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This beautiful perennial is native to southern Canada from Manitoba to Newfoundland & Labrador and then south to northern Georgia and west to Illinois, Kentucky, & Tennessee, also to Alaska & the Pacific Northwest of WA, OR, & ID. It is usually found in peaty, boggy, or swampy soils or in other draining wet or constantly moist soils with a pH from 5.0 to 7.5. It likes full sunshine but can tolerate some part-shade. Most of the leaves are near the bottom of the stalks being alternate and pinnately compound with 7 to 15 sharply toothed leaflets. Its fuzzy cylindrical spikes are 2 to 8 inches long and bloom from June to October, depending on its latitude. The white flowers are small and don't really have petals but are of 4 calyx lobes with 4 long stamens and a pistil, giving the fuzzy appearance. It can be grown in regular gardens or in bog gardens. It is sold by some native plant nurseries or online with Amazon and Etzy and maybe a few others.

I have heard of this species but had never seen one until August of 2026 when I visited the city of Erie, Pennsylvania and came upon a very small arboretum in a larger city park. There is supposed to be one in Morton Arboretum in northeast Illinois and a few in the Arnold Arboretum in Boston. It is rare in the USA and found only at some botanical collections. It is native to southern China & Japan. Its species scientific name was named after Johann Maximowicz, who discovered it for western botany in Nikko, Japan in 1860.It is one of several Asiatic maple species that has trifoliate leaves that are about 2 to 5 inches long. It develops a good yellow to orange to red fall color. Its bark is smooth and brownish gray. It bears tiny yellow flowers on drooping clusters in spring. Its fruit is a thick, densely pubescent samara about 1 to 2 inches long. It is hard to propagate because, like Lacebark Maple, the seeds are often missing from the fruit and germination is a two-year process. It is rare to infrequent in its native habitat.

So far, I have never seen a Japanese Hophornbeam that is mostly native to Japan but is also found native to a little of Korea and north-central China. It is very similar to the American Hophornbeam. The Japanese species' foliage is downier than the American's and has 9 to 12 vein pairs instead of 12 to 15 of the latter. The Japanese species has its fruit clusters a little shorter. There is not a lot of information in the US about this species, a few arboretums have some as the Arnold, and I don't know of any American nurseries growing any. I don't think it would be worth it since the American native species is better in America.

I've seen the European Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) as the columnar cultivar planted around occasionally by landscape architects. This is the first time that I have ever seen the European Hophornbeam; five maturing trees planted on a hill next to a church school playground in southeast PA. They are pretty trees. The dark, glossy leaves are mostly about 5 inches long by 1.5 inches wide with these specimens. The leaves have 15 to 20 vein pairs while the American species has 12 to 15 while the Japanese species has 9 to 12. The twigs and leaves were not hairy while the American species has some fuzzy hairiness while the Japanese is the downiest. The bark on these trees was not showing strong scaliness and exfoliating strips like the other two species. They should get a good yellow fall color. Oftentimes, the fruit clusters of the European species are shorter, but this group has longer ones.

This Whitehead Sedge or Fragrant Spikesedge is native to the southern USA as far north as northeast North Carolina and over to northeast Arkansas, then Central America, South America, tropical Africa, southern Asia, Australia, and Oceania. It has triangular stems and grass-like leaves. It bears a solitary egg-shaped flower spike that begins as creamy white and matures to soft tan, blooming July into September in the USA. It spreads by rhizomes, underground stems, and its root system has a spicy scent when crushed. While it is not poisonous, it is unpalatable to humans and pets because it contains a high content of silica. It looks pretty, sort of like a grassy clover. There is not a lot of information about this species online. I have never seen it.

This pretty and small annual forb is usually considered as a weed by most homeowners, but it looks nice and I am leaving my little group in place that popped up behind my three Little Bluestem grass clumps along my basement west wall. It is native to southeast Canada down to South Carolina and northern Georgia over to eastern Oklahoma and up along far eastern Kansas & Nebraska to northeast Minnesota. It has soft hairy stems and leaves and the leaves are toothed. It has the typical Lobelia tubed flower with lips and is usually pale lavender, blooming July into October. It is called Indian Tobacco, though not in that family, because native people would chew or smoke the leaves. The plant is toxic to mammals for any eating. If someone really knows what they are doing, it can have some medicinal use. Prairie Moon Nursery in Winona, MN, a native plant nursery, does sell the seed and there are a few other sources.

This perennial forb of the Mint Family usually grows in part-shade of woodland edges or on stream banks. It is native to eastern Canada and to the eastern & central US. Usually, an erect and unbranched plant with square stems and opposite leaves. The mint-like flowers are whorled around the upper stems and have an upper lip as a protective hood and the lower lip as three lobes with the middle lobe being the largest. The flowers are light pink to white and may have some splotches of rosy within the throat, and bloom for 1 to 2 months in June to August. The flowers are replaced by 4 black, oblong nutlets for seeds. The root system is fibrous but also has a taproot and produces rhizomes to spread the plant by ground suckers. The leaves and stems are soft hairy and are not aromatic. This is a nice-looking wildflower that popped up in my far backyard under where I planted a Virginia Pine and in front of a Fragrant Sumac shrub. Some native plant nurseries sell this perennial that formerly was named Stachys tenuifolia hispida and can still be called the Hairy Hedge-Nettle. There is a very similar species of Stachys tenuifolia, the Smooth Hedge-Nettle, that mainly differs in being mostly smooth with very little hair.

This new cultivar of Petunia displays a good quality of yellow color that holds all season and has a good trailing form. listed as growing about 8 to 10 inches high and spreads about 1.5 to 2 feet wide.

