This selection of the native wood aster is a prolific bloomer, carpeting the shade garden with light blue in early fall, when little else blooms and the hostas are in decline. A quick and easy pot crop for fall sales. Beautiful and long-lasting as a filler in autumn flower arrangements!

We have grown this select form anonymously for many years and have deemed it worthy of a name. It is shorter than the species and has deep dark shining mahogany stems. It came our way from Canyon Creek Nursery, via Roger Rache, then of the Berkley Botanic Gardens's Eastern US section. Originally collected from coastal Rhode Island.

Lustrous, deep green foliage is topped in August and September with rose pink, turtle-head-shaped flowers. Red stems persist most of the season. Bronze green early season growth is another distinctive feature.

A native groundcover, this plant is known for both its foliage and flowers with toothed, light green, triangular leaves and dark yellow, slightly notched, star shaped flowers that bloom well above the foliage and have contrasting brown stamens. The flowers bloom abundantly in the spring and fall, but tend to die down in the heat of the summer except in the cooler zones.

A North Creek original, this selection of C. pubescens var. pubescens blooms non-stop from mid-summer until October here, with saucer-like flowers over low, spreading, slightly fuzzy foliage. An easy, self-sowing plant when happy. Likes hot, bright, well-drained spots, but is not fussy at all. An easy native for sun or part shade.

We love this form of E. pulchellus which has large grey-green foliage and a mat-forming habit. It thrives in a wide range of conditions and forms a tight groundcover that is less than 6" tall. An easy to grow, carefree native perennial perfectly suited for moderate sunlight to full shade. 

A reliable zone 6 Gelsemium? This is it! It has flowered here in Landenberg for 10 years and the survival rate is 100%, with occasional dieback in the harshest winters. A profuse display of clear yellow trumpet flowers in early summer with semievergreen foliage. 'Margarita' is a superior seedling selected by Don Jacobs of Eco Gardens in Decatur, Georgia. With its much larger, more prominent flowers, it was superior in every way to common seedlings, so Jacobs named it for his wife. He had no idea that it would survive winters to minus 25 F as it has here in Pennsylvania. Gelsemium 'Margarita' is a Gold Medal Award winner from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. 

We are very excited to offer our own selection from the woods of Landenberg! Pale lavender-pink flowers over very attractive maroon-purple foliage. A bold new look for our native cranesbill, useful as a groundcover or shade garden feature plant. G. maculatum is found naturally in open woods, clearings, woods edges and roadsides throughout the Eastern US.

We are delighted to have introduced this magnificent series from Hellebore breeder David Culp! His 15 years of breeding using rare species and prized selections from collectors and specialty nurseries has produced a premium strain with clear colors and distinctive forms. This group promises plenty of doubles and anemones, as well as dark reds, spotted pinks, picotees, and apricots. A keen eye, hand pollination, and years of careful selection mean beautiful plants for you!

This is a seed propagated strain selected by Dale Hendricks that is really fantastic and excitingly variable. Unique silver-blue marbled foliage accented by white flowers on long panicles in the spring. Excellent drought tolerant ground cover. Foliage display is amazing!

A wonderful pot plant with long retail shelf life and rewarding garden and landscape performance. It loves heat and humidity and breezes through a drought like a champ. Single, one inch, pale blue, daisy-like flowers on a compact mound of green all summer. Resembles Felicia or Brachycomb - but it's hardy! Very popular in Europe and deserves much more recognition here. Many thanks to Ewald Hügen for introducing us to this gem!

Perhaps this should win the prize for easiest plant to grow. It loves heat and humidity and breezes through a drought like a champ. Single, one inch, white daisy-like flowers on a compact mound of green all summer. Very unusual and attractive. Great in the landscape and in containers. Essential for the butterfly gardener!

Wonderful in the perennial border and perfect for rain gardens, this cardinal flower is sure to stand out with its dramatic, dark chocolatey-purple foliage and bold red flowers. Superior to other dark-foliaged Lobelias on the market, 'Black Truffle' holds this deep color throughout the growing season. A magnet for hummingbirds and butterflies all summer, but deer tend to leave it alone. Introduced by Peter Heus and brought to market by Plants Nouveau.

Finally a production and landscape friendly native honeysuckle! 'Major Wheeler' is the best selection of Lonicera sempervirens we've grown and it stands out so far above the rest that we've dropped all other red cultivars. Clean foliage is the first benefit. Even in periods of drought or in overgrown production, we've never seen a speck of mildew on this one. But its real asset is FLOWER POWER! This selection is COVERED in red trumpet flowers in late spring and keeps churning them out all summer long, especially with a post-bloom trim. The hummingbirds will find it from miles around.

