Common name:Fernbush
Botanical name:Chamaebatiaria millefolium

Fernbush is a wonderful Utah native, well suited to urban life. It has an upright, rounded form, growing about 3 to 5 feet tall. Bright green foliage emerges in the spring, and as the name suggests, has a fern-like appearance. foliage has a lemony-pine scent when bruised. Mid-summer sees clusters of white flowers appearing at the ends of branches. Bark is red and shreddy. Though not typically evergreen in our region, it holds its foliage late into the autumn. Use in the shrub or foundation border, as an informal hedge, or near the veggie garden as a pollinator-attractor.

Common name:Smoketree
Botanical name:Cotinus coggygria

Smoketree is a deciduous shrub with a multi-stemmed, upright habit, growing about 10 to 15 feet tall and wide. Can be pruned to be a small tree. Its common name is not from the tiny, insignificant, yellowish spring flowers, but from the billowy hairs (attached to elongated stalks on the spent flower clusters) which turn a smokey pink to purplish pink in summer, covering the tree with fluffy, hazy, smoke-like puffs. Bluish-green leaves are rounded. Several attractive purple-leaved cultivars of this species are available and are generally more popular landscape plants than the species. Fall color is highly variable, but at its best produces very attractive shades of yellow, orange, red and purplish-red.

Common name:Dallas Blues Switchgrass
Botanical name:Panicum virgatum 'Dallas Blues'

Dallas Blues switchgrass is a dense, erect grass known for it's steely gray-blue foliage, which is wider than most panicums, and turns shades of rust brown to warm tan in winter. Stems typically retain vertical form without flopping throughout the growing season and into winter. Foliage clump is topped in early September by large, finely-textured, purple-tinged flower panicles that hover over the foliage like a cloud. Seed plumes persist throughout winter, providing visual interest as well as food for birds. Grows about 4 to 6 feet tall and 2 to 3 feet wide.

Common name:Catmint
Botanical name:Nepeta x faassenii

Catmint makes soft, grey-green, rounded mounds from 10 to 24 inches high, depending on variety. Most will be wider than tall. This perennial has lavender blue flowers from late spring to early summer, though if you shear off the first flowers, it will frequently bloom again later in the summer. Different varieties have slightly different bloom times. Leaves are attractive, crinkled blue-grey and are aromatic.

Common name:Blue Oat Grass
Botanical name:Helictotrichon sempervirens

Blue oat grass is a striking ornamental grass with blue foliage and a clumping habit. It grows 12 to 18 inches tall and wide. Its showy flowers are 1 to 2 feet above the foliage. Is evergreen in mild winters. This plant looks good alone as well as in mass plantings. The blue oat grass likes dry hill sides and is drought tolerant.