This sedge species is native to southern Europe, western Asia, and far north Africa. Sadly, it can be invasive in North America. It is a pretty sedge species that makes a handsome mass or groundcover. It can grow in constant water if the water level is no more than 1 to 2 inches. I highly recommend it being used as an ornamental grass-like plant in its native regions of Eurasia.

The Morrow Honeysuckle comes from Japan and in 1852 it was added to a plant collection by a Dr. James Morrow. It was used for some decades as a new ornamental shrub from east Asia. I don't know of it being used anymore. The Asian Honeysuckles are not really handsome and get straggly when old. It has become an invasive exotic plant by escaping cultivation by birds eating the berries in the eastern and some of the Midwestern US, though it tends to be more common towards the east. It is very similar to the Tartarian Honeysuckle that is much more common in the Midwest. Morrow always has creamy white flowers, the leaves are soft pubescent below, the stems are hollow, and the shrub is normally about 5 to 8 feet high and 6 to 10 feet wide with branching to the ground.

In very early May I bought two potted plants of this cultivar of Swiss Chard at the famous Home Depot. I was sad that they did not have smaller starts in packs, and the closest conventional greenhouse did not have any Swiss Chard at all. However, the two plants took well in a big pot and are pretty to look at and some harvesting of leaves came in about 2 weeks. This series of chard is noted as having a good mild spinach flavor with no bitterness. This series has a mix of cultivars with stems of red, yellow, orange, pinkish purple, white, and light green with leaves that are dark green or can be red-purple when stems are red or pinkish purple. One can create a nice, little garden of ornamental vegetables to gaze upon or eat with any of these series of colorful chard, flowering kale or cabbage, Bell Peppers of various colors, egg plants of white or purple fruit, colorful lettuce, and some others.

There are several species of Wood-Sorrel with the tiny 5 petal flowers that are so similar. This species is shorter and it does creep on the ground, spreading by stolons, that are slender, prostrate stems with rootlets. This is the wood-sorrel weed that I find hard to pull up from the garden ground and often must dig out some because of all the creeping stems. It also can grow in lawn. I often find some plants showing some purple color. This species began in East Asia and has naturalized in eastern North America.

I am glad that Oxalis stricta and O. europaea have been combined as one species, as formerly they were so hard to tell apart. There is some disagreement as to this is native to North America or to Eurasia or to both. My "A Field Guide to Wildflowers by Peterson & McKenny of 1968 does not list the former two species as being "alien" like O. corniculata. The plants can range from 6 inches to 24 inches high. I find this abundantly common plant found everywhere to be often a weed of waste places, meadows, forest borders, and gardens, but it can be a nice little ornamental in some spot. It and some other Woodsorrels can be used to spice up some salads and dishes for a tangy taste, but a lot should not be eaten as it will become somewhat toxic.

Until today, I did not know that several cultivars of the Culver's-Root were developed that bear flowers with pinkish to purple color rather than just white. This cultivar is definitely more compact, does not need staking, and does have purple flowers.

Until today, I did not realize that a number of cultivars were developed from this naturalistic native species with white flowers that have flowers with a range of pinkish to purple flowers and are more compact plants. This cultivar has purplish-pink flowers and seems to be more compact than the mother species.

Back when I attended the University of Illinois in the 1970's, the campus was planted with very large numbers of Oriental Crabapples of several cultivars. This was one of the prominent selections. I believe it was one of the ones that smelled so good, emitting lots of sweet fragrance. It has shown good resistance to scab and cedar rust diseases. It blooms heavily annually. The dark red little crabapples are not very ornamental. Some of the leaves have two shallow lobes and maybe a third smaller one. There are so many new cultivars introduced since that time that it is hard to discern the exact cultivar. I can't say that I have seen this tree around anymore.

This cool season grass is native to Eurasia and far northern Africa. It is a short-lived perennial that forms a dense clump, and it keeps going by self-sowing. Its soft, flat leaves are very aromatic with a hay & vanilla scent. It is used for lawns, dried flower arrangements, pot pourri, and basket making. It has become naturalized in North America in various areas, especially in the Pacific Northwest. I have not seen it to recognized it.

This is a polypoid strain that has been propagated and sold from Ozark Native Ecotypes Plant Nursery in Arkansas. It is noted as growing 3 to 5 times faster than the straight species. When it is harvested for aromatic dried foliage, it can be cut two feet down for 3 to 5 times a year instead of just 1 to 2 times a year for the mother species. It grows higher than the straight species up to 3 or 4 feet.

This is just one species of at least several other Chinese and east Asian small maple species that can get striped or sort of striped bark. This species has 5 varieties or subspecies listed that are not always easy to tell apart. Young bark here begins as smooth green and goes to gray-green with some pale stripes and later to brown bark. Its leaves are usually 3-lobed but can be 5-lobed and get a good yellow to orange to red fall color. It needs a protected location from strong sunshine and winds. It is similar to our Striped Maple (Acer pensylvanicum) of southeast Canada & Maine down the Appalachians. Some arboretums in Europe and the USA have some and it is offered by a few rare plant nurseries. I prefer using native species.

This Forrest's Snakebark Maple is native to Nepal and nearby. It is noted that its bark on young stems and branches is red, that later becomes medium olive with some pale or whitish stripes when mature. It bears its small brownish-green flowers in long racemes that look sort of like catkins. Its small, winged seeds are reddish. Like the all the other varieties of the species, it needs a protected location out of strong winds and strong sunlight, which is like our similar Striped Maple of eastern North America that is similar. I've never seen this variety or the species. It is grown in some arboretums in Europe and the USA. A few rare plant nurseries offer some.