Woody Ornamentals - Heirloom Garden Plants

Abeliophyllum distichum  White forsythia, Korean Abelea-leaf   Z 5 w/ protection from wind -8
Showy white blooms along stems in very early spring, almond fragrance.  Looks just like a white forsythia.

Size: 3-5’ x 3-4’ 
Care:  full sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil.  Prune right after flowering, one-third of the oldest branches annually. 
Native:  central Korea, where it is nearly extinct.  This is the sole species in this genus.

1^st collected by Japanese botanist Takenoshin Nakai (1882-1952) before 1919.    Nakai, professor, author, scholar and official botanist for Korea in 1910 after Japan annexed Korea following the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars. There he explored the botanically unknown mountains and forests and introduced its plants to the world through his international contacts and his authorship of Flora Koreana.  Abeliophyllum means leaves like an Abelia, a different shrub.  In America’s Arnold Arboreteum by 1924.  Recipient, Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.

Aesculus pavia  Red buckeye   Z 5-8
Spectacular raspberry red colored upright panicles in spring

Size:  15’ x 10’  
Care:  sun to part shade in moist well drained soil- understory tree.    
Native:  eastern US
Wildlife value: attracts butterflies & feeds hummingbirds

Aesculus is a Latin name for a nut bearing tree.  Pavia comes from Peter Pav, a Dutch professor at University of Leyden.  This plant collected by John Bartram and sent to England by 1711. Jefferson grew this at Monticello, planted in 1798.  Nuts from the tree were used by Native Americans to stupefy fish.  Chickasaws pulverized the root, placed it in baskets and violently churned the baskets in the river to poison fish.  Cherokee Indians carried the nuts in their pockets for good luck, as well as for curing piles and rheumatism.  Pounded nuts also cured swelling, sprains, tumors and infections.  Received England’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit & Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Gold Medal Plant Award.  Ships only in spring.

Aesculus x carnea  Red buckeye  Z 5-8
Spectacular raspberry colored upright panicles in spring.  The trees you receive are 2 years old. 

Size:  15’ x 10’  
Care:  sun to part shade in moist well-drained soil- understory tree.    
Native:  eastern US
Wildlife value: attracts butterflies

Cross between Aesculus pavia and A. hippocastanum, believed to have occurred by nature in a German garden before 1820.  Aesculus is a Latin name for a nut bearing tree.  Pavia comes from Peter Pav, a Dutch professor at University of Leyden. 

See Heirloom Plant Specials - 3 plants for only $32.95 for savings of $11.90 

Buddleja davidii Butterfly bush SHRUB  Z 5-9 
Very fragrant, large, lilac to purple arching spikes from summer through fall.  Monarch magnet.

Size: 6' x 5'
Care: Sun in well-drained soil.  Cut it back near the ground in spring. Drought tolerant.
Native: China
Wildlife value: attracts butterflies

First discovered by Pére Armand David, French missionary to China who risked his life in the search for plants during 3 expeditions to China from 1866 - 1872. Ernest Henry "Chinese" Wilson found and introduced several cultivars around 1900 popularizing the shrub.

Buddleja davidii Butterfly bush SHRUB  Z 5-9 
Very fragrant, large, lilac to purple arching spikes from summer through fall.  Monarch magnet.

Size: 6' x 5'
Care: Sun in well-drained soil.  Cut it back near the ground in spring. Drought tolerant.
Native: China
Wildlife value: attracts butterflies

First discovered by Pére Armand David, French missionary to China who risked his life in the search for plants during 3 expeditions to China from 1866 - 1872. Ernest Henry "Chinese" Wilson found and introduced several cultivars around 1900 popularizing the shrub.

Callicarpa dichtoma   Beautyberry  Z 5-8
Tiny pale pink flowers in late summer turn to glossy, royal purple berries in fall.  Grow this for the berries. Ships only in April.

Size:  4' x 4'      
Care: Full sun to light shade in moist well-drained to well-drained soil. Prune back in early spring nearly to ground.    
Native:  China and Japan

Collected for gardens before 1800. Recipient Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Gold Medal Plant Award.

Calycanthus floridus  Carolina allspice, Spicebush, Sweet betties      Z 5-9
Fragrant claret flowers in spring through summer with glossy foliage
SHIPS IN APRIL ONLY

Size:  6-8’  x 4’  
Care:  Sun to part shade in rich moist to moist well-drained soil     
Native:  Penn to FL west to IL

Cherokee used Spicebush, medicinally to remedy sores on children, and bladder ailments, for hives, as an emetic and to improve poor eyesight.  They also poisoned wolves with the seed and concocted a perfume.  1^st collected in 1726 then introduced by Mark Catesby who illustrated it in 1730.   Offered for sale in Bartram Garden’s 1783 Broadside, America’s 1^st plant catalog.   Grown by Jefferson.  Crushed leaves give off the fragrance of strawberries with a hint of apple.  The bark smells like cinnamon and was used as a cinnamon substitute.  A favorite in antebellum gardens in the SE.   Mary Lacey Tandy reports that she loved Carolina allspice from the time when she grew up in Kentucky, “they used to pinch off a few flowers, crush them and put into a hanky which they pinned to their dresses for the smell.”  Pressed specimen in Emily Dickinson’s herbarium.

