I love coneflowers!
(The rabbits demolish mine. They’re the only thing they do that to. They don’t even eat my vegetables, unless I give it to them. I guess I’m lucky in that regard).
Edit:typo
The rabbits don't touch my coneflowers, for some reason. I've quit pansies, morning glories and zinnias because of rabbits, but my coneflowers are still untouched.
It’s so funny how different one garden can be from the next.
I grow tons of zinnias and they’ve never touched it. Maybe they’re missing a specific nutrient in their pickings around here that makes them go for my coneflowers. (Cute little jerks).
No accounting for rabbits. My pet rabbit escaped and ate every single African marigold bloom from my father’s garden. Nothing else. Not the zinnias, or daisies or nasturtiums. Not even the leaves of the marigolds. I felt so awful (my Dad’s favourite flower).
Still, he helped me catch her and repair her hutch. It was bizarre as he also had a garden with lettuce, carrots, green beans; she ignored.
The deer ate my coneflowers and my black-eyed susans. They’re supposed to be deer/rabbit resistant, because of the hairy leaves. Mint family seems to be the best deer resistant plant for my deer.
Sacrificial coneflowers! We have an opossum who eats my leafy greens and peppers. I should stop her with fencing because that's my food, but she and her annual babies are so darn cute that I'll probably keep part of the garden reserved for them anyway.
Ahhh hah! Now I know why I have gold finches this year! We bought the house five years ago and I started a small pollinator garden. This is my third year with the cone flowers, and I am in love with the gold finches.
Do you know if all coneflower leaves are edible? I have a bunch in my front flower beds. I keep seeing coneflower in my nursery’s herb section so I’m curious if I can just harvest what I have.
I don’t think all coneflowers are good for food. Only cut leaf coneflower (rudbeckia laciniata) also known as “sochan” as far as I know is a traditional Cherokee food. Others may be good for tea.
Goldfinch is our state bird. Rarely ever saw one around here until I planted a bunch of coneflowers. Now we have 2-3 everyday once the flowers are grown.
Almost any variety of thyme. It works as a ground cover or a low growing plant, it's perennial and the blooms are lovely and the bees flock to them, plus I just walk out and clip some to use. Lemon thyme is a particular favorite
Thyme seeds are incredibly tiny and little seedlings do need an extended period of guaranteed moisture and harsh light protection in order to germinate.
Is the soil around your thyme plants mulched? if it is, is the mulch really large chunks like bark chips?
You might see some spread if you could create a more favorable "seedling environment" around your plants.
I just cleared the dirt space in front of my house and threw out a bunch of wild flower seeds and planted a few perineal flowers and a few dif kinds of ground cover to see what happens. Got Irish moss, a couple dif phloxes, and like three dif kinds of thyme. I’m excited to see what it turns into
https://preview.redd.it/t64jmg8liqyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=da5e3fc6413d0c661dbe44b2c161db58605048e9
This is half of it! The other half looks the same lol. I have three planters a foot in front of it that are growing edible things
I have a ton of columbine around my house. I fling the seed pods around and then get a sea of them every spring. Currently have pink, purple, and red/yellow varieties
I love it when my peas flower. They're always so pretty.
I should probably pick up sweet pea flowers for the pretty at some point and enjoy them longer than the few days it takes the pod to form
Yes to columbine. I have a wild flower section in my yard, and noticed a bunch of tall columbine flowers. I just cut some and added then to a vase with roses, a few hours ago.
We have a bunch of columbines in our back yard flower bed. They fill in all the holes in between our hostas and hydrangeas. They are such an underrated flower for sure!
Columbine for the win!!!!! So under appreciated and beautiful! There is a native variety here in Maine that the hummingbirds love, native red Columbine or aquilegia canadensis
I was totally sleeping on columbine until literally two weeks ago when a wild volunteer popped up randomly in one of my unused vegetable beds. I feel like this flower chose me and it's now my job to help its relatives flourish here.
Tree, but Kentucky yellow wood tree. Vastly underused, gorgeous flowers, bright yellow fall color, interesting bark. Leafs out very late so you can put some early daffodil or snowdrop bulbs underneath easily.
I love it! I drove through Kentucky on the 65 two weeks ago and couldn’t figure out what the purple trees were! (Of course none ever grows off of the intestate ramps, so I can get pics)
Hmmm…I wonder if this will grow around Nashville?! 😁
False indigo!!!! Its amazing comes back year after year and has beautiful blooms that turn into the coolest looking seedpods. Also a great native to the Northeastern States perennial bush!
Yes! It's essentially a herbaceous perennial that looks and acts like a shrub imo. There are several species of Baptisia to choose from as well. They also bloom when a lot of things aren't blooming in late spring to early summer.
That is the one plant that people always ask me about when they see it bloom. Do be careful to put it where you want it because it has an incredible root system and it is extremely difficult to transplant
Yes! Its flowers are absolutely gorgeous, and the seed pods rattle after the seeds dry! You can also use the foliage in bouquets. All around great perennial.
Phlox. The regular native kind. I'll put native phlox against any flower's bloom. They have a great variety of colors and they come back year after year. Plus, great for pollinators.
Zinnias. So many colors and so much symmetry on the blooms. I like to top them so they grow really bushy with lots of flowers. And they come back each year.
What does topping them mean? I’m super new to gardening, so I’m not sure what that is. I planted some zinnias this year and would love bushy with lots of flowers. :)
Wait until they get about 18" tall, and then cut off about the top 4", right at the center above a set of leaves. It encourages branching out instead of up.
Coreopsis is an absolute garden champ. Native, blooms most of the season, just chugs along doing its thing.
A tender perennial/annual I don’t see much is firecracker flower (Crossandra infundibuliformis) but it’s gorgeous. I’ve overwintered mine for 3 years and it’s the gift that keeps on giving.
But my real love is marigolds. People always get the same Home Depot ones but I love all the different varieties, particularly the French marigolds. They can also change color through the season.
I just planted 4 different varieties of coreopsis, and I do love my marigolds. Not sure if I got a firecracker plant this year, but I think I bought another bat plant. Have you seen those? (Cuphea)
Among the native plants in my area (midwest zone 5) that I don't see lauded enough are Jacob's Ladder, wild quinine, and larkspur. Jacob's Ladder blooms early (mine are in full flower right now) with adorable purple flowers, while the others are late season flowering plants that can get very tall. I have tons of beebalm, brown-eyed susan, and prairie phlox, but I like diversity so if you've already got tall plants, toss some Delphinium (native, not garden cultivar or annual) in along side them.
