Hello from Sunlight Gardens, your premier
mail order source for wildflowers, ferns, vines, perennials, and shrubs of eastern North America.


We grow hardy, robust plants that will beautify your gardens and support a diversity of wildlife. We can help you succeed in this by providing you with solid information, a great selection, and high quality plants. Our plants grow! And rest assured that all our plants are entirely nursery propagated and are grown with sustainability in mind.

Our web site is secure. You can order on-line. Or, if you prefer, you can download a pdf version of our print catalog here to the right and print the order form in it, and send us your order via snail mail . Read, enjoy, and happy browsing.

June

June means summer here in east Tennessee. Schools are out. The grass is still green. Our forests are a green jungle. The perennial garden is full of color, and our roadside and meadow plants are coming into flower. This spring was long, cool, and wet, so everything is lush and overflowing. We anticipate good seed set on our spring bloomers. And about now, June’s featured plant, dutchmans pipevine, is winding its way up through the forest understory, searching for a bit of sunlight. Soon its curious yellow/brown, pipe-like flowers will open, and a bit later, pipevine swallowtail caterpillars will find it and devour its leaves. This is a nice vine for a shaded spot with good soil. It could wind through your trees or grow over a shaded trellis. Both the big heart-shaped leaves and the flowers are attractive.

This Month's Featured Plant
Aristolochia macrophylla, Dutchmans Pipe, Pipevine
Aristolochia macrophylla
Dutchmans Pipe, Pipevine
Dutchmans Pipe is a common vine in moist southern Appalachian hardwood forests in coves and along stream banks easily twining 20 to 30 feet high. It has been popular as a porch screen for ages because it is fast growing, has large heart shaped leaves, and has odd little flowers. The two inch pale brownish purple flowers are pipe shaped or s-shaped with a widely flaring triangular "mouth" perfect for catching careless flies. The curious looking early summer flowers are borne sparsely among the wide leaves. Try it on a trellis for screening or let it ramble among shrubs and trees. It likes good moist soil and can take either shade or sun.;It is also the host plant for the pipevine swallowtail butterfly. The black butterfly caterpillars feed on leaves of Dutchmans Pipe and become poisonous to predators. Adult butterflies are a beautiful black and blue. click here
$12.00 each
   

Good Companions for Dutchman's Pipevine
Meehania cordataCreeping Mint, Meehan's Mint
Carex flacca 'Blue Zinger'Blue Zinger Sedge
Dicentra eximiaWild Bleeding Heart

Pictured: Flame Azalea
Rhododendron calendulaceum

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Our 2013 Catalog

Sunlight Gardens 2013 Catalog

Our 2013 Catalog has arrived!
Click the link below to download it now!
2013 Catalog (10mb .pdf)

Order Form: SunlightGardensForm.pdf (80k)

We've started a gallery for some extra photos we want on the site, take a look!

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All our plant descriptions include the temperature zones in which each will thrive. Look at our Hardiness Zone map to determine which zone number matches your location.

Lure butterflies to your favorite spot. Click here for a list of plants these beautiful creatures are attracted to.

Which flowers are
irresistable to hummingbirds.

Are deer a problem? These plants are generally not tasty to deer.

Drought Tolerant

Just getting started? Try something easy to grow.

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Or try something not too hard.