5o my prie^ds aijd patrops 
IN presenting this, our annual catalogue of native plants for the season of 1889-90, 
we desire to thank our friends and patrons for the kind words and liberal 
orders with whicli we have been favored during the past year, and by care 
and devotion to our work, hope to merit a continuance of the same. By 
furnishing the means for making the home surroundings more beautiful and attrac- 
tive, we trust we may add to the happiness of others. 
In the propagation and sale of the native plants of this Southern Alleghany re- 
gion, we are engaging in a work that has heretofore been greatly neglected. While 
the whole earth outside the United Slates has been searched and explored to obtain 
the choicest trees and plants for beautifying our American parks, lawns and gar- 
dens, and while these foreign growths are common, yet the more beautiful Ameri- 
can plants are rarely seen in cultivation, and are almost unknown to Americans. 
Prof. W. A. Stiles, writing of this Highland section to the New York Tribune, 
says: " The richness of the forest in arborescent species is fairly matched by the 
varied forms of shrubs and smaller trees, for it is a fact that no part of the world has 
furnished the gardens ol Europe and America with so many ornamental plants of 
this kind as this same Alleghany region, and nowhere do they appear in such a revel 
of luxuriance as under these mild, moist skies, and in this fruitful soil. 
" Along the course of every rocky stream up to an altitude of 4,000 feet, are 
masses of the greater rhododendron and kalniia, while on the borders of the imper- 
vious thickets they form, are smaller broad-leaved evergreen under-shrubs of rar- 
est beauty. 
"The most beautiful of flowering shrubs are the azaleas, and four of the five 
species which belong to the flora of the continent are here massed together in im- 
pervious profusion and luxuriance. More common than the pinxter flower of the 
Northern wood borders, is the great flame-colored azalea {A. calendulacea), whose 
blood has added vigor and vividness to the hybrids which are the most striking or- 
naments of the parks and gardens of the old and new worlds. 
"These are named as the most conspicuous of the flowering shrubs, but there 
are others like the Rhododendron Vaseyi, discovered some few years ago, besides 
a dozen other genera that could be named, each with a special charm of its own. To 
these add the species that are small lawn trees in the North, but attain the stature 
of timber trees here, and we have a group that for neatness of habit and beauty of 
foliage, flowers and fruit, and brilliance of autumn coloring, has no rival in the flora 
of the world." 
In MOIST, LOOSE, PEATY soil, these "American plants "grow in perfection and 
rival in beauty and luxuriance the grandest display of foreign plants. 
Mr. E. S. Rand, in his valuable work on Rhododendron, says : " We do not ap- 
preciate our American flora, and have shut our eyes to the richness that lies all 
around us. In England, the crowning glory of horticultural exhibitions is the show 
of 'American plants,' and we in America don't know what they are." 
The location of Highlands Nursery, near the summit of the Blue Ridge, in alow 
latitude, and at an altitude of about 3,800 feet, insures long cool summers and mild 
winters, which is not only very favorable to the growth of these beautiful native or- 
namentals, but produces a hardy stock,— a very valuable point, and one which 
should not be overlooked by our northern planters. 
We would call especial attention to our select list of Herbaceous Perennials, 
many of which are rare in cultivation and difficult to procure ; we hope another year 
to greatly enlarge our collection of this beautiful, and as Thomas Meehan calls it, 
" indispensable " class of plants. 
In closing, we would only say in the words of E. S. Rand : " Grow Rhododen- 
drons and other American plants ; they are always beautiful, pleasing alike in foliage 
and in gorgeous bloom." And considering the low cost and satisfactory results ob- 
tained, we are certain you will never have cause to regret the planting of our native 
plants and flowers. 