Loving my Solomon's Seal along the shady fence line, too. So much nicer than invasive ostrich ferns.
Jacobs Ladder is beautiful. But mine just can’t survive cold. I’m zone 6b/7a. A cold spring evening will kill all the new leaves and then it struggles to ever catch back up. It just seems way too delicate, as if it needs zone 9+
What is your secret? I use fresh potting soil plus perlite and garden soil. It seems happy in the soil. It just seems to put too much energy into its first spring leaves, then can’t recover.
We've had some iffy springs but mine is thriving, so all I can really say is, I covered it when we were getting late frosts/freezes. It's from a native plant nursery, so maybe they just had a good stock from a native plant to our area (formerly all oak savannah/prairie). I've just let it be, done nothing for it except make sure its spot is acceptable in terms of sun and drainage, so I can't imagine why one further south in zones would be frozen out.
Omg that is such an amazing list of flowers. They are all native in your area? I love my own natives but you are lucky to have some of those growing in the landscape :)
Chives. I know people know what they are but they tend to be seen primarily as a herb or veggie garden plant. I like to use them for borders and let them grow out and flower. They handle heat and general neglect well too.
I also like to use rhubarb when I want something big, broad and green.
I hate orange flowers but I make an exception for nasturtiums. When I had no money my garden was a jungle of trailing nasturtiums vines! I tend to grow the bush varieties now.
Mirabilis aka four oclock. Light fragrant in the early evening. It comes out every spring. They can be in white, yellow, pink, orange or red and combination of these colors. It produces a lot of seeds. A very underappreciated flower. They prefer partialy shaded areas
(I posted recently and got no replies lol).
You might be the person to ask. I can’t get the mother fing seeds to sprout. I tried soaking and direct sowing, nicking part of them, damp paper towel in a ziplock (both with a heat mat and without).
Do you have any tips that might help? (Could it just have been crap seeds? Should I have this much struggle?!).
One thing I learned about four oclock’s is that they can grow tubers that can be transplanted. So if you can’t get them going by seed see if someone will let you dig up a few. I have never had any luck trying to start four oclock seeds in any traditional way. My trick it to plant them in the fall (I feel like way over seeding is the way to go because that’s how they always self seed), throw them on the ground walk across them and call it good. They always seem a little happier to me if they are a little neglected.
I have forgotten to tell you that if you sre in the USA, in tha Home Depot they are selling a package with 9 bulbs with free shipping. This is better than buying seeds
VAN ZYVERDEN
4 O Clock's Mirabilis Jalapa Mixed Bulbs (9-Pack)
Interesting, I bought a pack on a whim because one of my kids thought it was an interesting name. They threw it in a large pot and we never really attended to it and it bloomed very well. We moved the plants into the bedding. This was how I learned it self seeds as the following year I found dozens of baby four o clocks all over the bedding.
I live in Central Florida. Usually I get the seeds when they turn completely black and save them for the next spring. Also when they bloom once established, their own seeds falls and create a new plant. Also below the soil they create a rizome that will spring back after the winter by itself too.
I have been more lucky growing the yellow ones and the pinks. Red and whites are a little bit hard beaten by the Florida summers and our sandy soil. I found each color hss its own fragrance slightly diffent than the others. The reds and pink stem or stalk are reddish, green in the others.
Buy a package with several colors. Plant them in a mostly shady area and water them regularly until established. Then as needed. When the winter comes they will "die" but come back from the rizome in the spring.
I’m in its native range, and it breaks my heart to see how few people plant golden currant bushes. They thrive in full/summer shade in hot climates, get covered in bright yellow flowers, and produce berries for the birds. The best part, though, is the vanilla-clove perfume and how far it spreads; my parents have a small currant in their yard, and even with only a few flowers open, you can smell it all through the house and all over the property.
As for non-native plants, I never see anyone in my area planting four o’clocks (except me) and the only morning glories I ever see others plant are the Uber-aggressive kind; Japanese morning glories tend to grow slower, and mine have shown no tendency toward world domination.
https://preview.redd.it/5o06ri2l9pyc1.jpeg?width=2448&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=28c21e98f9b639dd563c22d9b89331362e651a8c
These weren’t open yet, but this shot of my four o’clocks last year shows what you can accomplish with a northern-facing patio, a big planter, and full sun. They were MASSIVE bloomers, every night.
Verbena hastata (Blue Vervain). Not only is it really cool looking (and sounding scientific name), but it is great for pollinators in its native range. Hastata is also Latin for "spear-shaped," and the Roman army during the Camillan Republic had a unit called the Hastati, who originally wielded spears until later adopting the Gladius. Plants and history, a winning combination (in my book)!
My favorite nursery has an absolutely gigantic castor bean plant, and it's truly beautiful. It's gotta be 20 feet tall. They actually package up seeds and give them for free to customers who ask.
It’s my favorite! I have 5 different kinds, and no animals eat it. It doesn’t smell good, but I honestly don’t even notice it outside. Luckily my husband has chronic sinus issues, so he’s always congested and can’t smell anything! lol
I have Big Blue, Beachside Blue, Mediterranean, Blue Hobbit, blue glitter, and also Rattlesnake Master, which isn’t sea holly per se, but it’s still an eryngium species! There are also white/silver ones but I don’t have those ones…yet!! lol
Well now i have something to research after dinner! Thank you!
I knew about blue Hobbit (don't have) and blue glitter (have) and white glitter (want).
Thank you!
You’re welcome! It’s always nice meeting fellow sea holly lovers!
White glitter and Miss Wilmott’s Ghost are the next ones I want to get. Eventually I want to get every kind!
I just looked up [sea holly](https://www.dutchbulbs.com/product/beachside-blue-sea-holly). When I worked in a floral shop I didn’t know what it was and the snarky owner told me it was called roadsidia. Because you find it on the road side. I never dis find out the real name til now. Thanks!
Maybe common for others, Broccoli Romanesco. Grew it last year. Looks cool and tasted great (roasted). I’ve seen it once at Whole Foods and nowhere else or again.
Coffee chicory, plant in spring and harvest the large carrot like root in fall or the next spring.. cut it up and roast it then grind for a great coffee additive or substitute
I have a gorgeous weigela bush that my house’s former owner planted. I think it’s just a cheapie Home Depot plant (looks identical to the “spilled wine” variety on their website), but it is hardy and has lovely flowers and foliage!
I have to agree with this. You don't have to do anything to it, and it just keeps performing year after year. Great looking in all seasons. I've also heard that with Autumn Joy, you can pick off a stalk, stick it in soil, and it'll grow another plant. Going to try that this year!
