(Spider Flower, Spirit™ Spider Flower)

Cleome or Spider flower is an annual native to Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil. These colorful, sun-loving annuals have fragrant foliage and colorful, highly scented flowers in mixed shades of pinks, purples, and white. The habit is very upright, the leaves are divided and palmate –like a hand at the bottom of the plant, undivided at the top and there is a spine at the base of each leaf. The airy flowers are produced at the ends of hairy stalks in loose, globular, un-branched groups...

(Gloryblower, Mexican Hydrangea)

With handsome, glossy, plump heart-shaped leaves, cashmere bouquet steals the show in summer with clustered flower-balls of fragrant, dark and light pink blossoms. A subropical, semi-woody, deciduous shrub that very aggresively spreads out roots to become a thicket, it is native to eastern India, Burma and southwestern China. The leaves emerge with a purple tint, unfurling into a large, obese, heart-shaped blade with a semi-glossy dark green color. The edges are lined with many short, soft teeth....

(Honolulu Rose, Stickbush)

Aggressively finding and holding its place in the landscape, stickbush has soft fuzzy leaves that are a handsome backdrop to the tight, wedding bouquet-like cluster of double white flowers that appear in spring and summer. An evergreen, clambering and thicket-producing shrub, it is from southeastern China, the Philippines and southern Japan. It dark green, soft fuzzy leaves can become as large as a dinner plate. They are widely oval or robustly triangular in shape, usually found near the top of the...

(Harlequin Glorybower)

Fragrant white flowers followed by blue berries and starry red calyces make this large suckering deciduous shrub a highlight of the summer garden. One of the hardiest glorybowers, it is native to eastern Asia.

The large oval to triangular leaves are papery and often fuzzy. Crushed leaves smell like peanut butter. Large, loose clusters of fused, inflated, green or pink calyces appear atop and along the stems in mid to late summer, opening to release vanilla-scented white flowers. The five-lobed...

(Harlequin Glorybower)

Green and creamy ivory variegated foliage and pretty white flowers followed by blue berries set upon clusters of red stars makes the Carnival harlequin glorybower an exciting accent for gardens in mild-wintered regions. A deciduous, usually multi-stemmed large shrub, it is native to Japan, eastern China and Taiwan. Its leaves are soft and hairy, being oval or slightly elongated and will smell of an odd scent of crushed peanuts. They are medium green in color with edges that are creamy ivory to white....

(Blue Butterfly Bush, Glorybower)

The unusual, colorful flowers of blue butterfly bush make this a highly sought after garden plant for temperate and tropical gardens alike. This rangy, frost-tender, evergreen shrub is native to tropical East Africa. Often listed as a vine, it has a weak, upright habit and sometimes requires support, though it is far too rangy or bushy to be considered a true vine.

Large, coarsely toothed, elliptical leaves of medium green line the square stems in opposite arrangement. The flowers are borne...

(Cinnamon Clethra, Pointed-leaved White Alder)

Named for its colorful bark, cinnamon clethra is also noteworthy for its yellow fall color and white summer flowers. Native to moist habitats in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains, it develops into a medium to tall shrub in the northernmost part of its range, and a small tree in the South. Plants will sucker and if untended can form thickets over time.

The large, medium to dark green, oval leaves of cinnamon clethra have serrated edges, pointed tips and deep pleated veins. The leaves...

(Lily-of-the-valley Tree, Madeira Laurel)

Lily-of-the-valley tree's lustrous deep green leaves are the perfect backdrop for the late summertime white blossoms that mimic those of the common perennial lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria). Native to the highland center of the Madeira Islands off of the northwest coast of Africa, this broadleaf evergreen small tree grows best in mild climates with nearly frost-free winters and many regard this as the finest of all Clethra species. It's also called the Madeira laurel.

Ranging...

(Japanese Clethra, Japanese Sweetshrub)

Underutilized as a remarkably beautiful shrub, Japanese clethra has glossy foliage, a beautiful late summer white flower display and colorful exfoliating bark. An upright large shrub to small tree, this deciduous plant is native to Japan and eastern China.

Its dark green, glossy leaves are long ovals. In mid- to late summer, the branch tips bear a little cluster or finger-like flower clusters that droop (raceme panicles). Slightly fragrant, they attract bees and butterflies. In autumn the foliage...

(Clivia)

Attractive and adaptable, this evergreen herbaceous perennial from South Africa produces sturdy-stemmed clusters (umbels) of orange trumpet-shaped blooms above a graceful fountain of strappy, fibrous, dark green foliage. Flowering usually occurs in winter and spring, but occasionally at other seasons. Many cultivars are available including yellow-flowered and variegated selections.

This bulbous, freeze-intolerant plant thrives in partial shade and porous, gritty but humus-rich, well-drained soil....