usda hardiness zone 1

The common mare’s tail is a prolific aquatic plant with bottlebrush-like green foliage. It can be found in wetlands across all of North America, save the Deep South and southeastern states, and is also found in waterways in South America, Eurasia, and even Australia. So it truly has a world or pandemic distribution.

Hardy and very vigorous, this perennial produces strong underground rhizomes which travel through water-logged soils and send up new shoots. Each hollow stem is lined with fine,...

Illuminating the fall landscape with golden yellow needles, tamarack reaches skyward with its tall, open-branched, pyramid-like form. A tree native to much of Canada and the far northern United States, it is a relatively slow-growing deciduous conifer that thrives where soils are moist and summers cool. It is often found growing in bogs alongside wild blueberries and cranberries.

The needles are green to blue-green, short, three-sided and arranged in spiraled clusters atop short stubby spurs....

Brightening the landscape with a dense foliar display of light blue-green needles, Blue Sparkler dwarf tamarack also heralds fall with golden yellow needles. Native to much of Canada and the extreme northern United States, this variety was selected by Sid Waxman of the University of Connecticut. It is a vigorous, dwarfed, deciduous shrub that will become broader than tall.

The needles are bright blue-green, short, three-sided and arranged densely in spiral clusters atop short stubby spurs. The...

A compact, conical dwarf shrub, the blue-green needles of Deborah Waxman dwarf tamarack turn coppery gold in autumn. Native to much of Canada and the extreme northern United States, this variety was selected by Sid Waxman of the University of Connecticut. It is a very slow growing, dwarf, deciduous cone-bearing shrub with dense branches and needled foliage.

The needles are bright blue-green, short, three-sided and arranged densely in spiral clusters atop short stubby spurs. The branchlets are...

Brightening the landscape with a dense foliar display of light green needles on yellow branchlets, Lanark dwarf tamarack also heralds fall with golden yellow needles. Native to much of Canada and the extreme northern United States, it is a slow growing, dwarfed, deciduous shrub that will become round and chest-high with time.

The needles are bright green, short, three-sided and arranged densely in spiral clusters atop short stubby spurs. The thin, yellowy, young branchlets are held up and out...

A tiny, dense foliar balled shrub teeming with blue-green needles, Newport Beauty dwarf tamarack also greets fall with golden yellow foliage. Native to much of Canada and the extreme northern United States, it's a dense, dwarf, deciduous conifer that very slowly becomes a rounded mass.

The needles are mildly blue-green, short, three-sided and arranged densely in spiral clusters atop short stubby spurs. The short, young branchlets are held out from the dense congestion of foliage. With considereable...

A tall and narrow tree with somewhat upward-held branches, the Siberian larch has finely textured, soft needles that become yellow in autumn and drop before winter. From the mountains of Europe eastward into northern and central Asia, this cone-bearing tree is deciduous with a sienna brown bark that is scaly and lightly ridged. With age it attains a very narrow pyramidal shape.

In spring the thin yellow-gray branches fill with short, soft, light green needles that have two white bands on their...

Named for its tremulous leaves which flutter in the breeze to reveal their pale undersides, quaking aspen is an upright, fast-growing, relatively short-lived deciduous tree native to North America. The gray-green to whitish bark and yellow fall foliage are attractive.

Quaking aspen needs full sun and accepts almost any soil. Aspens have extensive, aggressive, suckering surface roots that can invade nearby plantings, infiltrate and damage drainage systems, and heave pavement. This tree is best...

This deciduous tree is believed to be a naturally occurring hybrid of two or three cottonwood species native to the western U.S. Its range is limited to a strip of states that covers the Rockies from Canada to the Texas, but at higher elevations than other cottonwoods. This hybrid grows beside streams, in riverine habitats, and in wetland fringes, sites where it thrives on ground water. Its extensive, fibrous roots help to hold stream banks during periods of high water. The leaves are narrow, and...

Though it resembles a grass with its clump of strappy leaves, alpine blue-eyed grass is actually related to irises, a link visible in its flowers. An unassuming herbaceous perennial, it is native to the cool-summer meadows and moist soils of northern North America from the Canadian and American Rocky Mountains eastward to the Great Lakes and Newfoundland.

The strap-like, thin leaves are green and rather short, held in a small cluster. In midsummer, slightly taller stems reach above the leaves...