeriac is a variety of celery (Apium graveolens), a widely cultivated biennial native to Europe, Southwest Asia, and North Africa. This vegetable is also known as celery root or knob celery.

Protruding from the soil like a knobby, partially...

(Celeriac)

Little known in the United States, celeriac is grown for its rather homely edible rootstock. The cultivar 'Diamant' has medium to large, buff-colored, vegetative bulbs with firm white flesh that resists internal browning.

Thought to have originated in northern Europe, celeriac is a variety of celery (Apium graveolens), a widely cultivated biennial native to Europe, Southwest Asia, and North Africa. This vegetable is also known as celery root or knob celery.

Protruding from...

(Celery, Tall Utah Celery)

The heirloom celery cultivar ‘Tall Utah’ was first introduced in 1953. It produces long medium green stalks that are crisp, stringless and flavorful.

Grown for its yummy crisp fleshy leaf stems (petioles) and fragrant seeds, celery originates from Europe, northern Africa, India and Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and is a staple herb in many dishes across the world. In the United States it flavors our Thanksgiving stuffing, is the favorite compliment to buffalo wings and every...

(Celeriac)

Little known in the United States, celeriac is grown for its rather homely, bulbous, edible "roots". Thought to have originated in northern Europe, it is a variety of celery (Apium graveolens), a widely cultivated biennial native to Europe, Southwest Asia, and North Africa. Celeriac is also known as celery root or knob celery.

Protruding from the soil like a knobby, partially buried baseball, the edible "root" gives rise to long fleshy stalks bearing deep green, incised, compound...

(Aplectrum)

Intrigue, murder and thievery have followed the orchid; world explorations have been launched and fortunes won all in the pursuit of these exotic flowers. Since the 19th century, when tropical orchids were first introduced to Europe, orchids have inspired human desire and greed because of their rarity, collectability and indescribable beauty.

Measured in geologic time Orchidaceae was once thought to be a newer family but recent research has shown it is much older. One of the largest plant families,...

(Adam and Eve, Putty Root)

This ephemeral terrestrial (ground-dwelling) orchid is native to the moist woodlands of southeastern North America, Quebec south to Georgia and west to Minnesota and Oklahoma. It's curious common name "putty root" refers to its bulb-like corms that secrete a slime historically used to patch broken pottery. Interestingly, each plant grows from two corms that are attached by a stem-like rhizome. The pair of underground corms is the basis for its other common name, "Adam and Eve."

A spring and summer...

(Baby Sun Rose, Heartleaf Ice Plant)

The small, heart-shaped leaves of baby sun rose contrast with its magenta-red, daisy-like flowers. This tender, succulent, creeping evergreen perennial is native to southern Africa.

The fleshy leaves are bright green, heart-shaped, and covered in very tiny hairs, and thus feel felt-like. The flowers, with many string-like petals surrounding a small, yellow-white eye, are the size of a large thumbnail and open only when the sun is shining. They are a rich magenta-red and attract butterflies.

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