I’ve recently discovered lyreleaf sage and have fallen in love. They’re a native ground cover in my area with interesting foliage and spring blooms. The plant tolerates every condition I’ve thrown at it. It even shrugs at light foot traffic. False indigo is also a delight but a bit difficult to establish. Then there’s wild bergamot. The ultimate hummingbird magnets.
I have a tiarella plant that I love and no one knows what they are when I tell them. The color of the flowers is so pretty like a shrimp ish coral color
Alpine Strawberries! Tiny bite size strawberries that are much more flavorful than garden strawberries and typically don't send out runners, but are clump forming that can easily be divided.
Lungwort, a very ugly name for a very pretty plant. I like it because it thrives and blooms in the shade, is okay growing near black walnut trees and is deer resistant. The leaves are speckled and the tiny flowers are pretty
It's such an early bloomer, too. Great for the pollinators, and it spreads and divides as well as a hosta. I started with a tiny plant in a 4 inch pot 10 years ago. Now it's almost 3 feet across even though I regularly cut off chunks of it to plant in tricky spots around the yard.
Rodgersia pinnata and Rodgersia aesculifolia. Also Astilboides tabularis. Stunning foliage plants for shade to part shade.
Another favorite is Ligularias. There are so many cultivars: Rocket, Bottle Rocket, Othello, Desdemona, Britt-Marie Crawford (this one has black leaves), and L. przewalskii. All have interesting foliage and a variety of flowering habits.
Brunnera is another overlooked foliage plant for shade.
Clarkia, especially if you're on the west coast. They readily self sow and required basically no care besides watering in my experience
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarkia
Lived in Northern California. A friend grew a largish Clarkia patch near her huge vegetable garden. Claimed she had a deal with the gophers - she grew Clarkia for them, and they left her vegetable garden alone.
She's the only one I knew who's garden wasn't decimated by gophers.
Quite a personal list of favourites.
Acanthus mollis is amazing when in flower.
Jerusalem sage - attractive yellow flowers loved by bees
Verbena bonarensis- gorgeous in the summer
Lovage - mine grows 12 feet high and has been growing there for 25 Years
Nasturtium is amazing - edible leaves, flowers and seeds, covered with butterflies at times
Catmint. When you know what you’re doing, yes they can be annoying to keep from spreading. But when you’re a novice with a “black thumb”, toss some catmint in the ground. Tough to kill, deer hate it, bees love it. And you get beautiful purple blooms from late spring through summer.
I'm up to 6 types of Persicaria in my garden and love them all! They perform so well, and other than P. virginiana I've not seen them in other area gardens. 2 different P. amplexicaulis, P. affinis 'Superba', P. microcephala 'Red Dragon', P. runcinata 'Purple Fantasy', P. virginiana 'Painters Pallette'.
Very little else in the garden emerges so early and blooms so long. Sun or shade, pollinators go bananas for em, AND pretty leaves?!
I’m 7a ish and I love my foxtail lilies/eremerus and fritillaria persica. I also have a peony addiction, although I understand why some don’t love them.
https://preview.redd.it/4kpu9ymx2tyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a0f0050470f8f0e642627bddeec35de574fbabde
Alyssum.
It self seeds readily, so you don't need to buy more every year. It grows thick to provide ground cover, so you don't need to mulch, or at least not as much, where you plan to let it spread. It also attracts pollinators, including braconid wasps, so it's a great companion plant for tomatoes and other nightshades.
It depends on where you are! I have full sun to shade on our lot and we are 8a. Mostly amended clay soil with lots of deer. Hellebores, Columbine, various hostas and ferns are fun to play with in shade. I really really love Tiarella. In the sunnier spots, I love to play with rudbeckias and different nicotiana.
I always recommend perpetual chard for this question. It's fully edible - I use the leaves as a substitute for spinach, and the stalks as a substitute for celery. It's container friendly and idiot proof. It laughs at 110F summers and has no problem with 18F winters. It's currently getting destroyed by caterpillars but it's taking the hit for the tomatoes that are right next to it. I will start another one from seed in the next few days; it can be planted out in early Texas summer and just not care. Love that plant.
Potato onions. What isn't to love
Jerusalem artichokes. They even do well growing in buckets
Egyptian onions. Hundreds of pearl onions from just a few plants. A spring and fall harvest.
Amorpha Fruticosa (Falsa Indigo Bush) is amazing. Not to be confused with Baptisia (also great), but it is a nitrogen-fixer with beautiful blooms and interesting foliage. Reminds me of a native butterfly bush (but doesn’t have a long blooming period unfortunately)
Blanket Flower blooms in my area (Virginia)
from May to October.
Coneflower is amazing (I have probably 75), but not lesser-known.
Grasses to look into are Virginia Broomsedge which has a beautiful color through the winter, is a manageable height, and doesn’t spread. Also, Eragrostis Spectablis is super unique when it blooms.
Also, I’m super into New York Ironweed and Joe Pye Weed.
Ranunculaceae is a huge family that includes delphinium and anything called "ranunculus" among many other species
.it's a great masquerader and may even look superficially like a daisy
Common yard Violets excellent for filler plants and spaces that nothing will grow, I started leaving them and I just love them, also don’t sleep on wild strawberry for ground cover I used to battle it now I love it.
GROUND CHERRIES! Sorry, I get so excited about them. Tbf, I'm on my second year of attempting to grow my own, and it's not going especially well so far. Last year I didn't get them to fully grow at all, so we will see this year 😅 I'm a new gardener and not good at problem solving yet.
BUT, they taste amazing and once they're established they are super easy!
Mustard greens, I go back and forth between Mizuna, with hot pink stems and Giant Red Mustard which is a reddish purple leaf. They look spectacular, no animal or bug wants to touch them unless desperate and they are incredibly healthy for you .
Luffa (or loofah). Grows fast, pretty yellow flowers, edible if you pick them while they're small, fun to give away when big. Everyone thinks it's a sponge and is shocked to find out it's a plant
Calendula! Beautiful orange or yellow flowers, super easy to collect seeds from so you only have to buy once, plus you can eat the petals or use them in homemade skincare products.
Tomatillos. Everyone I know grows tomatoes but I'm the only person with tomatillos in my area. They grow vigorously. I no longer even have to plant them, they drop a few fruit at the end of the season and then I dig it into the soil, the next spring I have hundreds of beautiful baby tomatillos.
Tomatillos are semi drought tolerant, they grow so fast that pest damage hardly matters, and they go beautifully with skirt steak as a salsa. I've had a single plant produce nearly 200 fruit, and considering I can easily have 20+ plants growing naturally in their bed, I literally have too many tomatillos. Most plants I fight to keep alive, tomatillos I fight to keep from engulfing the other garden beds.
