Calycanthus Aphrodite Sweetshrub will quickly become your favorite flowering shrubs. From mid summer to fall, the Calycanthus Aphrodite will adorn your garden with large red magnolia like flowers. Living up to its name of sweetshrub, this deer resistant shrub will fill the air with sweet apple scented fragrance. 

The Calycanthus Aphrodite Sweetshrub blooms on old wood, so be sure to prune only for shaping (if needed) after flowering. The glossy medium green leaves make a nice backdrop for the gorgeous red flowers that bloom from mid summer on to fall. Space your new Calycanthus sweetshrub Aphrodite shrubs 6 to 7 feet apart. 

'Aphrodite' Calycanthus PP: 24014 Can. PBRAF

Plants used in French Gardens

Adding a touch of France to your garden  with our best plants for fall color will bring life to your fall landscape. Take some ideas from French gardens and liven up your landscape with new plant colors, fragrance and texture to add a touch of France to your garden. The location of France is much like that of New England making it perfect for experiencing the colors of fall foliage. The most popular flowering shrubs, trees, along with some of their favorite smaller growing evergreen perennial plants,  are used in French gardens are listed here.

• Red Barberry
• Smoketree
• Tulip poplar
• Rosa rugosas
• Viburnums
• Petiolaris
• Wisteria vines
• Hydrangea bushes
• Narrow evergreens - such as juniper skyrocket and thuja north pole
• Boxwoods
• Salvia
• Veronica
• Ornamental grasses - new varieties in smaller sizes

Herbs are everywhere, planted in landscapes, huge pots in the courtyards, window boxes. Most days warm days, apartment windows are open. How wonderful it must be inside with slight breezes brushing over the thyme, rosemary and mint carrying the fragrances throughout the living spaces.

It is ironic that we travel to exotic destinations for new experiences and scenery, but, once there, we find certain familiarity which is probably what most of us enjoy most. Whether you are in Paris or Nashville, autumn is in full swing in the Northern Hemisphere.

Time to plant, time to enjoy!

Greenwood Nursery Online Garden Center

Greenwood Nursery is a certified Tennessee nursery since 1979, and online plant store since 1998, with just the right plants for your landscape ideas and gardening projects that you might have as well as providing knowledgeable customer service to help with your planting questions.

A new homeowner or refreshing your old landscape with new foundation plantings? Our article on "How to Landscape Design", will get you started on thesteps to landscaping.

Brighten up your yard from our plant selections of flowering shrubs, including some of the most popular flowering shrub varieties such as lavender plants,golden forsythia shrubs, shrub roses, and red twig dogwoods.

Check our bare root trees for many fast growing trees varieties such as willow hybrid, maples, poplars, and thuja green giant.

Looking for plants for specific purposes? Visit our Landscaping Ideas category with our many sub-departments categorizing our plants according to their varied uses like Small Yard Plant Ideas, Spring Flowering Shrubs, Deer Resistant Plants, shade plants, and Drought Tolerant Plants.

Remember, at Greenwood Nursery, we make it safe and easy to buy plants online. You will find the Greenwood staff helpful, knowledgeable, and ready to answer your planting questions. Our online plant catalog is open 24/7 for your gardening needs. We're here to make sure you're successful with your Greenwood plants.

Choose from our great selection of plants and we'll carefully pack and ship them right to your door.

Attracting Butterflies to Your Garden with Flowering Plants

What could be more enjoyable than sitting in your garden with lots of beautiful butterflies fluttering about? Gardeners are planting butterfly gardens, which not only have become a popular hobby, but, also, make for very beautiful gardens. While many gardeners plant amazing flower gardens with hopes of attracting butterflies, however, the butterflies don’t come because the wrong shrubs and perennial plants have been planted.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sometimes butterflies will not come to a garden because of pesticide use. The first thing you should do in planning for your butterfly garden is to rid the area of unwanted pests without using chemicals.

There are a few other things you can do to ensure that butterflies will come to your garden. Choose an area in your garden that is sunny with about 5 to 6 hours of sunlight per day, as adult butterflies only feed in the sun. The area needs to, also, be sheltered from heavy winds. As much as butterfly need to eat, they also do not want to fight harsh winds while trying to feed.

Another important aspect to a good butterfly garden is water. Like humans, butterflies need water. A couple of shallow bird baths where you can keep clean water will not only allow butterflies a drink, it will give them a place to rest.

