If you have ever stood beneath a towering tulip poplar in full bloom, you already understand the appeal. The sheer height, the distinctive leaves, the golden-orange flowers — it is a tree that commands attention. But like any large landscape tree, the tulip poplar comes with real trade-offs that you should weigh carefully. The Pros…
There are plants you grow because you have to, and then there are plants you grow because you simply cannot imagine your garden without them. The Shoal Creek Vitex tree (Vitex agnus-castus ‘Shoal Creek’) falls firmly in the second category. I have watched this tree stop visitors dead in their tracks — that long, cascading…
Pick up an acorn from the ground and hold it in your palm. It is small — sometimes no bigger than a grape. It is hard, smooth, and capped with a textured little hat that fits just right. Now consider this: that tiny object is capable of growing into a tree that will live for…
The longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) and the loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) are arguably the two most culturally and ecologically significant conifers in the southeastern United States. Yet most people treat them as interchangeable. They are not. One built the South. The other is rebuilding it — though in very different ways. This guide will walk…
If you have ever walked through a Sierra Nevada forest and looked up to see a towering pine with impossibly long cones hanging from its highest branches like ornaments, you were almost certainly standing beneath a sugar pine. The sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana) is the tallest and largest pine tree species in the world. It…
If you have ever driven through the American South, you have seen loblolly pine. It lines highways, fills plantation forests, and edges small towns from Virginia to east Texas. It is, in many ways, the tree that built the modern American timber economy. The loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) is the most commercially important tree in…
When people think of willows, the graceful, drooping weeping willow often comes to mind first. But the black willow (Salix nigra) is the true workhorse of North American wetlands — and arguably the more important tree. It is the largest native willow species on the continent, and it has been doing critical ecological work long…
There are very few plants on earth that stop you in your tracks the moment you see them. The Joshua tree is one of them. With its twisted, outstretched arms and shaggy silhouette set against a blazing desert sky, Yucca brevifolia is unlike anything else in the plant kingdom. It is ancient, resilient, and —…
Few trees deliver as much visual reward across all seasons as crabapples. In early spring, they explode into bloom with fragrant flowers ranging from pure white to deep rose-red. In summer, their dense canopies provide structure and, beautiful foliage in shades of burgundy, bronze, or deep green. As autumn arrives, the branches become laden with…
The Rising Sun Redbud is a cultivated variety (cultivar) of the Eastern Redbud, Cercis canadensis, a species native to eastern North America. The species itself has long been valued for its spectacular spring blooms and heart-shaped leaves. ‘Rising Sun’ is a trademarked selection developed and introduced by Kordes Nurseries. It quickly gained recognition for a…