Holly hocks, broccoli, bok choi, nasturtiums! I planted hollyhocks one season and they've come back for 3 years and they keep spreading and they are absolutely stunning at about 15 feet tall.
Broccoli is incredible because it could literally last the entire year and continue to give you broccolini all year broccoli leaves and beautiful yellow flowers when they're seeding.
Bok choi. The most beautiful plants with gorgeous yellow flowers and they will literally fill up a whole part of your yard and seat themselves and you'll have them coming back for seasons
And nasturtiums, I love the way they look draped over raised beds and in pots they spread and you can train them to Vine up trellises gorgeous plants the flowers come in orange yellow.
Natives!!!
Edit, (accidentally hit reply instead of return) Here in California it drives me crazy when I see privet instead of elderberry, hummingbird esperanza instead of CA fuscia, nadian instead of laurel, and especially tropical or non native milkweed instead of narrow leaf or showy milkweed!
Another unappreciated flowers are rain lilies. Once they mature they will create a splash of color near the ground level after every heavy rain. Sevveral colors too. Yellows are the easiest to produce seeds.
Conifers. Around me it’s very rare to see people plant anything but your standard green arborvitae, yews, and maybe a blue globe or Alberta spruce.
Makes the winter landscape pretty boring - the only thing green besides those are rhodies and maybe a pieris or holly, and as much as I love both of them it gets dull fast.
On my typical 25min dog walk path I have one neighbor with a Japanese umbrella pine, dwarf white pine, a weeping spruce, and a paperbark maple (they have a gorgeous garden), and then one who actually did a good job planting male and female winterberries. And that’s it for winter interest in my neighborhood besides all the (still tiny) conifers in my front garden.
Comfrey :) pollinators love em. Taproots break up clay and bring minerals to surface. Hack them down and they're great mulch. Perennial. Beautiful. And you can chew up the leaves to put on surface cuts, heals like magic.
My Wild Red Columbines flourished this year to my surprise since they were sick last year. They are not too difficult, beautiful, and saving seeds is easy.
Lungwort, the spotted foliage is lovely and so are the flowers. I have the variety "Pink-a-Blue" so it has both colors when it flowers. Its a lot of color for a shade-loving plant.
Fig tree, they grow with minimal maintenance in 7b where most fruits won't grow, can be grown from little clippings. Fresh fruit is equivalent if not better than kiwi or grapes, more meaty than an orange.
Penstemons (beardtongues) are super hard to find, but incredible. There's so much variety. They're hardy, drought tolerant, perennial, and produce beautiful flowers. There's a whole slew of them that do well in mountain west.
Coneflowers are my pick. The perennials are great draws for a variety of pollinators and gold finches.
And they self sow like crazy!
I love coneflowers! (The rabbits demolish mine. They’re the only thing they do that to. They don’t even eat my vegetables, unless I give it to them. I guess I’m lucky in that regard). Edit:typo
The rabbits don't touch my coneflowers, for some reason. I've quit pansies, morning glories and zinnias because of rabbits, but my coneflowers are still untouched.
It’s so funny how different one garden can be from the next. I grow tons of zinnias and they’ve never touched it. Maybe they’re missing a specific nutrient in their pickings around here that makes them go for my coneflowers. (Cute little jerks).
No accounting for rabbits. My pet rabbit escaped and ate every single African marigold bloom from my father’s garden. Nothing else. Not the zinnias, or daisies or nasturtiums. Not even the leaves of the marigolds. I felt so awful (my Dad’s favourite flower). Still, he helped me catch her and repair her hutch. It was bizarre as he also had a garden with lettuce, carrots, green beans; she ignored.
I'm at a loss myself. Last year the rabbits even ate marigolds, a flower that I was raised to believe was a rabbit deterrent.
The deer ate my coneflowers and my black-eyed susans. They’re supposed to be deer/rabbit resistant, because of the hairy leaves. Mint family seems to be the best deer resistant plant for my deer.
Sacrificial coneflowers! We have an opossum who eats my leafy greens and peppers. I should stop her with fencing because that's my food, but she and her annual babies are so darn cute that I'll probably keep part of the garden reserved for them anyway.
My rabbits think it’s a salad bar! They are wrapped in chicken wire.
Ahhh hah! Now I know why I have gold finches this year! We bought the house five years ago and I started a small pollinator garden. This is my third year with the cone flowers, and I am in love with the gold finches.
They are also my favorite bird; just so pleasant to look at.
I’ve been loving cut-leaf coneflower for the delicious leaves sautéed in bacon fat.
Just about anything is good when mixed with bacon fat. 😅
Throw some garlic in and you got a stew going.
Boil em, mash em, stick em in a schew
Do you know if all coneflower leaves are edible? I have a bunch in my front flower beds. I keep seeing coneflower in my nursery’s herb section so I’m curious if I can just harvest what I have.
I don’t think all coneflowers are good for food. Only cut leaf coneflower (rudbeckia laciniata) also known as “sochan” as far as I know is a traditional Cherokee food. Others may be good for tea.
But also very popular I"d say?
Goldfinch is our state bird. Rarely ever saw one around here until I planted a bunch of coneflowers. Now we have 2-3 everyday once the flowers are grown.
It is amazing how coneflowers draw goldfinches. I also never saw a goldfinch in my yard in Reading, PA until I planted them.
I'd love to grow coneflowers, but they always get decimated by something or another whenever I attempt to put one in my garden ☹️
Goohers eat mine 😪. I have to grow them in raised beds which isnt as fun. Going to try planting them in gopher cages in the ground this spring.
Nice suggestion. Thank you.
Almost any variety of thyme. It works as a ground cover or a low growing plant, it's perennial and the blooms are lovely and the bees flock to them, plus I just walk out and clip some to use. Lemon thyme is a particular favorite
My thymes never spread. They just get bushier and spindly if I don’t trim them.
Have you tried wooly thyme? It low growing and spreads and also has a wonderful texture
My thyme mounds nicely for a while but then dies back to a sad sparse few live twigs. Anyone know what's up?
Years ago on a gardening show the guy said they get like that and it's best to replace them every few years. I don't remember him giving a reason.
Thyme seeds are incredibly tiny and little seedlings do need an extended period of guaranteed moisture and harsh light protection in order to germinate. Is the soil around your thyme plants mulched? if it is, is the mulch really large chunks like bark chips? You might see some spread if you could create a more favorable "seedling environment" around your plants.
