New Arrivals

And we say this in a few other places but we always want to make sure that pet owners know that this plant is toxic to animals/people. Show-stopping foliage in every color but blue - thrives in sun or shade, all season long. Coleus...

Thyme is quiet and floral and slightly earthy - the herb you notice only when it is missing.Refrigerate in a loose bag for up to two weeks. Run a thumb and forefinger down the stem to strip the leaves, or add whole sprigs early...

Fresh sage is savoury and faintly musky, with a velvet leaf that crisps beautifully in butter.Refrigerate in a loose bag for a week to ten days. Chiffonade the leaves for raw use, or fry whole leaves thirty seconds in butter until they stop sizzling....

Cut rosemary is resinous and piney with a camphor lift, strong enough that a single sprig will carry a whole pan.Wrap loosely and refrigerate for two weeks or more - it is the longest-keeping cut herb on the bench. Strip the needles from the...

Purple basil trades some of the sweetness of the green for a spicier, clove-leaning edge - and it stains a vinegar or a lemonade deep rose.Never refrigerate basil; it blackens below about 50F. Stand the stems in water on the counter, out of direct...

Peppermint reads cold on the tongue - higher menthol and sharper than spearmint, which is exactly what you want in tea and in anything sweet.Stems in water on the counter or bagged in the fridge for a week. Bruise the leaves rather than chopping...

Flat-leaf parsley is the workhorse - clean, faintly peppery, and the thing that makes everything else on the plate taste more like itself.Stems in water, tops bagged, refrigerated; it will keep a week or more. Chop stems in with the leaves. Add raw or...

Fresh oregano is peppery and warm with a faint bitterness that holds up to long cooking better than almost any other soft herb.Refrigerate in a loose bag for up to a week, or hang a bunch to dry. Strip the leaves from the woody...

The fronds carry a clean sweet anise that is lighter and greener than the bulb, closer to a herb than a vegetable.Wrap loosely and refrigerate for up to a week. Use like dill - raw over fish, citrus and potatoes, or stirred in at...

Fresh dill is sweet and grassy with a faint anise lift, nothing like the flat hay of the dried jar.Keep it dry and cold in a loose bag; five to seven days. Snip the feathery fronds with scissors rather than chopping, and add off...

Cut cilantro is all top notes - citrus, pepper and a green snap that vanishes within about twenty minutes of heat, which is why it belongs on the plate and not in the pot.Stand the stems in an inch of water, bag the tops...

Silver-banded leaves and a rose-pink flower spike that holds for months.Aechmea fasciata sends up a bright pink bract from a rosette of chalky, silver-banded leaves, and that spike stays presentable for three to six months. The mother rosette flowers once and then produces pups,...

A rosette that blushes brilliant red at its centre - colour that lasts for months, with no flower involved.Neoregelia bromeliads hold water in a central cup and flush vivid red, pink or cream at the heart as they mature. They want almost nothing: bright...

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...

Cream, green and deep pink leaves that fold upward at night - colour without a single flower.Stromanthe sanguinea 'Triostar' carries variegated cream-and-green leaves backed in vivid magenta, and like all prayer plants it raises them at dusk and lowers them at dawn. It is...

Foliage in silver, plum, pink and near-black - the loudest leaf colour of any plant we grow.Begonia rex is grown entirely for its leaves, which spiral into swirls of silver, wine, pink and deep purple depending on the variety. It wants humidity and dislikes...

Glossy rippled fronds unfurling from a central rosette - a fern that tolerates a normal house.Asplenium nidus grows as a rosette of bright, wavy, glossy fronds rather than the fine lace most people picture as a fern. That structure makes it far more tolerant...