(Deodar Cedar, Feeling Blue Cedar)

Deodar cedar is among the world’s most elegant and stately of evergreen conifers. This western Himalayan native tree has fast growth and develops a broad, pyramidal habit. Its dense branches are covered in green to blue-green needles. The branch tips often dangle softly downward, giving the entire tree a soft and luxurious feel. With time, the trunks and branches become very picturesque, especially when viewed from under the canopy. The female cones are held upright on the upper tree branches and...

(Deodar Cedar, Prostrate Beauty Cedar)

Deodar cedar is among the world’s most elegant and stately of evergreen conifers. This western Himalayan native tree has fast growth and develops a broad, pyramidal habit. Its dense branches are covered in green to blue-green needles. The branch tips often dangle softly downward, giving the entire tree a soft and luxurious feel. With time, the trunks and branches become very picturesque, especially when viewed from under the canopy. The female cones are held upright on the upper tree branches and...

(Cedar of Lebanon)

Among the world’s most stately of evergreen conifers, cedar of Lebanon carries much historical and religious regard. This eastern Mediterranean native tree, from Turkey to Lebanon, has slow growth and eventually develops a broad, spreading and beautifully imposing habit. When younger it is more pyramidal in shape with brighter green foliage. Its horizonatal branches are covered in gray-green to dark green needles when older. With time, the trunks and branches become very picturesque, especially when...

(Hardy Cedar of Lebanon)

Among the world’s most stately of evergreen conifers, cedar of Lebanon subspecies stenocoma is the most winter hardy of all true cedars, surviving into protected parts of USDA zone 4. This eastern Mediterranean native tree, from the Taurus Mountains of Turkey, has slow growth and eventually develops a rigid, stiffened and pyramidal to almost column-like form. Its branches are covered in bright green then gray-green to dark green needles when older. With time, the trunks and branches become...

(Oriental Bittersweet)

The showy orange and pink fruits of Oriental bittersweet are alluringly pretty in fall and a harvest time favorite, but don't be fooled by its beauty. This rampant woody vine from eastern Asia is considered a noxious weed in many parts of the world. In its natural habitat it twines up woodland trees in open forests and margins. Specimens were first brought to North America in the mid to late Nineteenth Century and escaped from cultivation. Now it is found in woodlands across much of eastern North...

(American Bittersweet)

The ornamental late-season fruits of American bittersweet reign in autumn. This deciduous woody, twining and rambling vine originates from eastern North America. It is a vigorous grower that becomes quite large, so it’s not commonly planted in gardens.

American bittersweet vines become covered with medium green leaves in spring, which turn unimpressive shades of yellow-green in fall. Its inconspicuous creamy flowers appear in summer and clusters of ornamental fruits appear in fall. These are...

(Common Hackberry, Hackberry)

Common hackberry is a deciduous shade tree native to the eastern United States nad extreme southern Canada. The foliage is reminiscent of the American elm but often suffers from small warty galls. It has purple, pea-sized fruit in the fall and readily self seeds and can become invasive. Fall foliage color is a clear yellow. Mature trees have distinctive, coarse ridged bark. It is susceptible to witches-broom.

Common hackberry is a tough plant, tolerant of windy and/or cold winter locations. Plant...

(Hackberry)

Valued for its handsome foliage, compact habit, and tough constitution, this small deciduous tree is found over much of the central and western United States and northern Mexico. It typically forms a short multi-trunked tree with sinuous branches and an asymmetrical rounded crown. The oval, dark-green to gray-green, prominently veined leaves have toothed edges and pale yellow-green undersides. They turn yellow in fall. Inconspicuous flowers in late winter or early spring give rise to pea-sized fruits...

(Batchelor's Buttons, Cornflower)

Treasured for its sky-blue flowers that resemble small thistles, cornflower is a short-lived, cool-season annual from the northern temperate regions. The cultivar 'Blue Boy' has frilly double blooms on thigh-high stems sparsely furnished with narrow gray-green leaves. Fall-sown seedlings often overwinter as rosettes and flower the next spring. Plants bloom about 85 days after early-spring sowing.

Sow cornflowers in full sun and well-drained soil in early spring. In USDA zones 6 and warmer, seeds...

(Batchelor's Buttons, Cornflower)

Easily grown from seed and treasured for its blue flowers that resemble small thistles, cornflower is a short-lived, cool-season annual from the northern temperate regions. The Silver medal in the 1937 AAS flower trials, 'Jubilee Gem' is a true old-fashioned favorite. This large-flowered cultivar has rich, double, dark blue blooms on stems sparsely furnished with narrow gray-green leaves. The compact bushy plants stay neat in the garden and the seed heads attract many types of birds. Fall-sown seedlings...