Cephalanthus occidentalis  Button bush, Honey balls     Z 4-10  
 Perfectly round, white flowers perfume the air in Aug. & Sept.  Red leaf stems contrast with green foliage.  Ships only in spring.

Size: 6' x 8'   
Care:  Full sun to part shade in wet to moist well-drained soil   
Native:  New Brunswick S. to Fla. W. to CA.
Wildlife value: Important shrub to maintain water quality and for wildlife habitat.  Its roots absorb nutrients in water and reduce erosion along water's edges.  Flowers attract butterflies.  Birds nest in branches.

Many medicinal uses for several tribes - Chickasaw, Choctaw, Kiowa, Meskwaki and Seminole, believed to remedy sore eyes, toothaches, dysentery, hemorrhages, headaches, nausea, fevers, constipation, ailments in horses and "wolf ghost sickness." Rand 1866: "Valuable for blooming at a season when the shrubbery is bare of flowers." Offered for sale in Bartram Garden's 1783 Broadside, America's 1^st plant catalog.  

Chaenomeles japonica Flowering quince   Z 5-8 
Eye-popping real red, tinted orange, flowers in spring. Ships only in April

Size: 4-6'  X 4-10'  
Care: sun to part shade in  moist to moist well-drained soil. Prune after flowering in late spring.       
Native:  Japan
Wildlife value: Red-spotted purple butterfly nectar source

Gertrude Jekyll, mother of mixed border, planted this at Bowerbank, Wimbeldon, London for its bright spring flowers and at Hawkley Hurst, Hampshire for its yellow-green foliage.  Collected by von Thunberg who spent 15 months in Japan 1775-1776.  Pressed specimen in Emily Dickinson's herbarium.

Clematis heracleifolia     Z 3-8
Tubular sky blue flowers with recurved petals (flips up at the ends) in August & September decorate this woody shrub

Size:  30" x 3'      
Care:  sun in moist well-drained soil    
Native:  China

Collected by French missionary Armand David before 1841.  "A sub-shrubby kind from China, bearing large quantities of tubular blue flowers in July and August. "  H.H. Thomas 1915

Clematis stans    Japanese clematis   Z 4-8
Fragrant, smelling of sweet violets, soulful blue starry nodding bells with petals that flip up at the ends (recurved) Blooms August - September. 

Size: 30" x 24"   
Care: sun to part shade 
Native: Japan

Stans means "upright" as this is a bush, rather than a vine.  In Japan called "Kusa-botan." Collected by Ernest Henry ‘Chinese' Wilson before 1910. 

Cotoneaster multiflorus  Showy cotoneaster,  in China shui xun zi. Z 4-8
Big specimen fountain-shaped shrub with arching stems covered with small leaves, in spring large white  flowers and in fall yellow leaves set off spectacular red fruit persisting into winter. Great screen plant.  Ships only in April.

Size: 10’ x 10’ 
Care: sun to part shade in well-drained to moist well-drained soil  
Native: Western China.

Collected for gardens by 1830.    

Diervilla lonicera  Northern bush honeysuckle  Z 3-7
Lemon yellow flowers on this short shrub from June to August.   In fall its foliage turns dark red for the final fireworks’ display.  Great shrub for tough, dry shady areas.  Ships only in April. 

Size:  3’ x 3’ spreading           
Care: sun to part shade in well-drained soil.  Drought tolerant & deer resistant              
Native: Eastern half of US & Canada, Wisconsin native. 
Wildlife values: important nectar source for Bumblebees. Birds make nests from the branches and eat the fruits.

Used medicinally by numerous Native Americans – Algonquin, Chippewa, Cree, Iroquois, Menominee, Meskwaki, Ojibwa and Potawatomi.  Used as remedy for sore eyes, diuretic, “old men who cannot retain urine,” constipation, stomach pain, increase breast milk, to “spoiled babies with adulterous mother,” STDs, and vertigo. Native American Ethnobotany.  Botanist to France’s king, Tournefort named this to honor Dr. N. Dierville, a surgeon, who carried this from Acadia (Canada) to France in 1699.

Lavandula angustifolia      Lavender           Z 5-9
The best fragrance - in both flowers & foliage.   Lavender spikes in June on this short shrub and rebloom in late summer.

Size:   24" x 4'       
Care:  Sun, well-drained soil.  Well-drained soil essential.  Drought tolerant.
Native:  Western Mediterranean
Wildlife value: attracts butterflies

Name is from Latin lavare meaning "to wash" because Romans scented their baths with lavender. Ancient Phoenicians used lavender to make perfume. Charlemagne's list of cultivated plants in his empire included lavender, c. 800 A.D. Cultivated in Islamic gardens by 1050. Elizabeth I ate lavender conserve, made by adding sugar to the flowers while Charles VI of France stuffed pillows with lavender and sat on them. Culpepper wrote that lavender was grown in almost every garden and cured headaches, apoplexy, dropsy, fainting, toothaches, and "passions of the heart."

