(Roman Chamomile)

This classic herb is both easy to grow and pretty in the summer garden. Roman chamomile is a mat-forming perennial that originates from Western Europe. Throughout the growing season it has fine, ferny, sweetly aromatic green leaves and in summer produces small white daisies with yellow centers. These draw bees and butterflies and may be harvested and dried for chamomile tea. Chamomile prefers full sun and average garden soil with good drainage. It's ideal for the herb garden and is also well placed...

(European Fan Palm, Mediterranean Fan Palm)

European fan palm has large, rounded, palmate leaves that are deeply divided and sit atop long, sharply toothed petioles. Foliage is either green or blue-green on top and has silver-green undersides. Its trunk(s) is clothed in a sheath of fibers and old leaf bases. In summer, these palms bear bright yellow flowers that rise from short stalks among the leaves. These are followed by ovoid brown to yellow fruit.

European fan palm requires well drained soils and can tolerate partial shade, but prefers...

(Matted Sandmat, Prostrate Spurge)

Practically every gardener has come across this warm-season, summer weed. Prostrate spurge forms nearly flat, spreading mats of small, deep green or green and burgundy-blotched leaves that can be found in sunny beds and pavement crevices across the whole of the United States, southern Canada and northern Mexico. It is an annual weed that produces loads and loads of seeds, so it's essential to pull plants as soon as they pop up in the garden.

Dense, spreading mats of small, oval leaves supported...

(Geraldton Waxflower)

Needle-thin leaves on tall, thin stems contrast in texture and color with Geraldton waxflower’s lush clusters of light-pink flowers. An open, fine-textured evergreen shrub for warm climates, it is native to the Shark Bay region of extreme western Australia. The leaves are short, thin, and bright-green to dark-green, depending on the season. Crush a leaf and a pleasant scent of lemon escapes. The branches are smooth and grayish-brown, but on older plants become shaggy. Young twigs can be slightly...

(Longleaf Woodoats, Southern Woodoats)

Longleaf woodoats is a clumping perennial grass that forms tufted flowers along tall, wiry stems. Native to the southeastern United States, it forms a fountain of upright, medium-green, narrow leaves. In summer, thin, tall stems arise from the clump, with sparse clusters of flower tufts, with tiny white flowers emerging from the green buds.

Longleaf woodoats will perform superbly in a fertile, moist garden soil that isn't overly alkaline in pH. It will grow well in full sun if summers are not...

(Alabama Lipfern, Lipfern)

Here's one of the amazing ferns that manages to grow on rock faces and crevices without lots of water or soil. The Alabama or smooth lipfern naturally inhabits rocky slopes and ledges -- usually limestone -- from the southern Appalachians and the Ozarks into north-central Mexico. They grow at higher elevations, protected from intense summertime heat.

Alabama lipfern produces upright, triangular-shaped fronds of medium to dark green. The tiny leaflets in the frond are flat, smooth and triangular...

(Desert Fern, Lipfern, Rock Fern)

Imagine a drought-tolerant fern -- not overly particular to soil type -- that's native to a subtropical habitat with dry winters and rainy summers. This unusual plant exists and is known as the rock or desert fern. It grows from a clumping rhizome and produces attractive evergreen fronds.

(Hairy Lipfern)

Fine hairs cover the light green fronds of the hairy lipfern, delicate-looking deciduous, clumping fern. It is native to granite rocky slopes and ledges from the Catskill Mountains to central Missouri and southward to the Florida panhandle. It grows at higher inland elevations, protected from intense summertime sunlight from nearby trees, shrubs or sheltering rocks. It develops a short, slow-growing rhizome to form an attractive leafy clump.

Hairy lipfern produces upright, long, triangular-shaped...

(Woolly Lipfern)

Fuzzy fronds and a neat, clumping habit make the woolly lipfern a superb choice for a woodland rockery or enchantment-themed garden. Woolly lipfern naturally inhabits rocky slopes and ledges from the southern Appalachians and Ozark highlands into north-central Mexico. It grows at higher inland elevations, protected from intense summertime heat on both acidic granite and more alkaline limestone rocks and soils. It develops a short, slow-growing rhizome to form the attractive leafy clumps.

Woolly...

(Beaded Lipfern, Lipfern)

Few people would think ferns grow in arid climates, but the beaded lipfern is a notable and beautiful exception. This dense, spreading fern -- via elongating rhizomes -- naturally inhabits rocky slopes and ledges across the American Southwest and into northwestern Mexico. The habitat is at higher elevations, and this species tends to proliferate on east-facing slopes nestled at the base of boulders or shrubs that cast protective shade.

Beaded lipfern produces upright, triangular-shaped fronds...