Banana
Musa coccinea
Since bananas must reach a certain size to set fruit, today they are mostly used in the garden for their dramatic foliage.
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Uses: Ornamental
Blue Sky Vine
Thunbergia grandiflora
Blue sky vine is a large, twining vine that boasts beautiful pale blue flowers. It is a rapid grower and becomes quite large over the course of a season.
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Boston Marrow Squash
Cucurbita maxima 'Boston Marrow
Boston Marrows are large, bright orange squashes that can weigh anywhere between 10 and 50 lbs., although 25 lbs. is more common. They are an excellent eating squash and can be turned into soups or pies.
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Boxwood
Buxus spp.
Boxwood are the quintessential southern garden hedge plant. They are popular for use in knot gardens, parterres, edging, and as topiaries. While the historic English boxwood (Buxus suffruiticosa) are especially susceptible to a devastating and widespread blight caused by the fungus Cylindrocladium buxicola, there are new varieties that have been bred to offer various levels of resistance. Several varieties of boxwood grow in the Mount Vernon gardens including: Buxus sempervirens (American), Buxus microphylla var. japonica 'Green Beauty', and 'Morris Dwarf.'
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Butterfly Pea
Clitoria ternatea
Butterfly peas are short lived tropical perennials with striking blue flowers. They have a twining habit and prefer rich, moist, well-drained soils. They make attractive container plants in Virginia.
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Carolina Allspice
Calycanthus floridus
Give this shrub ample room to sprawl, as it tends to sucker when it's happy. The unusual chocolatey maroon flowers give off a spicy sweet fragrance which is echoed in cut twigs and leaves.
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Carolina Jessamine
Gelsemium sempervirens
This rambling evergreen vine sports masses of fragrant tubular yellow flowers in late winter and early spring. It is well-suited for use on arbors and fences.
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Chinaberry
Melia azedarach
Chinaberry is a fast-growing deciduous tree often made of several smaller trunks, as it is able to readily sprout from the roots. The widely spreading crown, pale purple tube-like fragrant blooms, and attractive yellow drupes that persist all winter made it a popular ornamental shade tree in southern yards during the 1900s, but now it is noted for its invasive qualities, naturalizing along roadsides and fence rows. Many animal species - including cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, dogs, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, poultry and humans - have been poisoned by chinaberry, usually by ingesting the fallen fruit.
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Coffee
Coffea arabica
Coffee forms a large shrub with glossy green leaves. It has small white flowers. This plant produces the coffee beans so many of us rely on every day, but in this part of the world is primarily used as an ornamental.
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Globe Artichoke
Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus
Artichokes have large silvery green leaves that make them a striking addition to the garden. Their flower buds are traditionally used for culinary purposes, but if allowed to open offer large, brilliant purple flowers.
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