(American Angelica Tree, Devil's Walking Stick, Hercules' Club)

This fierce plant is well named. Devil's walking stick is a suckering deciduous shrub to small tree with large, bold leaves that appear above nearly branchless stems covered with vicious thorny spines. In summer it produces striking plumes of creamy white flowers followed by showy clusters of black fruits on reddish stems.

This plant prefers full to part sun and is tolerant of a wide range of well drained soil types. Though it is a unwieldy to prune, it does make a bold statement in mixed borders...

(Madrone, Madronio)

Madrone is a large round-headed tree with amazing smooth cinnamon-colored bark that flakes from the trunk. Small white or pink flowers emerge in early summer on this tree native to the Pacific coast in the western United States. Red and orange fruits develop over the next year, ripening that second autumn. Bees pollinate the flowers.

Madrone is best suited to climates matching its native habitat. Acidic, well-drained soils in a climate that is cool and dry in summer and cool and wet in winter...

(Bearberry, Emerald Carpet Bearberry, Kinnikinnick)

Many lawns in the American West were abandoned and replanted with this creeping, evergreen shrub to conserve water, and it has proven itself over the long term. It is a hybrid selection of Arctostaphylos uva ursi, which is native to a large range in Eurasia. The small, round green leaves of ‘Emerald Carpet’ are bone densely on twigs with characteristic sepia-colored, smooth bark that peels periodically as the plant ages. Growth is low and spreading, and becomes quite dense and uniform with...

(Bearberry, Kinnikinnick)

Drought tolerant and adaptable, bearberry, or kinnikinnick, is a spreading, mat-forming evergreen shrub typically grown as a groundcover. This super tough, plant is so cold tolerant that it naturally extends up into the farthest reaches of Alaska and northern Canada across into northern Eurasia. It has small, leathery, glossy leaves year-round and produces sweet clusters of pearly white to pale pink flowers in summer followed by bright red berries in late summer to fall. Its flowers attract bees,...

(Bearberry, Kinnikinnick, Massachusetts Bearberry)

Drought tolerant and adaptable, bearberry, or kinnikinnick, is a spreading, mat-forming evergreen shrub typically grown as a groundcover. This super tough, plant is so cold tolerant that it naturally extends up into the farthest reaches of Alaska and northern Canada across into northern Eurasia. It has small, leathery, glossy leaves year-round and produces sweet clusters of pearly white to pale pink flowers in summer followed by bright red berries in late summer to fall. Its flowers attract bees,...

(Bearberry, Kinnikinnick, Point Reyes Bearberry)

Drought tolerant and adaptable, bearberry, or kinnikinnick, is a spreading, mat-forming evergreen shrub typically grown as a groundcover. This super tough, plant is so cold tolerant that it naturally extends up into the farthest reaches of Alaska and northern Canada across into northern Eurasia. It has small, leathery, glossy leaves year-round and produces sweet clusters of pearly white to pale pink flowers in summer followed by bright red berries in late summer to fall. Its flowers attract bees,...

(Bearberry, Kinnikinnick, Vancouver Jade Bearberry)

Drought tolerant and adaptable, bearberry, or kinnikinnick, is a spreading, mat-forming evergreen shrub typically grown as a groundcover. This super tough, plant is so cold tolerant that it naturally extends up into the farthest reaches of Alaska and northern Canada across into northern Eurasia. It has small, leathery, glossy leaves year-round and produces sweet clusters of pearly white to pale pink flowers in summer followed by bright red berries in late summer to fall. Its flowers attract bees,...

(Montana Sandwort, Mountain Sandwort)

Mountain sandwort is an attractive evergreen, mat-forming perennial with gray-green, narrow leaves native to southwestern Europe's mountains. In early summer, the plants are covered with small, cup-shaped white flowers.

Sun-loving mountain sandwort requires a sharply draining soil, such as sand or loam with coarse aggregrate mixed in. Soils should have poor fertility. It is a excellent choice for rock gardens, alpine troughs or for growing in the gaps in a stone wall or between paving stones....

(Avalanche Sandwort, Montana Sandwort, Mountain Sandwort)

Exceptionally free-flowering, ‘Avalance’ is a selection of a sandwort species native to mountainous regions of southwestern Europe, where the climate is hot and dry much of the years. Like its parent, ‘Avalanche’ is an attractive, evergreen, mat-forming perennial. The sprawling, wiry stems bear tiny, linear to lance-shaped, gray-green leaves. In early summer, the plant is covered with small, cup-shaped, white flowers, borne singly and in clusters.

Give 'Avalanche' a sharply draining soil, such...

(Flatbud Pricklypoppy, Pricklepoppy)

The enormous white crepe paper flowers are beguilingly at odds with the rest of this prickly short-lived perennial from dry regions of western North America. Borne on stout spiny stems that can vary from calf- to waist-high, the white, four- to six-petaled blooms open from bristly buds in late spring and summer. A powderpuff cluster of numerous yellow stamens ornaments the center of each flower. The blossoms are held above handsome dense clumps of deeply lobed gray-green leaves that are prickly on...