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.
Butternut is a medium-large, deciduous tree similar to Black Walnut, but it is usually a smaller, more cold-tolerant tree. This tree has sweet, edible, oval-shaped nuts. The roots produce chemicals called juglones, which are toxic to certain other plants; avoid planting it near fruit trees, flower beds, and vegetable gardens. Butternut is susceptible to canker, a fungal disease that is devastating this species in the wild. Use it as a shade tree.
Sweetspire has long tassels of fragrant, small white flowers, which bloom in early summer. Its leaves turn attractive shades of red to purple in the fall. Use in mass plantings in shrub borders or woodland gardens. Good plant for wet locations, such as rain gardens, or along edges of ponds or other water features.