If you are familiar with Pieris yak. ‘Prelude’ , you’re going to love this great selection! A true landscape gem, ‘Cavatine’ has the complete package! You’ll love it’s small, leathery, deep green foliage year round especially on such a beautiful, dense, dwarf rounded form. Better yet, ‘Cavatine’ seems to cram every bit of open space with flower buds producing a big, blustery show of white, bell-like flowers in late April that is simply unforgettable! Combine this with its preference for half-day shade and its deer resistant nature and you have a plant worth shouting about!!

Dense, compact habit. New growth foliage is yellowish green turning dark green and shiny. Purplish red buds open to white flowers in April. A cross between P. japonica and P. floribunda, retaining many desirable traits from both parents. Somewhat lace bug-resistant and hardier than all P. japonica cultivars. A local Connecticut introduction.

There is not a Pieris you’ll find that has the flower power that this selection brings to the landscape. Its dense, rounded form comes into early spring teeming with long strings of flower buds at stem terminals that open in mid-April to clouds of white flowers that barely reveal the leathery, medium green foliage below. ‘Avalanche’ seems to bloom forever, holding its flowers as the cool of April warms into mid-May, still looking like a cascade of white. Once its bloom does go by, its new growth stays tidy and dense making this a plant that can be used singly in a small space or one that can be used in groups without overwhelming a spot. While this selection will tolerate a sunny spot, it loves partial shade to shade, is deer resistant, and will put on an unforgettable early spring show in that location.

This plant has an uglier common name, Rat Stripper, likely from its low, dense, spreading habit and its shiny, deep, evergreen, prickly edged foliage that is held tight to the ground. Despite that ugly common name, Pachistima is an outstanding North American native that forms a superb looking low, nearly ground covering shrub that loves partial shade but will tolerate sun well. It’s a great plant for grouping toward the front on any planting and can be used as a mass planting to great effect. Better yet, Pachistima thrives in sandy, rocky soils that tend to give other plants fits and is perfect for planting in seashore conditions.

A marked improvement over the straight species, ‘Green Carpet’ provides you with a dense, neat growing, non-floppy plant that thrives in full shade. This is the perfect groundcover for growing in dense shade or under a tree where it seems like nothing else survives. ‘Green Carpet’ will survive and thrive, producing a uniform stand of upright stems, densely packed with deep green, lustrous, evergreen foliage that looks great year round. ‘Green Carpet’ spreads by stolons and works well in high erosion areas to tightly bind the soil and land to reduce further loss. This selection is drought tolerant, easy to grow and, although its terminal spring blooming spikes of small white flowers are somewhat inconspicuous, it is a great looking plant.

Many people confuse this plant and think of it as a perennial. You may be able to treat it that way, but it really is in the Boxwood family and many times stands in the shadow of its overused Asian cousin, Pachysandra terminalis. Procumbens is a much better landscape plant, far less invasive yet still possessing the groundcover qualities of survival in tough areas that will make it incredibly useful in the landscape. This plant is evergreen zone 6 in the south and semi-evergreen north of this zone. It slowly forms sizable colonies of stems with whorled, deep green 2-4 long, slightly mottled leaves at the top and bare stem below. Flowers appear at the tips of stems above the foliage in early April forming a 2 tall spike of small, white very fragrant flowers that native insects flock to. As fall approaches, its mottled green foliage takes on a bluish cast and the mottling becomes far more pronounced, giving it an even better landscape look. This shade lover is perfect for massing in wooded areas and your garden critters will love the low cover it provides.

Some of the sweetest looking plants seem to go undiscovered as is evidenced by this charmer. ‘Goshiki’ is a dense growing, pyramidal shaped evergreen with cut, prickly, holly-like foliage that will mesmerize you with its heavy dose of gold flecked variegation that turns cream as the leaves age. New foliage has a distinct reddish-bronze cast, adding to the attractiveness of this easy care plant that thrives in sun or part shade.

If ever there was an under appreciated easy-care shrub that gives throughout the year, this has got to be it. Evergreen, slow growing and deer-resistant, this versatile beauty will please you 12 months a year, brightening the shade landscape wherever it resides. The milky foliage, mottled delightfully with shades of green, pink, and bronze, is pure summer happiness. Adding to the pleasure are the extravagant, long lasting, drooping clusters of small, creamy flowers that are well suited to cutting and show from late May through June. Autumn adds to the grand performance by providing intense purplish bronzing to the evergreen foliage that lasts through the winter. Plant in semi-shade for best results, and be sure to feed early in the season with an all-purpose acid fertilizer.

This variety was found in 1996 as a sport of the variety ‘Scarletta’ and offers something altogether different and distinct! You’ve never seen the likes of a Coast Leucothoe like this before, with its combination of bright burgundy, deep green, bright chartreuse and claret colored foliage that’s actually twisted and curly! What a show twelve months a year as its new growth emerges a coppery, orange-red color followed by long racemes of white, fragrant bell-shaped flowers in late May with the colorful foliage maturing to deep, lustrous green with red tips in the summer. Finally, as winter approaches, the whole plant turns an intense scarlet color that will set your winter landscape ablaze! ‘Curly Red’ will be a great creeping, flowing, mounding groundcover for partly to fully shaded areas and is striking planted alone or in groups.

A mounding shrub with a fountain-like appearance, this plant offers a range of foliage color through the year from bronze at flush, medium green in summer to purple-red in winter. Loves shade and moist, well drained soil, and is deer resistant. White, catkin-like flowers in May.