Stipa tenuissima (Mexican Feather Grass) is an exceptionally lovely and graceful ornamental grass that exhibits silvery-green thread-like leaves in late spring, that sway gracefully in the slightest breeze, delicately softening any landscape. All summer, it bears abundant feathery panicles, which are held a little above the foliage and can be used in dried arrangements. Native to the Americas, this perennial grass provides a fairly long-lasting display with its airy silky green leaves turning golden brown towards fall.

One of the earliest hardy Salvia to bloom, multiple award-winner Sage 'Mainacht' or 'May Night' (Salvia x sylvestris) has been in cultivation for 30 years and has become quite a standard. Extremely showy, it displays stunning spikes of rich, violet-blue flowers which pleasantly contrast darker bracts. They appear in late spring and bloom for weeks, often throughout the summer.

Enriching any garden's color scheme, Dianthus caryophyllus 'King of the Blacks' (Carnation) is an eye-catching, loosely-tufted, herbaceous perennial with a profusion of clove-scented, dark burgundy-red, double flowers, up to 2 in. across (5 cm), atop firm stems. Elegantly rising above a low mound of evergreen, gray-green, linear foliage, the velvety, ruffled blossoms are produced in succession from late spring to mid-summer. Adding contrast in the garden, this hardy carnation is perfect for the sunny border, and patio containers and makes exquisite and long-lasting cut flowers.

Allium sphaerocephalon or 'Drumstick Allium' is a lovely addition to the border where it adds interest and movement with its dense egg-shaped flower heads atop straight and slender stems, delicately turning from green to purple as they mature. Blooming in late spring to early summer, this spectacular bulbous perennial adds some dramatic color to the garden. Naturalizes easily and will come back year after year

Betula nigra (River Birch) is a bushy deciduous tree prized for its incredible peeling bark. Salmon-pink, smooth and shiny at first, the bark flakes and curls in cinnamon-brown to blackish sheets. Vigorous and fast-growing, this birch has a large, pyramidal, upright habit and bears diamond-shaped, glossy green leaves with silvery undersides, which turn yellow in fall. Perfect for wet soils, this birch can tolerate locations with drier soils and is perhaps the most culturally adaptable and heat tolerant of the birches.

Evergreen, award-winning Achillea 'Moonshine' (Yarrow) is highly prized by gardeners for its pleasantly aromatic, silver-green feathery foliage and its long-lasting, conspicuous, bright lemon-yellow flat umbel flowers. A vital ingredient of herbaceous borders, cottage gardens, meadows, or prairies, this Yarrow typically blooms for weeks from late spring to late summer in a beautiful color display. Paired with flamboyant crocosmia, daylilies, or the ice-cool blue salvia, it creates eye-catching plant combinations and enlivens any sunny corner of your garden!

Compact, Buxus sempervirens 'Suffruticosa' (Boxwood) is a small, slow-growing, broadleaf evergreen shrub with a soft and lush foliage of ovate, fairly glossy leaves, up to 1 in. long (2 cm). Tough, hardy and easy to grow, this dwarf Boxwood provides color year-round, as well as form, texture and contrast to its companion plants.

Native to the Mediterranean region, Digitalis parviflora (Small-Flowered Foxglove) is a slender perennial rich in subtle charm. It produces tightly packed spires of chocolate flowers veined violet with a mahogany lower lip. Blooming from late spring to mid-summer, they arise from a basal rosette of downy, lance-shaped leaves and provide fascinating color and architectural height to borders. Attractive to bees, which hover near the tubular blossoms, and to birds which flock to the seedheads in the fall, this lovely plant naturalizes well and will create lovely colonies in the landscape.

Gorgeous, fast-growing, tough as nails, Stipa arundinacea or Anemanthele lessoniana (Pheasant's Tail Grass) is an elegant and impressive ornamental grass that has become a favorite of landscape designers and gardeners. Semi-evergreen, with an open growth habit, it exhibits arching, dark green, thread-like leaves, that sway gracefully in the slightest breeze. They turn into attractive shades of copper, gold, and bronze in the fall and throughout winter, adding bristling color to the dull winter landscape. It is topped in summer with airy arching sprays of rosy flowers that hang down, almost kissing the ground, and move into a lovely bronze color in the fall.