Blue false indigo

A bold, moisture-loving native perennial of eastern North America that dies back to a woody base each winter and returns to throw up stout 2 to 6 feet stems topped with enormous 4-8 inch saucer-shaped flowers - white, pink, red, or burgundy, each with a contrasting central eye - from June into September. NC State Extension describes a herbaceous perennial hardy across USDA zones 4a-9b that thrives in wet to constantly moist soils, tolerates heat, humidity, and even brief flooding, and draws hummingbirds, butterflies, and other pollinators. The tropical-looking dinner-plate blooms make it a dramatic focal point for rain gardens, pond edges, and the back of a sunny border.

A four-season native shrub of the southeastern United States, where NC State Extension notes it grows wild in moist woods and along stream banks. It is an upright, multi-stemmed deciduous shrub, slow-growing to roughly 4 to 8 feet tall and 4 to 10 feet wide, named for its large, oak-shaped, lobed dark-green leaves. Showy pyramidal 4-12 inch panicles of creamy-white flowers open from late spring into summer and fade to pink and then tan, while the bold foliage turns wine, orange, and mahogany in fall over peeling cinnamon bark. Easy and low-maintenance in organically rich, well-drained soil, it is grown as a specimen, in masses, or as an informal hedge.

A short-lived native perennial of wet woodland edges, stream banks, and ditches across the Americas, named for the brilliant scarlet-red flowers that rise on erect, unbranched terminal spikes from mid-to-late summer. Each tubular, two-lipped bloom is shaped for the hummingbird tongue - the plant depends on ruby-throated hummingbirds for pollination because most insects cannot work the long flower tube. It demands constant moisture and tolerates brief flooding, but its foliage carries alkaloids that are very toxic to humans if eaten.

A native upright perennial of central + eastern North American prairies, woodland margins, and open woods producing tall vertical spires of white tubular flowers in late spring. The species name "digitalis" honors a flower-shape resemblance to true foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) - but Penstemon digitalis is NOT toxic in the same way (NC State explicit: "lacks the toxicity associated with foxglove"). Specialist Penstemon mason bee (Osmia distincta) relationship per NC State. The popular 'Husker Red' cultivar adds burgundy foliage for foliage-color design.

A more refined garden-behaved cousin of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) - same monarch host status and ecological value, but clumping rather than aggressively spreading, well-suited to rain gardens and consistently moist sites. Pink fragrant flower clusters from mid-summer through early fall; 2005 NC Wildflower of the Year. NC State tags Poisonous (cardiac glycosides) - the same toxicity that makes monarch caterpillars unpalatable to vertebrate predators.

A large, hairy, clump-forming North American native perennial of wet meadows, low woods, stream banks, and prairies. Its most distinctive feature is the perfoliate foliage - pairs of wrinkled, opposite, lance-shaped leaves whose bases fuse around the hairy stem, so the stem appears to pass through the leaf. From July to September, flat-topped clusters of small, fluffy white flowers feed a wide range of bees, butterflies, and other pollinators, while all parts of the plant are toxic and bitter.