(Hybrid Grape Holly, Winter Sun Grape Holly, Winter Sun Mahonia)

A somewhat shorter stature and heavy flowering make the hybrid grape holly, 'Winter Sun', really stand out in the winter landscape. Its fragrant, lemon yellow flowers are complimented by its fine evergreen foliage and pleasing bushy habit. In 1984 it was justly given an award of merit from the Royal Horticultural Society.

The glossy evergreen foliage and gloriously fragrant yellow winter flowers of hybrid grape holly make it ideal for the landscape year round. Mahonia x media...

(False Lily-of-the-Valley, Smilacina, Solomon's Plume)

A hardy perennial that gradually forms large clumps, this widespread North American woodlander features feathery white flowers in spring and colorful fruits and foliage in autumn. It was formerly known as Smilacina racemosa.

In spring, this perennial's stout, slowly spreading rhizomes give rise to tall, arching, alternate-leaved stems terminating in large, cone-shaped clusters of tiny, fragrant, ivory-white flowers. The oval, pleated, mid-green leaves have hairy undersides. Small green...

(Ostrich Fern)

Ostrich fern is a herbaceous plant native to northern woodlands and wetlands in Europe, East Asia, and North America. In spring its tightly curled "fiddleheads" unfurl to majestic sterile fronds clustered in vase-shaped clumps. It also produces fertile spore-bearing fronds that give the appearance of stunted, desiccated sterile fronds. They remain standing after the fertile fronds decline in fall. Plants spread vigorously by thick underground rhizomes.

To reach its impressive full size, ostrich...

(Showy Medinilla)

Resembling grape clusters or an elegant pink chandelier, the pendent flowers of the showy medinilla contrast dramatically with the large, coarse, green leaves of this tropical shrub. Considered an evergreen epiphyte (having no roots in the ground and growing on another plant or support), it is native to the Philippines in the western Pacific. Its large, leathery, oval leaves are glossy dark green with light green veins. New leaves emerge a dull, gray-purple, unfurl, and turn green. The stems are...

(Corsican Mint)

A tiny, ground-hugging perennial, Corsican mint compensates for its small leaves with incredible vigor. Hailing from the island of Corsica, the species is also found in southern France and Italy. In the wild it prefers damp shady locations, seeps and natural springs where it forms a ground hugging mat of dark-green foliage. The rounded leaves may be slightly hairy and when crushed emit a potent, minty fragrance. Corsican mint blooms in summer with small lilac-blue flowers that stand out above the...

(Meryta)

This small broadleaf evergreen tree is endemic (found naturally only) to subtropical Norfolk Island, northwest of New Zealand. It is an endangered species because of overgrazing and land clearing has disrupted contiguous stands of the plant, separating male from female trees. It is found on woodland edges or on rocky cliffs and hillsides.

Usually growing with a singular trunk with only a few branches, broad-leaved meryta has large lance to almost lyre-like leaves that are glossy and light to...

(Partridgeberry)

A signature plant of the eastern North American woods, this creeping evergreen roots along its stems to form lush mats of small rounded dark-green leaves with pale midribs. Paired, fragrant white flowers are borne in the leaf nodes in spring and early summer, followed by plump waxy red fruits. White-fruited forms are occasionally available. The fruits are edible but of poor flavor.

Give this year-round ornamental a humus-rich, acid to neutral soil and partial to full shade. It works well as a...

(Tarovine)

Swiss cheese plant is a lush tropical vine with large, glossy leaves, some with holes, the reason for its common name. The youngest leaves are a bright green and usually entire (no lobes). As the leaves grow they develop narrow, elongated, deeply cut lobes or rounded holes. Once established, this vine, native from southern Mexico to Panama, blooms in the warm season with typical aroid flowers that have a hooded, felt-like spathe shielding a creamy, finger-like spadix. After the flower matures, the...

(Compact Heavenly Bamboo, Heavenly Bamboo)

A medium-sized tender evergreen shrub often planted near temples in its native China and Japan, heavenly bamboo is prized by gardeners worldwide for its colorful lacy leaves and attractive flowers and fruit. The cultivar 'Compacta' offers all these virtues at two-thirds the size. The airy compound leaves are reddish-purple when young and again in fall and winter. The foliage and stiff upright stems suggest those of bamboo, particularly when pruned in the Asian fashion with the lower leaves thinned...