• Southern magnolias light up springtime.magnolia image by corinne matusiak from Fotolia.com
  
  Southern gardeners, blessed with a mild climate and long growing season, have a wealth of plants from which to choose. In the Old South, several plants have become emblematic of the area, shrubs and trees that are either native or date to the days of colonial settlements, and they make great additions to any Southern landscape.
  
  

Boxwood

• Boxwood's white flowers signal the time to trim.box hedge image by Edsweb from Fotolia.com
  
  Boxwood still fills the gardens and lines the lanes of Colonial Williamsburg. Boxwood defines spaces and provides a living ornament from the Tidewater to the Mississippi. Individual cultivars grow in gardens in USDA hardiness zones 5 to 8 and grow well in containers. According to the Virginia Cooperative Extension, two species are widely grown in the South: American boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) and Littleleaf boxwood (Buxus microphylla). The most popular sempervirens is the traditional English boxwood (B. sempervirens Suffruticosa). Its slow-growing, compact mound of small, tear-shaped leaves grows 3 to 4 feet tall and spreads 4 to 5 feet as it matures. Another variety, B. sempervirens Pendula, is a small tree. Buxus microphylla, an Asian immigrant species, is more heat-tolerant than the American varieties. Most boxwoods are evergreen and easily sheared, simplifying pruning and allowing easy creation of topiary or sculptural pieces.
  
  

Magnolia

• Magnolias are well-liked for the shade they provide and for their spring displays.line of magnolia trees image by jimcox40 from Fotolia.com
  
  The Southern magnolia is the state tree of Mississippi, and Magnolia grandiflora is also the state flower of Mississippi and Louisiana. Magnolia virginiana, the Sweet Bay magnolia, was the first native American magnolia introduced in Europe, in 1688. Today, more than 80 species of trees and large shrubs grow as far north as Wisconsin. Traditional Southern magnolias, however, are evergreen and hardy only to zone 6. Magnolias are grown in the South for their spring display and deep shade. The tree is ancient as well as traditional; it was cultivated in 7th-century China and in Central America by the Aztecs. The unusual flowers excrete a sugary substance to attract beetles, which pollinate the tree instead of bees. Magnolias make superb shade trees as well as ornamentals.
  
  

Live Oak

• Live oaks grow great, sprawling crowns.under the great oak image by Emmy from Fotolia.com
  
  Quercus virginiana, the state tree of Georgia, is also a broadleaf evergreen. Its wood is one of the densest, heaviest hardwoods of a species known for its deciduous hardwoods, and is used for shipbuilding and structural beams. Its simple, long leaves drop in spring as new leaves grow in. The dappled shade of live oaks cools summer lawns and city streets from Norfolk, Va., to Southern Florida and around the Gulf of Mexico to South Texas. It grows in sandy coastal soils and moist woodlands in Southern watersheds. Along the Gulf Coast, epiphytic plants such as Spanish moss grow in its broad crown and take their nourishment from the air around them. The live oak's dark-green crown grows wider than the tree is tall; the 1984 Florida Champion live oak measured 83 feet tall with a 150.5-foot-diameter crown and a 9-foot-diameter trunk. It's a great, big, old Southern tree in the truest sense of the phrase.