There are two types of plants that butterfly use, those that provide food for the offspring and those that provide nectar for the adults. In a quote from the National Wildlife Federation, "Attracting butterflies involves incorporating plants that serve the needs of all life stages of the butterfly.” They go on to say, "The insects need places to lay eggs, food plants for their larvae (caterpillars), places to form chrysalides and nectar sources for adults."

Most butterflies, including the Monarch butterfly, feed on buddleia, commonly called butterfly bushes, for nectar and milkweed to feed the caterpillars. Other ways to make the area more butterfly friendly are using flat stones or other large flat surfaces where butterflies can rest and spread their wings. Because butterflies are such delicate creatures, they will also need shelter and a little shade.

Plants that attract butterflies are buddleia or butterfly bushes, lavender, monarda or bee balm, veronica, salvia, rosemary, thyme, sage, roses, yarrow, lamb’s ear, hydrangea, weigela, rudbeckia, echinacea, Shasta daisy and yucca are excellent selections for a beginners butterfly garden.

Recap of How to Attract Butterflies to Your Garden:

• Limit pesticide use
• Place your garden in a sunny area protected from heavy winds
• Plant fragrant, summer flowering butterfly plants
• Use flat surfaces for the butterflies to rest
• Have a shallow water source

By adding some of these suggestions into your garden, you can attract butterflies all summer long.

Greenwood Nursery Your Online Garden Center

Climbing shrubs add zest to bare walls

Some friends of mine recently moved into a new home built on land that sloped away gently from front to back. This meant that there was a fairly large expanse of bare brick at the rear of the home that needed something to soften it up.
He asked my opinion and I had several ideas, some more obvious than others. Here is one of my suggestions that might not immediately spring to mind.
Climbing Hydrangea (Hydrangea petiolaris)
This is a climber that seems to think it’s capable of scaling Mount Everest, if it wasn’t for the Nepalese climate. Yes, I’m exaggerating but this climbing hydrangea can grow to around 50 or 80 feet, so covering an expanse of wall shouldn’t be too tough an assignment.
It sports a rich, dense green foliage, and between May and July erupts in a mass of creamy white flowers. In the winter, the reddish-brown peeling bark is very attractive and the dried flower heads make attractive additions to seasonal floral arrangements.
In addition to bare brick walls, it works well on a trellis, a fence or a pergola and can make a very attractive groundcover, “climbing” horizontally.
I had some suggestions for my friends that would work well in other areas of their new landscape.
Little Bluestem 'The Blues'
Fans of Little Bluestem consider it to be among the bluest of ornamental grasses, and for good reason. In addition to the powder blue foliage found in The Blues has a trick up its sleeve for the early fall. In late summer you’ll suddenly notice large, finely textured, white flower panicles that seem to hover over the plant like a cloud. It makes a nice addition to the traditional fall palette of red, orange and gold.
In the winter, the brown stems add movement to an otherwise static landscape as they sway gently with the wind. The seed plumes last well into the winter, too, providing food for visiting birds.
I suggested The Blues to my friends for use as a perennial border, but it would also work well as part of a wild garden or adjacent to a water feature. It grows to around 4 feet tall and can make an effective screen when a row of Blues are planted about 3 feet apart.
GoldMound Spiraea
In the summer, this is a real dazzler. In full bloom, deep pink flowers cover the bronze to light green red-tipped foliage. In the spring, vibrant red shoots begin to emerge before assuming their bronze-green summer hues. In the fall, GoldMound’s russet tones will last well into November in most climates.
Goldmound spiraea is a deciduous dwarf shrub with a mature height between one and two feet, and makes an ideal three-season ground cover or a colorful filler.
At my friends’ home, the newly constructed wood fence was pleasant but not too inviting. I had a suggestion for the gate area leading from the driveway to the fenced back yard…
Mock Orange hedge form (Philadelphus virginalis mock orange)
Several hedge form Mock Orange shrubs planted two feet apart on both sides of the gate area would make an inviting entryway to the yard beyond.
This is one of the most popular of the mock oranges due to its remarkably powerful fragrance and pure white flowers that are evident from late spring to early summer. With a mature height of six to ten feet, the scale is ideal for entryways or lining a driveway.
Drop us an email if you want to know more about any of these plants or if you need some inspiration for your own landscape. www.GreenwoodNursery.com