English Lavender has fragrant, gray-green foliage. Its lavender-blue to dark purple flowers bloom in the summer on long stems; they make excellent cut or dried flowers. Flowers and foliage are used to scent sachets and potpourris, and as a culinary herb. Use English Lavender in beds, borders, herb gardens, or rock gardens.
Lantana is a tough, long-blooming plant, which thrives in summer heat. Round clusters of multi-colored flowers bloom non-stop from July to frost. Lantana tolerates salt spray, making it a good choice for seaside gardens. Use Lantana as bedding plants or in containers. Its leaves have an unpleasant odor if crushed, so avoid planting in areas of the yard where people might step on it.
Sheep Laurel is a flowering evergreen shrub with leathery, blue-green leaves. Clusters of small, rose-pink, saucer-shaped flowers bloom in late June. This shrub prefers a moist, acidic, organic soil, but will also grow in dry, sandy soil. Use it in a shrub border or woodland garden. Plant parts are toxic if ingested.
Eastern Red Cedar is a wildlife-friendly evergreen tree. This dioecious species (separate male and female trees) has a pyramidal shape when young. Female trees produce small, round, gray to light-blue berry-like cones consumed by many birds and small mammals. Its aromatic wood is used in furniture, fences, and building materials. Use it as a specimen, grouping, or screening plant; good for windbreaks and hedges.
Creeping Juniper is a low-growing evergreen groundcover with long, trailing branches and soft-textured leaves. It tolerates hot and dry conditions, air pollution, and salt spray. Use massed on slopes, as a foundation plant, or in rock gardens.
Common Rush is a grass-like, clump-forming perennial. Small, yellowish-green to brown flowers bloom June-August. Plants should be cut back in early spring. Use Common Rush in rain gardens and at edges of ponds or water gardens; it will tolerate several inches of standing water.
Black Walnut is a large deciduous tree with fragrant leaves and furrowed bark. It produces round, edible nuts in the fall; nuts can be messy when they fall to the ground. Black Walnut is the preferred host of luna and regal moths. Its roots produce chemicals called juglones, which deter growth of certain other plants; avoid planting it near fruit trees, flower beds, and vegetable gardens. Black Walnut wood is highly prized for furniture. Use it as a shade tree.