Plant Species

The soft, silver, pettable groundcover that thrives on neglect — drought-tolerant, deer-resistant, and grown for its felted foliage more than its flowers.

Most palms are tropical, but a handful are genuinely cold-hardy enough to overwinter in the ground as far north as zone 7 — here's what actually survives my clay.

Planting Iris Sibirica: hardiness zones, light and water needs, and honest care notes from The Lunaire's garden desk.

Garden Gates: hardiness zones, light and water needs, and honest care notes from The Lunaire's garden desk.

A native perennial that pulls in bees, butterflies and hummingbirds all summer — the trick is choosing a mildew-resistant cultivar and giving it air.

Soil Acid Test Kit: hardiness zones, light and water needs, and honest care notes from The Lunaire's garden desk.

Lily Flowers: hardiness zones, light and water needs, and honest care notes from The Lunaire's garden desk.

Gold Flowers: hardiness zones, light and water needs, and honest care notes from The Lunaire's garden desk.

Liatris Flower: hardiness zones, light and water needs, and honest care notes from The Lunaire's garden desk.

Weed Sprayer: hardiness zones, light and water needs, and honest care notes from The Lunaire's garden desk.

Floribunda Roses: hardiness zones, light and water needs, and honest care notes from The Lunaire's garden desk.

Elkhorn Fern: hardiness zones, light and water needs, and honest care notes from The Lunaire's garden desk.

Harvest Moon: hardiness zones, light and water needs, and honest care notes from The Lunaire's garden desk.

Perennial Flowers That Bloom All Summer: hardiness zones, light and water needs, and honest care notes from The Lunaire's garden desk.

Sedum Plants: hardiness zones, light and water needs, and honest care notes from The Lunaire's garden desk.

Clover Plant: hardiness zones, light and water needs, and honest care notes from The Lunaire's garden desk.

Purple Roses: hardiness zones, light and water needs, and honest care notes from The Lunaire's garden desk.

A fast, forgiving native shrub for clay-heavy ground — heavy flower clusters in June, dark fruit by September, and a place in the hedgerow that earns its keep.

June-bearing, everbearing, or day-neutral — pick the right type for your zone and harvest cadence, and a 4×8 bed pays you back from May through October.

Pure white bells in May, a perfume that travels twenty feet, and a habit that will eat any shady patch you plant it in — for better and for worse.

Three milkweeds for three sites: dry-sun (butterfly weed), average (common), and wet (swamp). Plant any of them and the monarchs will find you.

The houseplant I give to anyone who says they kill everything — variegated, fast, and so productive of babies that you can fill a window in a year.

A night-blooming climbing cactus, self-pollinating in good cultivars, that can fruit in three years from a 12-inch cutting — outdoors in zone 10+, in a large container anywhere.

Upright sword-shaped leaves, tolerance for direct sun and pitch dark in the same plant, and a watering need measured in weeks not days — the plant for the desk no one waters.