Leptodermis oblonga  Dwarf lilac   Z 5-8
Low mounding shrub with fragrant lavender, lilac-like trumpets blooming in June – October.  Leaves slow to leaf-out in spring but then blooms its heart out.    Ships only in April.

Size: 12-18” x 18-24” spreads by suckers 
Care: sun to part shade in moist well-drained to well-drained soil
Native: No. & W. China & Himalayas.        
Wildlife value: Attracts hummingbirds

Leptodermis means “thin skin” and oblonga refers to the oblong leaves.
Introduced by E.H. Wilson in 1905.

Mahonia aquifolium  Oregon grape      Z 5-9
Showy butter yellow flowers in early spring followed by pretty blue fruit with red pedicels. Holly-like, evergreen leaves turn purple-red in fall for a four season ornament.

Size:  5’ x 3’         
Care: Moist  to moist well-drained soil, sun to part shade. Give it a sheltered spot in Z 5.
Native:   Pacific Northwest

Mahonia is named in honor of Bernard McMahon, Scottish nurseryman who immigrated to Philadelphia around 1800 and befriended Thomas Jefferson.  In 1818 Thomas Nuttall extolled McMahon “whose ardent attachment to Botany, and successful introduction of useful and ornamental horticulture into the United States, lays claim to public esteem.”  McMahon’s nursery received plants from Lewis & Clark who collected this plant in April 1806 along the rapids of the Columbia River.  The Snohomish ate the berries and made a yellow dye from the roots.  It cured bloodshot eyes and kidney disease for the Okanagan-Colville.  California’s Karok Indians boiled the root and drank the liquid to cure numerous ailments. Steamed roots and leaves believed to remedy yellow fever. 

Mahonia repens  Dwarf mahonia, Oregon grape holly  Z 4-8  
Acid yellow flowers in spring then purple fruit, holly-like leaves on this short "evergreen" shrub.  Foliage tinged red in spring and fall.

Size:  12" x  3'   
Care: part shade in moist well-drained soil  
Native: British Columbia to Alberta, No. California East to PA     

Named for Bernard McMahon, Scottish plantsman who immigrated to Philadelphia.  The berries were a food source for the Cheyenne, Blackfoot, Flathead and Montana Indians.  The root created a yellow dye for the Montana and the Karok.   Medicinally the Blackfoot cured stomachaches, healed wounds, hemorrhages, coughs and boils for people and sores on their horses. Navajo healed scorpion bites and relieved constipation.  Flathead Indians used it for birth control and to cure sexually transmitted diseases.  North Paiute made a drink from the boiled roots.  The Hopi used the leaves & root in their Home Dance.   Elizabeth Carey Miller Botanical Garden Great Plant Pick.

Myrica pensylvanica    Wax myrtle, Northern bayberry  DIOICUS  Z. 3-6
Green flowers in summer then, "conspicuous in winter when covered with its grayish white fruits which stay on the branches until spring."  Bailey (1933)  Shiny, fragrant foliage. 

Size:  9' x 10'   
Care:  Full sun in moist to moist well-drained soil  
Native:  Canada to SE U.S.
 
Berries were used to make candles -  boil berries (drupes) to melt wax coating.  Collect wax from surface of water.  Probably 1^st collected by John Bartram and offered for sale in Bartram Garden's 1783 Broadside, America's 1^st plant catalog.  In 1800's considered "very ornamental in the shrubbery."  

Ribes aureum  syn. Ribes odoratum   Clove currant, Golden currant    Z 3-8
Early to mid spring yellow flowers smother the shrub, giving off the most sweet, clove-scented fragrance - heavenly.  Ships only in spring.
 
Size: 6' x  6'       
Care:  full sun in moist well-drained to well-drained soil.  Immune to Walnut toxins.
Native: west-central US
Wildlife value: attracts hummingbirds and butterflies.

Found by Meriwether Lewis in 2 locations -"near the narrows of the Columbia." April 16, 1806, now Klickitat County, Washington, and on July 29, 1805 in Montana.  Many different tribes ate the berries - Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Klamath, Montana, Paiute & Ute.  Others, Shoshone and Paiute, used the shrub's inner bark to heal sores and swellings.  English plantsman Wm. Robinson declared that it "deserves to be more commonly grown." (1933)

Rubus odoratus   Flowering raspberry        Z 2-8
Purple-pink saucer shaped flowers from June to October.  Rarely seen shrub.

Size:  7-8'  x  8'  
Care:  full sun to part shade in moist well-drained to well-drained soil. Drought tolerant.  Immune to Walnut toxins.
Native:  Eastern North America

For sale in an English catalog in 1730. William Robinson praised the flowering raspberry as bearing  "large clusters of rich purple flowers. Bearing scented leaves, the leaves and not the flowers being fragrant." Grown in American gardens since 1700's.