There are many ferns to contrast with the hostas suggested by amili also heucheras, tiarellas, carexes, solomon's seal for native foliage.For non-native folaige, it's hard to beat Hakone grass. For flowers, the first thing that comes to mind is lobelia cardinalis (red flowers in late summer)or lobelia syphilitica (blue flowers). Another plant to consider is Spigelia which is attractive to hummers as is the lobelia. There is a book published by Timber Press "Native Plants of the Northeast" by Donald J. Leopold that might be helpful to you for native plant suggestions. Pat

I agree with Rootdigger as to studying plants on site where there are labels, and the links she has given are very good ones. However, in a class I recently took they recommended Lawrence Newcomb's WILDFLOWER GUIDE and the newer edition of WILDFLOWERS OF NC (Justice,Bell, Lindsey)...but the latter is not arranged in any order, so it is difficult to use, IMHO. We also used Dr. Jon Stucky's KEY TO FAMILES AND GENERA OF NATIVE AND NATURALIZED WINTER & SPRING FLOWERING HERBS, VINES, &SHRUBS OF THE RALEIGH AREA, which was fairly easy to use. Since Sqftgarden is in western NC, some of the TN books would also be good. Again, going to gardens where there are labels helped me more than the books did several years ago when I first seriously tried to learn names of these wonderful natives. After seeing them in the garden setting, then I walked around in the mountains and here in the Piedmont and tried to apply what I saw in those gardens and in the books. I am still trying to learn...I keep noticing things that I had not seen before. Oh, if you join NCNPS, you can also join one of the local groups. The Greensboro area group has its own website, and folks often post photos of things for ID.

The tall everlasting was collected and described by the botanist and explorer Allan Cunningham in Augustin Pyramus de Candolle's 1838 work Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis as Helichrysum elatum,[1][2] the species name being the Latin adjective elatus 'tall'.[3] The large genus Helichrysum was long recognised as polyphyletic and many of its members have been transferred to new genera. Botanist Paul G. Wilson erected the new genus Coronidium for 17 species of daisy of the eastern states of Australia,[4] and it was given its new name of C. elatum in 2008.[5] Three subspecies are recognised, two of which are highly restricted in distribution. Subspecies vellerosum is found on the summit of Mount Warning and is more woolly-leaved and reaches a height of 1 m (3 ft), and subspecies minus is found only at Point Lookout in New England National Park. Reaching 80 cm high, it has smaller and thinner leaves than the nominate subspecies.[4] Here is a link that might be useful: Coronidium elatum

Try this site: www.everwilde.com They are in west central WI and sell seeds.