(Thorny Olive)

This more compact form of thorny olive has a pleasing rounded to umbrella-shaped habit, unlike ungainly wild forms. 'Glen St. Mary' is also a fast-grower that boasts fewer thorns than uncultivated types.

Thorny olive is a large evergreen shrub to small tree native to China and Japan where it exists along open slopes and thickets near the Oceanside or waterways. It has also become naturalized in the southeastern United States where it is considered a problematic invasive shrub. It is fast-growing,...

(Thorny Olive)

Thorny olive is a large evergreen shrub to small tree native to China and Japan where it exists along open slopes and thickets near the oceanside or waterways. It has also become naturalized in the southeastern United States where it is considered a problematic invasive shrub. It is fast-growing, tough and grows well in difficult areas but has a coarse, informal look that is visually unappealing.

The oblong to elliptical leaves of thorny olive are dark green on the top and silver-gray on the...

(Thorny Olive)

This large-leaved form of thorny olive has beautiful leaves marked with yellow central blotches. Reportedly, plants have a tendency to revert and maintain unvariegated leaves of yellow-green. Though still fast-growing, fully variegated forms tend to grow a bit slower than wild-type.

Thorny olive is a large evergreen shrub to small tree native to China and Japan where it exists along open slopes and thickets near the Oceanside or waterways. It has also become naturalized in the southeastern...

(Silverberry, Thorny Olive, Variegated Thorny Olive)

Thorny olive is a large evergreen shrub to small tree native to China and Japan where it exists along open slopes and thickets near the oceanside or waterways. It has also become naturalized in the southeastern United States where it is considered a problematic invasive shrub. It is fast-growing, tough and grows well in difficult areas but has a coarse, informal look that is visually unappealing.

The oblong to elliptical leaves of thorny olive are dark green on the top and silver-gray on the...

(Autumn Olive)

Though native to China, Korea and Japan, autumn olive has become naturalized across all of eastern North America since its initial introduction in 1830. The silvery red berries of this large deciduous shrub are produced in profusion and eaten and spread by birds and other wildlife. Tough and fast-growing, the autumn olive was once favored as a roadside shrub because it creates fast cover and fixes atmospheric nitrogen into the soil. It has since fallen into disfavor because it is a proven invasive...

(Ebbing's Silverberry)

Ebbing’s silverberry is a large, fast-growing shrub that is believed to be a hybrid between Elaeagnus pungens and E. macrophylla. In the northernmost parts of its hardiness it is semi-evergreen but in regions with warmers winters it is fully evergreen. There are many cultivated varieties to choose from and all are tough, thriving in poor, droughty soils, and relatively fast-growing. This is a more cold-sensitive species that does not thrive in zones colder than 7.

The elliptical...

(Ebbing's Silverberry)

This variegated form of Ebbing’s silverberry has lustrous golden leaves edged in green. It grows to a medium height, has a bushy, rounded habit and produces orangish fruit in winter.

Ebbing’s silverberry is a large, fast-growing shrub that is believed to be a hybrid between Elaeagnus pungens and E. macrophylla. In the northernmost parts of its hardiness it is semi-evergreen but in regions with warmers winters it is fully evergreen. There are many cultivated varieties to choose...

(Ebbing's Silverberry, Gilt Edge Silverberry)

Ebbing’s silverberry ‘Gilt Edge’ is a tough, fast-growing, large shrub of hybrid origin. It has interesting elliptical leaves, scruffy to the tough and eye, dark green in the center with striking, irregular yellow margins. Elaeagnus tends to grow rapidly with long branches - a semi-climbing habit. The branches are thornless. The extremely fragrant, tiny white to silver flowers are bell-shaped with spreading lobes and are produced in the fall and winter at the joint between leaves and branches in...

(Blue Lyme Grass, Blue Wildrye)

Blue wildrye is a versatile ornamental grass that has attractive, open clustered, silvery blue-green foliage and stiff, upright flower and seedheads in autumn. A clump forming perennial, it is native to a vast area of Europe and western Asia. In spring, erect stems start to bear the long, upright, but tip-weeping bluish green leaves. By late summer and into fall, stem tips form dense green flowerspikes that will only slightly arch. They begin to turn beige as fall progresses, which is the eventual...

(Blue Wheatgrass, Magellan's Wildrye)

Blue wheatgrass is a breathtaking clumping ornamental grass with fine foliage colored silvery blue. A native of the cooler lands and mountains of Chile and Argentina, it is a semi-evergreen perennial in the mildest of winter climates. The leaves are its glory, being most intense blue in the central younger growth, as the older leaves are pushed outward and downward to create a skirt. In late spring and summer, the often overlooked, small flowers appear on stems that tend to be held horizontally in...