Growing Zone 8

Our fresh peppermint is cool and refreshing with a crisp menthol finish, grown at our Lineville, Alabama farm and cut fresh.Fresh peppermint is an aromatic culinary herb, far more flavorful picked fresh than dried from a jar. It's easy to grow on a sunny...

Our fresh sage is earthy and aromatic with a soft, savory fragrance, grown at our Lineville, Alabama farm and cut fresh.Fresh sage is an aromatic culinary herb, far more flavorful picked fresh than dried from a jar. It's easy to grow on a sunny...

Our fresh thyme is earthy and fragrant with tiny, savory leaves, grown at our Lineville, Alabama farm and cut fresh.Fresh thyme is an aromatic culinary herb, far more flavorful picked fresh than dried from a jar. It's easy to grow on a sunny sill...

Our fresh oregano is bold, peppery, and Mediterranean, grown at our Lineville, Alabama farm and cut fresh.Fresh oregano is an aromatic culinary herb, far more flavorful picked fresh than dried from a jar. It's easy to grow on a sunny sill and snips as...

Our fresh chives is delicate and mild with a gentle onion flavor, grown at our Lineville, Alabama farm and cut fresh.Fresh chives is an aromatic culinary herb, far more flavorful picked fresh than dried from a jar. It's easy to grow on a sunny...

Enormous upward-facing leaves on a plant that comes back every spring in zone 8a.Alocasia odora holds its huge glossy leaves upright rather than drooping, building a bold tropical clump through the summer. It dies back after frost and returns from the rhizome, making it...

Intensely fragrant white flowers in late summer, when almost nothing else is blooming.Hedychium coronarium sends up canes of lush green foliage through summer and opens sweetly scented white butterfly-shaped flowers from late summer into fall. It is hardy in the ground here, spreads slowly...

A real banana that survives an Alabama winter in the ground - tropical scale with none of the fuss.Musa basjoo is the hardiest banana in cultivation, dying back after frost and returning from the root each spring with mulch. It throws paddle leaves several...

Agave form with spotted, softer leaves - full sun, sharp drainage, and no spines to catch a customer.Mangave is a cross between Agave and Manfreda that keeps the architectural rosette while picking up dramatic spotting and faster growth. The leaf tips are soft rather...

Pull thick crimson stalks in spring for the sharpest, most electric pie filling in the garden, tart in a way no other crop delivers.Be honest with yourself about zone 8a: rhubarb needs real winter chill and it genuinely sulks in Deep South summers, so...

Harvest handfuls of smooth grape-sized kiwis you eat skin and all, sweeter than the fuzzy supermarket kind and ready by the bowlful in fall.YOU NEED BOTH A MALE AND A FEMALE PLANT. Hardy kiwi is dioecious, and a lone female will flower beautifully and...

Strings of jewel-bright berries in early summer, tart enough to make the best jelly you have ever had and impossible to buy fresh locally.IMPORTANT: Ribes species are restricted or require a permit in some states because they are an alternate host for white pine...

Dig crisp, nutty sunchoke tubers after the first fall frost, harvesting from a tall sunflower relative that returns every single year.Sunchokes are supplied as dormant tubers rather than seedlings, and they are a true perennial that comes back reliably and spreads vigorously, so give...

Plant a dormant crown once and cut tender spring spears for twenty years, though the first real harvest waits two to three seasons.Asparagus is supplied as a one-year dormant crown, not a leafy seedling, and it needs a permanent bed you will not till...

Spires of waxy blue, pink or white bells rise through spring shade, turning the ground beneath hardwoods into a soft flowering haze.Spanish Bluebell is one of the few classic spring bulbs that genuinely thrives in the Deep South - it needs no winter chill,...

Willow and Nuttall oaks grow shade fast for oaks, drop small tidy leaves, and hand the yard deep red color every November.These two native red-group oaks are the practical choice for large shade in the South. Willow oak has narrow, willow-like leaves that rake...

'Little Gem' brings full-size fragrant magnolia flowers to a compact tree that fits a courtyard and blooms from spring into fall.'Little Gem' is a dwarf Southern magnolia with the same glossy dark leaves and bronze felted undersides as the full-size species, on a narrow...

Autumn Blaze maple grows a broad shade canopy in just a few years and turns brilliant orange-red every fall, right on schedule.Autumn Blaze is a hybrid of red and silver maple that combines fast growth with the dependable scarlet fall color and stronger branching...

Leyland cypress screens a property line faster than almost any evergreen, adding three to four feet a year of soft, feathery green.Leyland cypress is the fastest privacy screen most Southern yards can grow, filling in low to the ground with fine, soft foliage that...

Juniper thrives where nothing else will - hot slopes, poor soil, salt, and drought - and stays evergreen and textural through it all.Juniper covers an enormous range of forms, from flat groundcover types that hold banks together to upright columns used as accents and...