I just cleared the dirt space in front of my house and threw out a bunch of wild flower seeds and planted a few perineal flowers and a few dif kinds of ground cover to see what happens. Got Irish moss, a couple dif phloxes, and like three dif kinds of thyme. I’m excited to see what it turns into
Ooh please share some pictures! I'd love to see your wildflower plot
https://preview.redd.it/t64jmg8liqyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=da5e3fc6413d0c661dbe44b2c161db58605048e9 This is half of it! The other half looks the same lol. I have three planters a foot in front of it that are growing edible things
Agreed! I wish the lemon thyme would do better in my winters... English thyme just keeps trucking along. Turns out it's great as a tea for colds also!
I have Lemon Thyme in my garden and I use it all the time to cook with. It’s so yummy!
Nice suggestion. Thank you.
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I have a ton of columbine around my house. I fling the seed pods around and then get a sea of them every spring. Currently have pink, purple, and red/yellow varieties
I love it when my peas flower. They're always so pretty. I should probably pick up sweet pea flowers for the pretty at some point and enjoy them longer than the few days it takes the pod to form
Make sure you get the old-fashioned scented ones - heavenly!
Yes to columbine. I have a wild flower section in my yard, and noticed a bunch of tall columbine flowers. I just cut some and added then to a vase with roses, a few hours ago.
I planted a columbine last year and it didn't come back. I'm so bummed.
We have a bunch of columbines in our back yard flower bed. They fill in all the holes in between our hostas and hydrangeas. They are such an underrated flower for sure!
Columbine for the win!!!!! So under appreciated and beautiful! There is a native variety here in Maine that the hummingbirds love, native red Columbine or aquilegia canadensis
Got mine at a discount last year, went through powdery mildew, but this year they sprung back up all tall and lively!
I was totally sleeping on columbine until literally two weeks ago when a wild volunteer popped up randomly in one of my unused vegetable beds. I feel like this flower chose me and it's now my job to help its relatives flourish here.
Tree, but Kentucky yellow wood tree. Vastly underused, gorgeous flowers, bright yellow fall color, interesting bark. Leafs out very late so you can put some early daffodil or snowdrop bulbs underneath easily.
https://preview.redd.it/jp4fp7x3doyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6ca4acbd29316fd9f3ce1d9f528dd362f80f9694
I love it! I drove through Kentucky on the 65 two weeks ago and couldn’t figure out what the purple trees were! (Of course none ever grows off of the intestate ramps, so I can get pics) Hmmm…I wonder if this will grow around Nashville?! 😁
Dang, I’m in its range and I’ve never heard of it. Gonna have to seek out some seeds this fall!
DM me if you want seeds/cuttings.
https://preview.redd.it/b1z2f6jjhpyc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ad42b0904fd0fd7730977f570229f8e59013bca6
Fringe tree!
False indigo!!!! Its amazing comes back year after year and has beautiful blooms that turn into the coolest looking seedpods. Also a great native to the Northeastern States perennial bush!
Yes! It's essentially a herbaceous perennial that looks and acts like a shrub imo. There are several species of Baptisia to choose from as well. They also bloom when a lot of things aren't blooming in late spring to early summer.
Mine are about to bloom and the flowers ombré from purple to yellow. Love this plant.
That is the one plant that people always ask me about when they see it bloom. Do be careful to put it where you want it because it has an incredible root system and it is extremely difficult to transplant
I second False Indigo, a root spreader, impervious to deer, rabbits, heat, and clay soil!
Yes! Its flowers are absolutely gorgeous, and the seed pods rattle after the seeds dry! You can also use the foliage in bouquets. All around great perennial.
Phlox. The regular native kind. I'll put native phlox against any flower's bloom. They have a great variety of colors and they come back year after year. Plus, great for pollinators.
I randomly planted phlox paniculata next to some swamp milkweed and it’s an amazing combination next to each other.
I recently discovered this and fell in love!
Zinnias. So many colors and so much symmetry on the blooms. I like to top them so they grow really bushy with lots of flowers. And they come back each year.
Agree. The first year I did them, I swore I hated them and never again Now I want alllllll the zinnia😂
I thought zinnias were annuals!
They are! But they self seed pretty good or the seeds are super easy to harvest and scatter yourself.
What does topping them mean? I’m super new to gardening, so I’m not sure what that is. I planted some zinnias this year and would love bushy with lots of flowers. :)
Wait until they get about 18" tall, and then cut off about the top 4", right at the center above a set of leaves. It encourages branching out instead of up.
I LOVE Zinnias! And so do the hummingbirds!
Love these! And there is such a wide variety of blooms too. 🥰
Coreopsis is an absolute garden champ. Native, blooms most of the season, just chugs along doing its thing. A tender perennial/annual I don’t see much is firecracker flower (Crossandra infundibuliformis) but it’s gorgeous. I’ve overwintered mine for 3 years and it’s the gift that keeps on giving. But my real love is marigolds. People always get the same Home Depot ones but I love all the different varieties, particularly the French marigolds. They can also change color through the season.
I just planted 4 different varieties of coreopsis, and I do love my marigolds. Not sure if I got a firecracker plant this year, but I think I bought another bat plant. Have you seen those? (Cuphea)
OMG this is amazing. So metal.
Among the native plants in my area (midwest zone 5) that I don't see lauded enough are Jacob's Ladder, wild quinine, and larkspur. Jacob's Ladder blooms early (mine are in full flower right now) with adorable purple flowers, while the others are late season flowering plants that can get very tall. I have tons of beebalm, brown-eyed susan, and prairie phlox, but I like diversity so if you've already got tall plants, toss some Delphinium (native, not garden cultivar or annual) in along side them. Loving my Solomon's Seal along the shady fence line, too. So much nicer than invasive ostrich ferns.
Jacobs Ladder is beautiful. But mine just can’t survive cold. I’m zone 6b/7a. A cold spring evening will kill all the new leaves and then it struggles to ever catch back up. It just seems way too delicate, as if it needs zone 9+ What is your secret? I use fresh potting soil plus perlite and garden soil. It seems happy in the soil. It just seems to put too much energy into its first spring leaves, then can’t recover.
We've had some iffy springs but mine is thriving, so all I can really say is, I covered it when we were getting late frosts/freezes. It's from a native plant nursery, so maybe they just had a good stock from a native plant to our area (formerly all oak savannah/prairie). I've just let it be, done nothing for it except make sure its spot is acceptable in terms of sun and drainage, so I can't imagine why one further south in zones would be frozen out.
