Landscape and Nursery - Plants for Delaware Landscapes Featured at the 2009 UDBG Spring Plant Sale #14

This year, the University of Delaware Botanic Garden spring benefit plant sale features those plants that add to the biodiversity of the landscape and offer food and habitat for wildlife, especially insects and the birds that eat them. Many native plants are featured. This is the 14th in a series on plants being offered at the UDBG spring plant sale that are recommended for Delaware landscapes.


Leucothoe fontanesiana ‘Nana’, Drooping Leucothoe, 3', full sun to full shade, moist soil conditions. The common name is quite appropriate as the arching branches droop effectively, particularly over a wall. The evergreen foliage becomes tinged red in the winter and displays the spring flowers well. Plants are best used in groups. Native plant. Photo from the Dow Gardens Archive, Dow Gardens, Bugwood.org.


Lindera benzoin, Spicebush, 6-12', full sun to full shade, moist soil conditions. Anyone who has walked our local woodlands has seen this shrub. The small chartreuse flowers appear in March before the foliage. Bright red fruit is produced on female plants in the fall. Leaves turn a clear yellow in the autumn. Native plant. Photo from the Dow Gardens Archive, Dow Gardens, Bugwood.org


Lindera melissifolia, Southern Spicebush, 3-6', full sun to part shade, moist soil conditions. Very similar to the spicebush in our local woodlands, it differs primarily in its shorter, slightly more suckering habit. It produces the same bright yellow flowers in March and bright red fruit in the early fall. Plants are dioecious. Native plant. Photo by Charles T. Bryson, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bugwood.org

For more information on the 2009 UDBG Spring Plant Sale go to http://ag.udel.edu/udbg/events/annualsale.html