Woody Ornamentals

American Beech is one of our most stately native trees, and also one of the most problematic ones to transplant B&B. As a result, we are growing it in containers so everyone can have a chance to marvel at its beauty in their own landscape. The bark is beautiful all year, maintaining its silver-gray color throughout its lifespan. The summer leaves are a large and glossy dark green, often turning an attractive golden bronze in the fall. The juvenile beeches usually retain their foliage throughout the winter, turning to a soft whitish-tan after the fall. When Fagus grandifolia is mature enough to bear fertile nuts, it is a very important food source for birds and mammals.

Narrow green leaves emerge from tan culms in late spring, adding to previous season's foliage.  Vase-shaped, clumping, deer resistant and semi-evergreen.

'Chicago Hardy' Fig has proven to be reliable as far north as Chicago with some protection, so it is an excellent choice for the Mid-Atlantic area.  It is thought to be originally named 'Bensonhurst Purple', and the fruit is sweet and green with a light brownish-purple blush.  Without any protection it will periodically die to the ground but will come back reliably.  With winter protection, you get fruit production much earlier in the summer.  The foliage is large, dramatic and subtly fragrant.

Dwarf Fothergilla has white fragrant bottlebrush flowers in April and May and they are especially showy since they appear before the foliage.  Fall foliage of Fothergilla gardenii is yellow, orange and red. It is wet site tolerant, but also does well in dryer woodland sites.  Plants may spread by root suckers.   Bees, and other pollinators are attracted to this native shrub.  The shrub is named for John Fothergill, British physician and botanist.

Fothergilla gardenii 'Suzanne' is a compact form of Dwarf Fothergilla from Dr. Michael Dirr, with beautiful white fragrant flowers in April and May, followed by lovely orange-red fall color. Named after his youngest daughter.

'Blue Shadow' Fothergilla has honey-scented white bottlebrush flowers in April and May, followed by dusty blue foliage. Fall color is a beautiful combination of yellow, orange and red. A selection by Gary Handy of Handy Nursery in Oregon.

'Mount Airy' Fothergilla has fragrant white bottlebush flowers in April and May and boasts yellow, orange and red fall foliage. Selected by Dr. Michael Dirr at the Mount Airy Arboretum for good dark blue-green foliage and consistent fall color.

The Franklin Tree has white Camellia-like fragrant flowers in late summer with striking red fall foliage. Franklinia alatamaha needs good organic matter and constant moisture in its planting location. Ours are from seed rather than cuttings and our experience is that Franklinias have more vigor and disease resistance when grown from seed.  John Bartram and his son William discovered Franklinia growing along the banks of the Altamaha River in southeastern Georgia and the genus name honors Benjamin Franklin.  Batram collected seed from this spot in the late 1700s, and few years later the tree became extinct in the wild so all Franklinia alatamaha are decedents from the original seeds.

'Kleim's Hardy' Cape Jasmine has large single white extremely fragrant flowers in July and August. Gardenias are native to southern Japan and China and grow best with morning sun and afternoon shade.  Gardenia jasminoides 'Kleim's Hardy' is one of the most cold hardy cultivars, has rounded glossy green foliage and is semi-evergreen.  This plant needs a sheltered spot.

Creeping Wintergreen is an evergreen groundcover that thrives in wooded, well drained locations. Gaultheria procumbens prefers acidic soils.  The delicate pink and white bells appear on the stems in early to mid summer and are followed by small red fruit in the fall (much loved by small woodland critters). Wintergreen is a rhizomatous, creeping, woody, evergreen groundcover of the heath family that is native to woodlands in Eastern North America.  The leaves when crushed have the lovely scent of wintergreen.

‘Autumn Gold’ Maidenhair Tree is a symmetrical male Ginkgo with an attractive spreading habit. Ginkgos are dioicous, and the fleshy seeds from the females smell awful, so its important to select male cultivars. Ginkgo biloba ‘Autumn Gold’ was an introduction by Saratoga Horticultural Foundation in 1955, chosen for its shape, pest resistance and great tolerance of difficult urban conditions. The fan-shaped green leaves turn a lovely yellow in fall, and make a beautiful gold carpet when they fall. Ginkgos are among the oldest living trees, with fossils of their leaves from 150 million years ago.

Introduced by Princeton Nurseries in 1967, Ginkgo biloba Princeton Sentry® is a columnar, male cultivar of Gingko that is tolerant to many adverse conditions. Capable of handling urban sites, polluted and compacted soils, as well as saline conditions, this Ginkgo cultivar is a popular choice as a street tree. Chartreuse, two-lobed foliage turns a uniform golden yellow in autumn and persists on the tree for several weeks, eventually dropping and creating a golden, halo-like carpet around the base.

Espresso™ (‘JFS’) Kentucky Coffeetree produces large doubly compound green leaves quite late in the spring (May), on coarse branches. Gymnocladus dioicus Espresso™ is a male form, which is good because the females produce very large brown seedpods (used by early settlers as a substitute for coffee).  An excellent street tree due to its high tolerance in tough spots and the dabbled shade it provides is well received by people, plants or sod growing beneath.  The habit is somewhat lanky when young, but mature Kentucky Coffeetrees are very handsome and trouble free. An introduction by J Frank Schmidt and Son of Oregon.