Great hike outside of Cedar City, UT while vacationing with a bunch of family. OH the delight of the west -wide skies and red rocks. I love how all the plants seem new and yet we already know so many of them. Really the Rhus was a delight. I’ve only ever seen it as the cultivar ‘Grow Low’. Being so in love with plant taxonomy makes sure you will feel at home wherever you go.

We delight in the wide open, fully fulfilled color of a flower. I also love the bud not yet broken. The blossom half unfurled. Fighting the urge to call them awkward in their becoming because I often can relate. The feeling of striving towards a goal, not quite there, the subtle adjustments to get it right. Never quite getting to full blossom it feels. This post is for all the dogged gardeners and landscapers out there, exhausted from spring, our collective exhale with the equinox and already planning all the fall planted bulbs.

4 years after planting I’m finally getting blooms on this cephalanthus. Perfect little space ship of a flower. Host plant for some cool moth species and I found out food source for water foul who eat the seeds. #nativeplantsofnorthamerica #nativeplantsofnorthcarolina

Support your local nurseries! Help botanical Treasures at https://www.gofundme.com/f/rebuild-botanical-treasures-nursery-after-hurricane-helene #shoplocalnc #smallbusiness #community #wnc #wncmountains #828isgreat

I love tiny flowers. Looking for the smallest thing in the forest. I am the worst hiking partner, always steps behind to eke out the blue of a Bluet. Of course the big, beefy inflorescence of Sambucus canadensis enraptures me every year. When a plant makes a flower out of a bunch of small flowers it’s the best. You can see the pendulous canes of an Elderberry driving down the highway and every time I see one I think about all the perfect, tiny individual parts that make the show happen. Edible, medicinal, native plant host and habitat for insects and wildlife. Sambucus has a sprawling presence to be sure, but if you have the space they are a delight in the garden. #nativeplantgarden #nativeplantsofnorthamerica #nativeplantconservation #plantnativeplants #pollinatorgarden #wnc #wncmountains #828isgreat #asheville

Yesterday was a really hard day, as we visited a new client whose garden was completely infested with Fish Mint. Overwhelmed and exhausted, the clients had been running their riding mower through the garden beds to keep the plant at bay, which I thought was a great approach to this plant. Interesting to think about the way invasive plants leave us with no options and destroy the possibility of a garden for other plants. #invasiveplants #invasiveplantmanagement #plantnativeplants #wnc #wncmountains

What a whimsical plant and a host for tons of different Lepidoptera larvae. If you have the space try this one out! Even if you don’t have the space, I’ve kept them in smaller areas with regular pruning. It has a really different form in sun than in shade. In the woods you’ll see its blousy arms weaving their way through the trees and when the buds open up they are covered with insects of all kinds. #nativeplantsofnorthamerica #nativeplants #nativeplantsofnorthcarolina #wnc #wncmountains #828isgreat #asheville

Echinacea purpurea @chemistspirits is full on!This cultivar maybe Merlot or Magnus has been seeding into their landscape for the last 5 years. Used medicinally for its immune boosting properties. I remember my mom telling me to eat the petals as a kid. Is the medicine really in the pedals? I don’t know. It’s such a common plant in the landscape trade and yet I’m delighted by it every year. #chemistspirits #southslopeasheville #friday #wnc #wncmountains #wncdistilleries #wncbrewing

The last Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) blooms of the season. They are the sweetest little spaceship flowers and foliage hosts the Laurel Sphinx Moth (Sphinx kalmiae). For me the names of nature are as much a delight as encountering the plants, animals and insects themselves. The way we named the moth after its coevolution with the plant makes me imagine all the enthusiastic botanizers of years past watching the moth larvae. In our area, there is a deep history of local plant nomenclature. When I moved from NY I found people here called plants by names I’d never heard. After 12 years in WNC I heard for the first time someone call Mountains Laurel ‘Ivy’. What a trick. Like the English Ivy, with who I have such a tempestuous relationship? Not my elegant and rolling Kalmia. But yes. Mountain Laurel I now see is the reason for the ‘Big Ivy Trail Head’ and ‘Forks of Ivy’ exit north of Asheville. Also called Spoonwood, Sheepkill and Calico Bush. The name is both an identifier and it tells us a story about the plant. #nativeplantsofnorthamerica #habitatgardening #asheville #wncmountains

Second in the ‘Invasive plants you might find at garden centers’ series. Nandina domestica. Native to East Asia, this plant was brought to the US for ornamental purposes. Colorful, evergreen foliage and prolific berries. Spreads aggressively by rhizomes and chokes out native plants. Still widely used in the landscape trade and requested by clients. A lot of folks I talk to don’t know it’s invasive or that the berries are toxic to birds. The variety, Gulfstream, pictured here is cultivated for its sterility, claiming its does not produce berries. This is such a tough call! For gardeners and landscapers (me included) the temptation is to do what makes clients happy and sometimes just saying yes and using the sterile cultivar. But the last couple weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about how we understand something to be beautiful. By using sterile invasives are we promoting the idea that these plants are the only beautiful option? That there is no stand in for Nandina domestica? I don’t feel that way. Hypericum ‘Sunburst’ amazing native with smievergreen fall and winter red/purple hues. Diervilla sessifolia, yellow flowers and fall color. Ilex verticillata great for pollinators and red berries all winter. These plants are gorgeous, but are also beautiful because they create food for insects and birds. Double beauty! Reaching for native plants isn’t always the easy option but opens us up to see our landscapes and relationship to our gardens in a new light. #invasiveplants #garden #ashevillegarden #ashevilleplantpeople #plantnative #wnc #wncmountains #pollinatorgarden #birdhabitat