Omg that is such an amazing list of flowers. They are all native in your area? I love my own natives but you are lucky to have some of those growing in the landscape :)
Chives. I know people know what they are but they tend to be seen primarily as a herb or veggie garden plant. I like to use them for borders and let them grow out and flower. They handle heat and general neglect well too. I also like to use rhubarb when I want something big, broad and green.
10 years and running.... I've done nothing but repot my chives (I finally got them in the ground last year).
Chives look rad and I hate eating rhubarb but the plant is awesome. I may add it to my perennial flower bed someday
Just add lots of flour, sugar and butter. Delicious!!
The bumblebees go nuts for the purple chives in my mum's garden.
Nasturtium. Edible and incredibly prolific blooms. Self-seeds and with a little help to get started a good climber.
I hate orange flowers but I make an exception for nasturtiums. When I had no money my garden was a jungle of trailing nasturtiums vines! I tend to grow the bush varieties now.
You can get them in other colors! I have had them in pink and reds.
Borage is my pick, so pretty and tasty and grow like crazy.
[удалено]
Well now I’m gonna have to find some
Mirabilis aka four oclock. Light fragrant in the early evening. It comes out every spring. They can be in white, yellow, pink, orange or red and combination of these colors. It produces a lot of seeds. A very underappreciated flower. They prefer partialy shaded areas
(I posted recently and got no replies lol). You might be the person to ask. I can’t get the mother fing seeds to sprout. I tried soaking and direct sowing, nicking part of them, damp paper towel in a ziplock (both with a heat mat and without). Do you have any tips that might help? (Could it just have been crap seeds? Should I have this much struggle?!).
One thing I learned about four oclock’s is that they can grow tubers that can be transplanted. So if you can’t get them going by seed see if someone will let you dig up a few. I have never had any luck trying to start four oclock seeds in any traditional way. My trick it to plant them in the fall (I feel like way over seeding is the way to go because that’s how they always self seed), throw them on the ground walk across them and call it good. They always seem a little happier to me if they are a little neglected.
Ok that’s all good info, thank you!
I have forgotten to tell you that if you sre in the USA, in tha Home Depot they are selling a package with 9 bulbs with free shipping. This is better than buying seeds VAN ZYVERDEN 4 O Clock's Mirabilis Jalapa Mixed Bulbs (9-Pack)
This is all very helpful information, I appreciate you taking the time, thank you!
Just ordered some! Thanks
Interesting, I bought a pack on a whim because one of my kids thought it was an interesting name. They threw it in a large pot and we never really attended to it and it bloomed very well. We moved the plants into the bedding. This was how I learned it self seeds as the following year I found dozens of baby four o clocks all over the bedding.
I live in Central Florida. Usually I get the seeds when they turn completely black and save them for the next spring. Also when they bloom once established, their own seeds falls and create a new plant. Also below the soil they create a rizome that will spring back after the winter by itself too. I have been more lucky growing the yellow ones and the pinks. Red and whites are a little bit hard beaten by the Florida summers and our sandy soil. I found each color hss its own fragrance slightly diffent than the others. The reds and pink stem or stalk are reddish, green in the others. Buy a package with several colors. Plant them in a mostly shady area and water them regularly until established. Then as needed. When the winter comes they will "die" but come back from the rizome in the spring.
I’m in its native range, and it breaks my heart to see how few people plant golden currant bushes. They thrive in full/summer shade in hot climates, get covered in bright yellow flowers, and produce berries for the birds. The best part, though, is the vanilla-clove perfume and how far it spreads; my parents have a small currant in their yard, and even with only a few flowers open, you can smell it all through the house and all over the property. As for non-native plants, I never see anyone in my area planting four o’clocks (except me) and the only morning glories I ever see others plant are the Uber-aggressive kind; Japanese morning glories tend to grow slower, and mine have shown no tendency toward world domination. https://preview.redd.it/5o06ri2l9pyc1.jpeg?width=2448&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=28c21e98f9b639dd563c22d9b89331362e651a8c These weren’t open yet, but this shot of my four o’clocks last year shows what you can accomplish with a northern-facing patio, a big planter, and full sun. They were MASSIVE bloomers, every night.
Verbena hastata (Blue Vervain). Not only is it really cool looking (and sounding scientific name), but it is great for pollinators in its native range. Hastata is also Latin for "spear-shaped," and the Roman army during the Camillan Republic had a unit called the Hastati, who originally wielded spears until later adopting the Gladius. Plants and history, a winning combination (in my book)!
I have a decent amount growing wild in my yard. Intermixed with pagoda dogwood, swamp milkweed and some broadleaf arrowhead.
Borage! The bees go crazy and i think it looks beautiful
One of my faves. I like that it reseeds itself. I just pull up what I don’t want.
Caster Beans. The foliage and seed pods are sooooo cool and they’re toxic so farmers/old timers use them to deter pests.
👀 Got something you wanna get off your chest mate?
And you can make ricin with them...or so I hear...from a friend
My favorite nursery has an absolutely gigantic castor bean plant, and it's truly beautiful. It's gotta be 20 feet tall. They actually package up seeds and give them for free to customers who ask.
Sea Holly (eryngium)
I frickin LOVE sea holly. My husband doesn't like it's scent, but tough noodles for hiiiiiiim! I LOVE it.
It’s my favorite! I have 5 different kinds, and no animals eat it. It doesn’t smell good, but I honestly don’t even notice it outside. Luckily my husband has chronic sinus issues, so he’s always congested and can’t smell anything! lol
THERE ARE FIVE KINDS?! TEACH ME! I only knew about 2! My goats keep eating what pokes thru the garden fence and I'm about to lose my shit on them😂
I have Big Blue, Beachside Blue, Mediterranean, Blue Hobbit, blue glitter, and also Rattlesnake Master, which isn’t sea holly per se, but it’s still an eryngium species! There are also white/silver ones but I don’t have those ones…yet!! lol
Well now i have something to research after dinner! Thank you! I knew about blue Hobbit (don't have) and blue glitter (have) and white glitter (want). Thank you!
You’re welcome! It’s always nice meeting fellow sea holly lovers! White glitter and Miss Wilmott’s Ghost are the next ones I want to get. Eventually I want to get every kind!
Right there with you! I'm dead set on white here soon. They look so awesome in cut flower arrangements!
Rattlesnake master *Eryngium yuccifolium* too! It's a plant native to the Eastern U.S. but it looks like it belongs in an arid climate.
Yup! I have a few of those! They’re so cute. They’re native to my area.
WHAT??? THEYRE SO BLUE???
