A drought-and-flood-tolerant native shrub of eastern North America with brilliant three-season interest — spring white-pink flowers, glossy black antioxidant-rich late-summer berries, and brilliant wine-red fall foliage — plus an extraordinarily wide cold-hardiness range (USDA 3a-8b). The berries are astringent fresh but the basis of a small but growing commercial industry (juices, wines, jams, supplements) for their exceptionally high anthocyanin content. Spreads by suckers; site where colony formation is welcome.

A native southeastern US deciduous shrub with deep-red strap-petaled fragrant flowers in late spring — the scent variously described as strawberry, banana, or wine, and reliably present only on cultivated cultivars with selected fragrance. Among the most distinctive native shrubs for woodland-edge and shaded mixed borders.

A native North American deciduous shrub with exfoliating bark (hence "ninebark"), white-to-pink spring flower clusters, papery red seedpods, and reliable fall color. Colored-foliage cultivars (Diabolo, Coppertina, Summer Wine) extend the design palette. Adaptable + drought-tolerant once established.

A thornless native bramble grown for its flowers, not its fruit. Large, fragrant rose-purple to magenta blooms open over a long stretch of summer above big, soft, maple-like leaves on bristly (but prickle-free) canes. Native to the woodland edges and rocky slopes of eastern North America, it suckers into loose colonies 3-6 feet tall and is one of the few shade-tolerant, showy-flowered shrubs in the genus Rubus. The flat red aggregate fruit that follows is edible but dry and seedy — most gardeners grow this plant for the bloom and the unarmed, handsome foliage.

A dense Mediterranean-native evergreen shrub that flowers in the depths of winter — flat white flower heads opening from pink buds, followed by metallic blue-black berries. One of the best evergreen hedging, screening, and pollution-tolerant shrubs for mild gardens, valued for shade tolerance and winter nectar. Honest caution: the berries are mildly toxic to people if eaten in quantity.

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 4-8 feet tall and 4-10 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.