Native Plants from American Beauties™
Welcome to the American Beauties Plant Library. Here you will find native perennials, grasses, vines, trees and shrubs which attract wildlife and look great in the garden. You can view plants by common name or botanical name then scroll through the list to view a thumbnail image and introductory information. Click on a thumbnail image to see detailed information about that particular plant.
If you are looking for just the right plant or plants for your landscape, use our Plant Search to specify the kind of plant you are looking for.
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Common Name: Red Maple
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Common Name: Red Maple / Swamp Red Maple
Dense clusters of red flowers in late winter offer nectar early in the season. Cardinals, chipmunks and squirrels eat the red, winged "helicopter" fruits. The stems and twigs are reddish; the buds are red; and, in fall, the leaves turn orange-red... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: Sugar Maple
Sugar maple has a dense, rounded crown and is one of the trees responsible for giving New England its reputation for spectacular fall color, as the medium green leaves turn brilliant yellow or red-orange in autumn. The familiar two-winged "helico... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: Red Baneberry
Red Baneberry is a lovely woodland native with fine-textured foliage and a light and airy texture. Its lacy leaves resemble those of Astilbe and its similar needs make it a great native substitute. In late spring and early summer lightly scented,... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: Maidenhair Fern
Dainty bright green fronds are held aloft on shiny black stems creating a light, airy texture in the woodland garden. In rich soil and bright shade it will spread by shallow rhizomes to form a dense groundcover. Found in the humus-rich woodla... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: Nodding Onion / Nodding Wild Onion
Easy to identify by its distinctive, nodding, pastel lilac-pink flowers in late spring, Nodding Onion thrives in challenging sites such as hot sun and gravely soil. It is strikingly beautiful and is well-suited a formal or wild garden, as well as... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: Shadblow
One of the first native trees with showy flowers to bloom, serviceberry has slightly fragrant, white flowers in drooping clusters that are quite conspicuous because they appear before the leaves emerge. The nectar attracts butterflies and other p... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: Allegheny Serviceberry
Allegheny Serviceberry is a native tree for all seasons. In April and May it has beautiful white flowers that are delicately scented and provide nectar for the season's early bees and butterflies. In mid summer its fruits ripen to brilliant violet pi...
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Common Name: Leadplant
Amorpha canescens is a small shrubby plant that is graced with long spikes of clear purple flowers from July to September. Its long bloom time and attractiveness to butterflies make Leadplant a great native substitute for Butterfly Bush (Buddl... [ More Info ]
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Common Name:
The king of native grasses, Big Bluestem has handsome gray to blue-green stems in spring turning to green alternating with deep red in summer then to coppery red in fall. Three fingered seed heads top tall stems in August. Clump forming with excellen...
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Common Name: Wild Columbine
Versatile and easy to grow, 'Corbett' is a charming selection of our native Columbine with delicate light yellow flowers. More compact than the species, 'Corbett' is about a foot tall and heavily branched, sporting many flowers on a single plant.... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: Wild Columbine / Eastern Red Columbine
'Little Lanterns' is a compact columbine that only grows 10" tall. Deep red and yellow nodding flowers top blue-green foliage for many weeks in spring. This is a good choice for shade gardens, woodland gardens, rock gardens and naturalized areas.... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: Wild Columbine
A shorter version of the species, this pink-flowered form of Wild Columbine is delicate and lovely. The light pink color combines beautifully with other early and mid spring plants like Phlox divaricata and Iris cristata....
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Common Name: Common Bearberry
Common Bearberry is an evergreen groundcover that is suited to sandy or other well-drained soils with acidic pH. It can be a marvelous solution for a difficult site since it grows where few other plants are happy. Artostaphyllos is lovely draped ... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: Dutchman's Pipe
This deciduous woody vine is an old-fashioned favorite grown for its large, heart-shaped, glossy green leaves (6-12" long) which can quickly cover sun porches, verandas, pillars, posts, trellises, arbors, fences or walls. It is commonly called Du... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: (Photinia pyriflolia) Red Chokeberry
This deciduous shrub has it all! Fruit for the birds, nectar for insects, cover for wildlife and multi-season beauty. Clusters of spring blooming white to pinkish flowers provide loads of nectar for pollinators. Dense clusters of glossy red fruit... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: Wild Ginger / Canadian Wildginger
Wild ginger is a native spring wildflower that makes a lovely groundcover with its satiny, heart-shaped leaves. Pollinated by ants, its unique purplish brown flowers appear beneath the leaves in spring. Flowers are quite attractive on close inspe... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: Swamp Milkweed
Swamp milkweed has big heads of rose pink, sweetly scented flowers. It's not unusual to see two or three butterflies on a single flower at the same time. Swamp milkweed grows naturally in wet soil but also grows well in regular garden soil. <... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: Butterfly Weed
Butterfly weed produces many bright orange, flat-topped flower clusters in early June. Flowering goes on for many weeks. Green pods full of seeds with silky white hairs follow the flowers. This is an essential plant if you want to attract a varie... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: Butterfly Weed
Hello Yellow Butterfly Weed produces many golden yellow, flat-topped flower clusters in early June. Flowering goes on for many weeks. Green pods full of seeds with silky white hairs follow the flowers. This is an essential plant if you want to at... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: Sky Blue Aster / Symphyotrichum oolentangiensis
This hardy native plant lights up the autumn garden with it's brilliant pale blue blooms. Found throughout the tallgrass prairie, Sky Blue Aster is found in a wide variety of locations from wet meadows to dry gravel outcrops. This is good news fo... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: (Eurybia divaricata) Woodland Aster
Asters are the backbone of many late summer and fall landscapes. The white woodland aster is a terrific ground cover and is especially valuable because it grows so well in dry shade. Thin, nearly black stems are topped with clouds of white flower... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: Smooth Aster
Smooth Aster, Symphyotrichum laeve, has big cone-shaped clusters of violet-blue flowers with golden yellow centers that appear on the top half of a vase shaped clump. Unlike many other asters, this one has perfectly clean foliage. Tolerate... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: (Symphyotrichum n.a.) New England Aster
Selected many years ago in Germany, this New England Aster produces warm, deep pink blooms without interruption for 4-6 weeks, beginning in early September. A bright color for the fall garden, it provides nectar for butterflies and cover for bird... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: (Symphyotrichum n.a.) New England Aster
'Purple Dome' is a compact bushy plant with a profusion of dark purple, semi-double flowers which cover the plant entirely from September thru October.... [ More Info ]
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Common Name: Lady Fern
Handsome crowns of feathery fronds are typical of Lady Ferns. Delicate and lacy with arching fronds and feathery texture, Athyrium filix-femina is a strong-growing and dependable garden plant. Tough and easy to grow, this beauty is the right choice f...
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Common Name: Red-stemmed Lady Fern
'Lady in Red' has sultry red stems surrounded by bright green, lacy fronds. New fronds arise gracefully from the crown all season long, keeping plants from getting worn looking. Clumps are dense and upright. This deciduous fern is vigorous and ea... [ More Info ]
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