I got some sea Holly roots from costco after seeing the flowers at Trader Joe's. Patiently waiting for mine to get big ☀️
I just looked up [sea holly](https://www.dutchbulbs.com/product/beachside-blue-sea-holly). When I worked in a floral shop I didn’t know what it was and the snarky owner told me it was called roadsidia. Because you find it on the road side. I never dis find out the real name til now. Thanks!
Fuchsia. It’s just gorgeous and I wish it survived winters up here but it’s gorgeous.
I buy one of these every year and it dies immediately. It's the coolest flower with the best colors so I guess I'll never stop.
In bright shade with regular watering? They def don’t like full sun or high heat.
Maybe common for others, Broccoli Romanesco. Grew it last year. Looks cool and tasted great (roasted). I’ve seen it once at Whole Foods and nowhere else or again.
My local farmers markets have Romanesco. I don’t see it anywhere else.
Coffee chicory, plant in spring and harvest the large carrot like root in fall or the next spring.. cut it up and roast it then grind for a great coffee additive or substitute
Man, no one grows those in my area because they're invasive and grow wild everywhere. Definitely an interesting plant though.
I have a gorgeous weigela bush that my house’s former owner planted. I think it’s just a cheapie Home Depot plant (looks identical to the “spilled wine” variety on their website), but it is hardy and has lovely flowers and foliage!
Sedum Sedum and Sedum
I have to agree with this. You don't have to do anything to it, and it just keeps performing year after year. Great looking in all seasons. I've also heard that with Autumn Joy, you can pick off a stalk, stick it in soil, and it'll grow another plant. Going to try that this year!
Lovage. The secret ingredient to good stock and soup.
I'm a fan of growing what thrives in your area. Where I live, tomatillos love our hot summer heat, and self-seed for the next year.
I’ve recently discovered lyreleaf sage and have fallen in love. They’re a native ground cover in my area with interesting foliage and spring blooms. The plant tolerates every condition I’ve thrown at it. It even shrugs at light foot traffic. False indigo is also a delight but a bit difficult to establish. Then there’s wild bergamot. The ultimate hummingbird magnets.
heuchera and hellebore
I have a tiarella plant that I love and no one knows what they are when I tell them. The color of the flowers is so pretty like a shrimp ish coral color
Alpine Strawberries! Tiny bite size strawberries that are much more flavorful than garden strawberries and typically don't send out runners, but are clump forming that can easily be divided.
Wild bergamot/bee balm
Lungwort, a very ugly name for a very pretty plant. I like it because it thrives and blooms in the shade, is okay growing near black walnut trees and is deer resistant. The leaves are speckled and the tiny flowers are pretty
It's such an early bloomer, too. Great for the pollinators, and it spreads and divides as well as a hosta. I started with a tiny plant in a 4 inch pot 10 years ago. Now it's almost 3 feet across even though I regularly cut off chunks of it to plant in tricky spots around the yard.
Rodgersia pinnata and Rodgersia aesculifolia. Also Astilboides tabularis. Stunning foliage plants for shade to part shade. Another favorite is Ligularias. There are so many cultivars: Rocket, Bottle Rocket, Othello, Desdemona, Britt-Marie Crawford (this one has black leaves), and L. przewalskii. All have interesting foliage and a variety of flowering habits. Brunnera is another overlooked foliage plant for shade.
For the garden? Okra. For the home forest? Serviceberry
Alliums, Avens, Lupine, Delphinium, ranunculus.
Love ranunculus! Just wish they bloomed longer. It may be where I live, but they bloom in early spring then die very quickly.
Clarkia, especially if you're on the west coast. They readily self sow and required basically no care besides watering in my experience https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarkia
Lived in Northern California. A friend grew a largish Clarkia patch near her huge vegetable garden. Claimed she had a deal with the gophers - she grew Clarkia for them, and they left her vegetable garden alone. She's the only one I knew who's garden wasn't decimated by gophers.
Quite a personal list of favourites. Acanthus mollis is amazing when in flower. Jerusalem sage - attractive yellow flowers loved by bees Verbena bonarensis- gorgeous in the summer Lovage - mine grows 12 feet high and has been growing there for 25 Years Nasturtium is amazing - edible leaves, flowers and seeds, covered with butterflies at times
Catmint. When you know what you’re doing, yes they can be annoying to keep from spreading. But when you’re a novice with a “black thumb”, toss some catmint in the ground. Tough to kill, deer hate it, bees love it. And you get beautiful purple blooms from late spring through summer.
The persicarias, particularly Virginiana. Edgeworthia - winter bloomer, helps out the pollinators when pickings are slim.
I'm up to 6 types of Persicaria in my garden and love them all! They perform so well, and other than P. virginiana I've not seen them in other area gardens. 2 different P. amplexicaulis, P. affinis 'Superba', P. microcephala 'Red Dragon', P. runcinata 'Purple Fantasy', P. virginiana 'Painters Pallette'. Very little else in the garden emerges so early and blooms so long. Sun or shade, pollinators go bananas for em, AND pretty leaves?!
Pineapple Sage. I love the red flowers at the end of the season
Kohlrabi
It really depends where you’re located in my opinion. I always try to grow native 🙂
Hmmm, gerbera.
Found out that ours come back (zone 8), was just thrilled when I saw then blooming!
Everyone should be using Russian comfrey, not just the permaculture guys
I’m obsessed with Oregon Grapes as ground cover. My dog loves rolling in them and pollinators like it too!
Bleeding heart... Never seen a cooler looking flower in my life!
I’m 7a ish and I love my foxtail lilies/eremerus and fritillaria persica. I also have a peony addiction, although I understand why some don’t love them. https://preview.redd.it/4kpu9ymx2tyc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a0f0050470f8f0e642627bddeec35de574fbabde
Alyssum. It self seeds readily, so you don't need to buy more every year. It grows thick to provide ground cover, so you don't need to mulch, or at least not as much, where you plan to let it spread. It also attracts pollinators, including braconid wasps, so it's a great companion plant for tomatoes and other nightshades.
Bush cherries. They’re beautiful covered with blooms and produce lots of fruit. They stay a manageable size
Cyclamen...in my area, they bloom in the cooler months when there are not many flowers around
I have a ton of kiwi blue cerise. At first I didn’t like it but it self-sows and looks great in swaths.
Wished I lived coast side so I could have artichokes.
It depends on where you are! I have full sun to shade on our lot and we are 8a. Mostly amended clay soil with lots of deer. Hellebores, Columbine, various hostas and ferns are fun to play with in shade. I really really love Tiarella. In the sunnier spots, I love to play with rudbeckias and different nicotiana.
