Common name:Little Bluestem
Botanical name:Schizachyrium scoparium

Little bluestem is a charming native to the shortgrass prairie, and quite adaptable to urban settings. It is a warm-season bunchgrass that forms an erect clump growing 1 to 3 feet tall. The foliage is green to purplish, being one of the few purple/red colored grasses that is perennial in our region. Its inflorescence are a sort of zig-zaggy clumps of white fuzziness, flowering in mid-summer. The grass turns a lovely deep reddish bronze in the fall, and holds the color through the winter months. A Utah native.

Common name:Krauter Vesuvius Purple-leaf Plum
Botanical name:Prunus cerasifera 'Krauter Vesuvius'

'Krauter Vesuvius' is a deciduous, small tree with a dense, twiggy, oval crown, growing to about 20 feet tall and 15 feet wide. It has light pink, fragrant flowers that emerge before the leaves. Leaves emerge a deep red and mature to a reddish purple; it retains this reddish color best in full sun. Small, red, edible fruit ripen July and August. Autumn leaf color is golden yellow to orange. Naturally low branching, and so place where that isn't an issue.

Common name:Switch Grass
Botanical name:Panicum virgatum

Switch grass is a north American native and an original component of the Midwestern Plains. It is a warm-season (it goes dormant during the winter) clumping grass with an upright form, interesting flowers, showy fall color, and a great winter presence. It grows from 4 to 7 feet tall and about half as wide, though in time may spread wider. Airy, delicate flowers appear in mid-summer, hanging along an arching, wiry stem, and are pink to red to orange. Foliage turns yellow to orange in the fall, and the flowers turn a silvery white. there are now many cultivars to choice from, and they all make excellent and low-care additions to perennial or shrub borders, or in more naturally styled settings.

Common name:Pyracantha
Botanical name:Pyracantha

Pyracantha are fast-growing, evergreen shrubs that range in size from large, upright, arching, mounding masses to lower-growing, creeping, suckering groundcovers. All have clusters of fragrant white, spring flowers that mass in clusters along the ends of the previous years branches. Blossoms are followed by berries that ripen in the fall, and depending on the variety, are in shades of red to orange, to yellow. Leaves are small, dark green, glossy, and evergreen. The branches are populated with stiff, sharp thorns. It provides year-long interest to the shrub border, but I'd plant it where you don't have to get too close. The branches with either the flowers or berries, however, are striking in vases.

Common name:Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grass
Botanical name:Calamagrostis acutiflora 'Karl Foerster'

Karl Foerster feather reed grass is a garden favorite, and for good reason. Its green, fine-textured foliage is gently arching and grows to about 2 feet tall and wide. Oat-like plumes stand very erect over the foliage, growing as tall as 5 to 6 feet. Plumes open whiteish green, later turning a dusky rose, and then tawny colored by winter. Blooms early summer with the plumes lasting into autumn. Holds its presence well into winter. Excellent in mixed perennial or shrub borders, or massed.