The letter Y gives gardeners a wonderfully eclectic mix of plants. Sculptural yuccas, clouds of yarrow, the shade-loving yellow archangel, the color-shifting yesterday-today-and-tomorrow shrub, stately yews, and a parade of yellow-flowered beauties — plants that start with Y range from tropical showstoppers to hardy natives you can grow almost anywhere. Whether you are building an…
Few small trees deliver as much drama per square foot as the weeping eastern redbud. In early spring, before a single leaf appears, its cascading branches erupt in clusters of rosy-magenta, pea-shaped flowers — blooming directly on the bare wood and even on the trunk itself. Then come the heart-shaped leaves in deep maroon-purple, unfurling…
The letter W is a quiet workhorse in the plant world. It gives us the most beloved trailing houseplants on earth — the wandering jew, the weeping fig, watermelon peperomia — plus the romance of wisteria, the shade of the weeping willow, and some of the toughest groundcovers and winter-interest shrubs a garden can grow….
You have a mystery purple flower blooming in your garden — or maybe in a neighbor’s border, on a nursery bench, or along a trail — and you want its name. Purple is one of the most common flower colors in the perennial world, which is exactly why it is so hard to pin down:…
Purple is the color garden designers reach for when they want depth, calm, and a little drama. It sits at the cool end of the spectrum, which means a bed of purple perennial flowers makes a small garden feel larger, and it flatters almost every color you plant beside it — silver foliage, hot pinks,…
Looking for plants that start with V? It is one of the most generous letters in the gardening alphabet: the Venus flytrap snapping shut on insects, tall verbena feeding clouds of butterflies, violets carpeting spring lawns, Virginia creeper setting walls ablaze in fall, valerian perfuming the evening air, and the vanilla orchid — the plant…
Looking for plants that start with L? The letter L might be the most fragrant letter in the plant world: lavender perfuming summer borders, lilac scenting spring air, lemon balm and lemongrass filling the herb garden, and lilies commanding attention wherever they bloom. Add the lucky bamboo thriving in a vase of water, the lemon…
The letter G gives gardeners some of the most beloved plants on earth. Fragrant gardenias, towering gladiolus spikes, the indestructible golden pothos trailing from a shelf, homegrown ginger and garlic, stately ginkgo trees — plants that start with G span every corner of the garden, from the windowsill to the orchard. Whether you are hunting…
Looking for plants that start with U? Few letters are as scarce in the plant world as U, but the ones it does claim are remarkably varied: the umbrella plant shading living rooms everywhere, the urn plant (silver vase bromeliad) with its pink flower spike, the slow-growing umbrella pine that outlives its gardeners, uva ursi…
A blazing-hot border is one of the hardest places in a garden to keep colorful — yet it is exactly where the toughest, most floriferous perennials do their best work. The plants on this list do not merely tolerate six or more hours of direct sun: they demand it. Give them a south-facing bed, decent…
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