Growing Zone 9

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...

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...

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...

'Nellie Stevens' builds a dense evergreen privacy screen fast and sets heavy red berries every winter without needing a male pollinator nearby.'Nellie Stevens' holly is the South's favorite screening holly, forming a broad dark green pyramid of glossy spined leaves and setting abundant red...

Distylium gives you a clean blue-green evergreen with no blight, no bagworms, and no shearing - the low-maintenance answer to holly and juniper.Distylium is a relatively new landscape shrub bred specifically to replace the workhorse evergreens that give Southern gardeners the most trouble. It...

Boxwood shears into crisp hedges, spheres, and edging that hold their shape year-round and give a landscape instant formal structure.Boxwood is the classic evergreen for clipped hedges, parterres, and foundation lines, with small dense leaves that take shearing better than almost anything else. It...

Bald cypress handles standing water and dry ground alike, then closes the year with rust-orange fall needles before dropping them clean.Bald cypress is a native deciduous conifer with soft, feathery needles that turn coppery orange in autumn and fall, revealing a strong buttressed trunk...

Ghost plant forms pearly gray rosettes that blush pink and gold in strong sun, trailing over pot edges and rooting from any fallen leaf.This is one of the toughest and most forgiving succulents we sell, surviving hard drought, poor soil, and considerable neglect, and...

Aloes store water in thick sculptural leaves, surviving weeks of neglect on a sunny windowsill and multiplying into free plants from offsets.Our assorted aloes range from the familiar medicinal Aloe vera to smaller textured and speckled species that stay compact enough for a windowsill....

Aeonium builds glossy geometric rosettes on branching stems, giving containers a sculptural look no other succulent quite matches.Unlike most succulents, aeoniums grow actively in cool weather and go semi-dormant in high summer heat, so expect them to pause and drop lower leaves in July...

Yarrow blooms in flat colorful clusters through the worst of summer, thriving on drought and poor soil where fussier perennials give up.Ferny aromatic foliage and long-lasting flower heads in white, gold, red, and terracotta make yarrow a workhorse for hot, dry, unirrigated beds, and...

Shasta daisies bring crisp white-and-gold blooms to summer borders and cut beautifully, lasting a week or more in a vase.This clumping perennial is a border classic that keeps flowering for weeks if you deadhead regularly, with compact varieties like 'Becky' standing up to Alabama...

Milkweed is the only plant monarch caterpillars can eat, so a few clumps turn a sunny bed into a working monarch nursery.Plant the right natives: butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) for dry, sunny, well-drained spots, and swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) for beds that stay moist...

Joe Pye weed towers at the back of a border with dusty-rose flower domes that swallowtails and monarchs cover through late summer.This big native perennial is the plant for damp, low spots where other perennials sulk, forming a strong upright clump topped with vanilla-scented...

Coreopsis pumps out golden daisies from late spring to frost on a native perennial that shrugs off heat, drought, and poor soil.Also called tickseed, coreopsis is one of the hardest-working perennials for Alabama sun, with threadleaf types like 'Moonbeam' and 'Zagreb' forming airy mounds...

Coral honeysuckle covers a mailbox or fence in scarlet trumpet flowers that hummingbirds visit from spring through frost, without ever taking over.This is our well-behaved native honeysuckle, not the aggressive Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) that smothers Alabama woodlands - coral honeysuckle is a modest...

Blazing star sends up vertical purple wands that bloom top-down in midsummer heat, pulling in monarchs and swallowtails from across the yard.This tough native prairie perennial grows from a corm, handles Alabama drought and clay once established, and returns reliably every year. The stiff...

Sweeter, softer, and more floral than oregano - the finishing herb for eggs, lamb, white beans, and vinaigrettes that want warmth without bite.Sweet marjoram is a tender perennial that usually behaves as an annual or short-lived perennial in Alabama, especially through a wet winter....