WELCOME!
To Plant Delights Nursery

Unlike most plant nurseries, Plant Delights has a strong educational focus. Our other mission is to expand the base of knowledge about perennial plants through our talks, as well as our gardening articles and botanical expedition logs posted on our website. In our role as the Mythbusters of Gardening, we strive to study these plant genera and sort out much of the nomenclatural and horticultural mis-information that persists in the literature. To encourage a reduction of wild harvest of rare plants for commercial production and to promote habitat preservation, we also have a special dedication to grow and propagate rare and endangered US native wildflowers.

We have several perennial plant genera in which we specialize, most of which we have one of the top collections in the world. These specialty groups include Agave (Century Plant), Amorphophallus (Voodoo Lily), Arisaema (Jack in the Pulpit), Arum (Arum Lily), Asarum (Wild Ginger), Asparagus (Asparagus Fern), Aspidistra (Cast Iron Plant), Baptisia (Redneck Lupine), Buddleia (Butterfly Bush), Carex (Sedge), Colocasia (Elephant Ears), Crinum (Crinum Lily), Disporum (Solomon’s Seal), Disporopsis (Evergreen Solomon’s Seal), Epimedium (Fairy Wings), Farfugium (Leopard Plant), Hardy Ferns, Hedychium (Ginger Lily), Helleborus (Hellebores or Lenten Rose), Hibiscus (Hardy Mallow), Hosta (Plantain Lily), Hymenocallis (Surprise Lily), Liriope (Monkey Grass), Lycoris (Surprise Lily), Ophiopogon (Mondo Grass), Polygonatum (Solomon’s Seal), Salvia (Perennial Sages), Sinningia (Hardy Gloxinia), Smilacina (False Solomon’s Seal), Tricyrtis (Toad Lily), Trillium (Toadshade), Yucca (Yucca Lily), Zephyranthes (Rain Lilies).

Other secondary specialty groups include Agapanthus (Lily-of-the-Nile), Alocasia (Upright Elephant Ears), Alstroemeria (Princess Lilies), Canna (Canna Lilies), Bambusa, Borinda, and Fargesia (Clumping Bamboo), Sabal, Trachycarpus, Butia, Chamaerops, Rhapidophyllum (Cold Hardy Palms), Curcuma (Pine Cone Gingers), Dasylirion (Sotol), Echinacea (Coneflower), Eucomis (Pineapple Lilies), Habranthus (Rain Lilies), Cypripedium, Calanthe, Bletilla (Hardy Orchids), Heuchera (Coral Bells), Iris species (Hardy Iris), Kniphofia (Red Hot Poker), Musa (Hardy Banana Trees), Arundo, Miscanthus, Muhlenbergia, Panicum, Pennisetum, Saccharum, Sporobolus (Ornamental Grasses), and Sarracenia (Pitcher Plants)

Plant Delights is also known worldwide for our work with the king of shade plants, hostas. Between 1990 and 2011, we introduced over 91 new hosta cultivars to the market, most of which came from our own crosses. Our hosta breeding program, focused on unique, vigorous, and garden-worthy selections has yielded many groundbreaking introductions including Hosta ‘Elvis Lives’, ‘White Wall Tire’, ‘Outhouse Delight’, ‘Zebra Stripes’, ‘Carolina Sunshine’, ‘Dixie Chick’, ‘Squash Casserole’, and ‘Tattoo’. Our breeding work continues and we look forward to many unique new hostas in the coming years.