North Creek is proud to bring Panicum 'Cape Breeze' to the market. Fantastic foliage stays green until Halloween! From production to the landscape, this grass truly is a breeze. Selected for upright habit, compact size and early flowering. Its perfect, tidy stature combines the toughness of seaside Panicum with the neatness of garden worthy cultivars. Great texture and movement in the landscape!

Found by and named after Jeana Prewitt of Nashville, TN, this selection possesses outstanding mildew resistance with varying shades of sweetly scented, lavender-pink flowers, vibrant midsummer through early autumn. Foliage remains clean green while flower clusters create a tiered effect along upright, multi-stemmed branches. Expect a flurry of pollinator activity!

We've been enjoying this great native for many years in our garden, since it was given to us by the Mt. Cuba Center in 2001. 'Pink Profusion' has clear pink flowers that are held daintily above reddish leaves on deep red stems. The best part is the way the flowers shimmer in a light breeze, as though they will take flight at any moment.

From Beate Zillmer of Zillmer Pflanzen in Uchte, Germany. Imagine 'East Friesland' with violet blue flowers and glowing purple stems. Incomparable! Its tidy upright habit makes an excellent companion for Geranium, yellow Baptisia, and purple Heuchera.

A North Creek discovery sure to give a brilliant performance in the landscape, worthy of applause.  It keeps a tight, upright habit throughout the entire season and has stood strong even in the rich soils of our trial gardens. A warm season grass that does well in poor, dry soils.  Spikey bluish-green stems and leaves transition to a sizzling display of oranges, reds, yellows, and purplish-browns in the autumn.  Also provides winter interest before cutting back in early spring to make way for new growth.

Delightful, compact and easy to grow, Silene 'Short and Sweet' is an excellent choice for bright shade or full sun. It is covered in deep pink flowers in late spring. Very reliable for us through wet and dry seasons, and in a cool spring it seems to bloom forever—one year we tracked 8 weeks of full bloom! A great native substitute for Dianthus, this Silene has similar appearance and bloom time, but tolerates a wider variety of garden situations. Silene 'Short and Sweet' is a fantastic plant for naturalizing, yet it can hold its own as a specimen in a container or patio garden as well.

Bright blue star-shaped flowers with gold centers rise above fine, semi-evergreen, iris-like foliage from May to June. Excellent for edging, the 3/4" flowers are very good sized for the genus. We are very excited about this little gem. It will charm your customers for 8-10 weeks! Named by Robert Herman, who found it in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Delightful, golden-yellow flowers are borne in axillary clusters along reflexing stems from late summer into fall. Reliable, deep green, glossy foliage remains clean throughout the growing seasons. Not an aggressive runner, 'Solar Cascade' is a clump forming perennial reaching knee height, maxing out somewhere between the taller 'Fireworks' and more compact 'Golden Fleece'. Performs best in moist to average garden soil under full sun or partial shade; extremely drought tolerant once established. This great garden plant is easy to propagate and proved to be a standout in The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden perennial trials. Plant en masse for a dramatic effect or incorporate into seasonal arrangements.

A vigorous running groundcover with red speckled, deeply dissected heart shaped foliage, Tiarella 'Running Tapestry' produces a plethora of white flower spikes in spring. Discovered by Jim Plyler of Natural Landscapes Nursery, West Grove, PA, the irrepressible grower of native trees and shrubs. A Cornell University All Star Groundcover!

This selection of the Arkansas native comes to us from Dr. Allan Armitage's trials at the University of Georgia. It has lovely fine foliage like Amsonia hubrichtii and is a compact, well-branched and vigorous plant. In late summer it is covered with true purple flowers that attract plenty of butterflies. Found in rocky flood plains, Vernonia lettermannii is very tolerant of hot, dry locations, yet can withstand brief periods of inundation.

From the gardens of Mt. Cuba Center, North Creek is delighted to introduce this tough native groundcover. Easily identified by trailing stems and delicate lavender flowers, 'Silver Gem' forms a dense, tidy mat of attractive silver foliage. Flowers appear in March and persist into autumn. Our plant trials have proven 'Silver Gem' to be exceptionally drought tolerant and happiest in part to full shade. Pot in quarts or gallons for early spring sales.