Filed under: Gardening, Flowers
Each week, bring something new to your garden/windowsill/favorite vase -- and impress your friends with your ahead-of-the-curve picks.
Northern bayberry and its fruit. Photo: Marie Viljoen
Northern bayberry -- Myrica pensylvanica -- is a low-maintenance, native herb. A low-growing stalwart of dunes and coastal vegetation, it withstands dry conditions and salt spray. Crush its leaves and the scent talks of the seaside. A semi evergreen shrub, most people recognize its attractive dusky purple berries, hard as BB pellets. Recently I started to cook with its aromatic leaves and discovered in them a fresh alternative to bay leaf. The shrubs grow in sand, on dry roof tops and resist the onslaught of deer.
Learn more about bayberry.