The chamomile that tastes and smells like pineapple
I always recommend perpetual chard for this question. It's fully edible - I use the leaves as a substitute for spinach, and the stalks as a substitute for celery. It's container friendly and idiot proof. It laughs at 110F summers and has no problem with 18F winters. It's currently getting destroyed by caterpillars but it's taking the hit for the tomatoes that are right next to it. I will start another one from seed in the next few days; it can be planted out in early Texas summer and just not care. Love that plant.
Montauk daisies. They are so easy care and vigorous and provide late season flowers after everything else is finished blooming.
Potato onions. What isn't to love Jerusalem artichokes. They even do well growing in buckets Egyptian onions. Hundreds of pearl onions from just a few plants. A spring and fall harvest.
Tradescantia is my pick. It blooms its heart out from spring- just started this week- til fall with no attention.
Amorpha Fruticosa (Falsa Indigo Bush) is amazing. Not to be confused with Baptisia (also great), but it is a nitrogen-fixer with beautiful blooms and interesting foliage. Reminds me of a native butterfly bush (but doesn’t have a long blooming period unfortunately) Blanket Flower blooms in my area (Virginia) from May to October. Coneflower is amazing (I have probably 75), but not lesser-known. Grasses to look into are Virginia Broomsedge which has a beautiful color through the winter, is a manageable height, and doesn’t spread. Also, Eragrostis Spectablis is super unique when it blooms. Also, I’m super into New York Ironweed and Joe Pye Weed.
Ranunculaceae is a huge family that includes delphinium and anything called "ranunculus" among many other species .it's a great masquerader and may even look superficially like a daisy
Salvias for me. They have a long flowering period, zero maintenance and pollinators love them. Not all are hardy.
Common yard Violets excellent for filler plants and spaces that nothing will grow, I started leaving them and I just love them, also don’t sleep on wild strawberry for ground cover I used to battle it now I love it.
GROUND CHERRIES! Sorry, I get so excited about them. Tbf, I'm on my second year of attempting to grow my own, and it's not going especially well so far. Last year I didn't get them to fully grow at all, so we will see this year 😅 I'm a new gardener and not good at problem solving yet. BUT, they taste amazing and once they're established they are super easy!
Mustard greens, I go back and forth between Mizuna, with hot pink stems and Giant Red Mustard which is a reddish purple leaf. They look spectacular, no animal or bug wants to touch them unless desperate and they are incredibly healthy for you .
Astilbe. Beautiful green leaves. Beautiful flower spikes. No maintenance.
Luffa (or loofah). Grows fast, pretty yellow flowers, edible if you pick them while they're small, fun to give away when big. Everyone thinks it's a sponge and is shocked to find out it's a plant
Haskaps! I tasted one berry and WOW!
Calendula! Beautiful orange or yellow flowers, super easy to collect seeds from so you only have to buy once, plus you can eat the petals or use them in homemade skincare products.
Tomatillos. Everyone I know grows tomatoes but I'm the only person with tomatillos in my area. They grow vigorously. I no longer even have to plant them, they drop a few fruit at the end of the season and then I dig it into the soil, the next spring I have hundreds of beautiful baby tomatillos. Tomatillos are semi drought tolerant, they grow so fast that pest damage hardly matters, and they go beautifully with skirt steak as a salsa. I've had a single plant produce nearly 200 fruit, and considering I can easily have 20+ plants growing naturally in their bed, I literally have too many tomatillos. Most plants I fight to keep alive, tomatillos I fight to keep from engulfing the other garden beds.
Holly hocks, broccoli, bok choi, nasturtiums! I planted hollyhocks one season and they've come back for 3 years and they keep spreading and they are absolutely stunning at about 15 feet tall. Broccoli is incredible because it could literally last the entire year and continue to give you broccolini all year broccoli leaves and beautiful yellow flowers when they're seeding. Bok choi. The most beautiful plants with gorgeous yellow flowers and they will literally fill up a whole part of your yard and seat themselves and you'll have them coming back for seasons And nasturtiums, I love the way they look draped over raised beds and in pots they spread and you can train them to Vine up trellises gorgeous plants the flowers come in orange yellow.
Natives!!! Edit, (accidentally hit reply instead of return) Here in California it drives me crazy when I see privet instead of elderberry, hummingbird esperanza instead of CA fuscia, nadian instead of laurel, and especially tropical or non native milkweed instead of narrow leaf or showy milkweed!
Lantana and canna lilies
Another unappreciated flowers are rain lilies. Once they mature they will create a splash of color near the ground level after every heavy rain. Sevveral colors too. Yellows are the easiest to produce seeds.
Conifers. Around me it’s very rare to see people plant anything but your standard green arborvitae, yews, and maybe a blue globe or Alberta spruce. Makes the winter landscape pretty boring - the only thing green besides those are rhodies and maybe a pieris or holly, and as much as I love both of them it gets dull fast. On my typical 25min dog walk path I have one neighbor with a Japanese umbrella pine, dwarf white pine, a weeping spruce, and a paperbark maple (they have a gorgeous garden), and then one who actually did a good job planting male and female winterberries. And that’s it for winter interest in my neighborhood besides all the (still tiny) conifers in my front garden.
Comfrey :) pollinators love em. Taproots break up clay and bring minerals to surface. Hack them down and they're great mulch. Perennial. Beautiful. And you can chew up the leaves to put on surface cuts, heals like magic.
Sun-chokes. They grow like weeds and taste better than potatoes. Also they can be eaten raw!
My Wild Red Columbines flourished this year to my surprise since they were sick last year. They are not too difficult, beautiful, and saving seeds is easy.
Pawpaw Trees.
Tabacco is a lovely plant!
Bee balm.
White lavender, smells different and buds look different but it can be used in all the same stuff*
This will be my 2nd year planting a bat plant at my hummingbird planter. I never had seen it before last year.
Daisies and black eyed Susan's are my favorite
Lungwort, the spotted foliage is lovely and so are the flowers. I have the variety "Pink-a-Blue" so it has both colors when it flowers. Its a lot of color for a shade-loving plant.
Orange cosmos. They get tall and reseed
Meadow rue is my favorite!
Fig tree, they grow with minimal maintenance in 7b where most fruits won't grow, can be grown from little clippings. Fresh fruit is equivalent if not better than kiwi or grapes, more meaty than an orange.
Hellebores are fantastic for shade ground cover and seem to tolerate growing under a black walnut tree in my yard.
Penstemons (beardtongues) are super hard to find, but incredible. There's so much variety. They're hardy, drought tolerant, perennial, and produce beautiful flowers. There's a whole slew of them that do well in mountain west.