Plant Encyclopedia

When you see photos of the famed lavender fields of Provence, France, it's love at first sight. A shrubby perennial native to the Mediterranean region, lavender might be the most enjoyable of all herbs. It appeals to almost every sense, with its calming aroma, pungent taste, dainty flowers, and velvety gray-green leaves. Bonus points: It is deer-resistant and attracts butterflies and pollinators. Successfully growing lavender, however, depends on the type of garden soil, location, and climate.

With its many flowers, black-eyed Susan lends itself well to mass plantings and has long been a staple in perennial gardens. Black-eyed Susan, native to the Midwest, comes in both annual and perennial varieties. Hardy in Zones 3-11, they need little care to grow abundantly. Because black-eyed Susan blooms for many weeks when other summer perennials begin to fade, this plant is a sign that fall is around the corner.

With flowers that look like tiny petunias, calibrachoa (also called million bells) grows and blooms at an amazing rate. These extremely vigorous plants make for colorful, cascading accents in containers or hanging baskets, along walkways, and on garden walls. Calibrachoa has only been available in the retail plant world since the early 1990s. That’s not long in plant years, especially considering how far the plant has come since then. What started as a simple, single-color bloom has transformed into a whole new class of plant that people enjoy adding to their gardens year after year.