Cavano's Perennials.

About three of every four plants Cavano's grows are natives. If you want coneflower, mountain mint, cardinal flower and goldenrod grown by people who care which bee shows up, this is the bench.

It started smaller. George and Marlene Cavano began in 1972 with cut flowers on a five-acre farm outside Baltimore. Marlene grew perennials for cutting before anyone called perennials a trend. Customers kept asking to take them home in pots, and by 1980 that was the whole business.

Ferenc Kiss and Taylor Pilker bought the nursery in 2015 after years of working side by side. Today more than 50 people grow over 1,700 varieties across the original farm and a second site nearby. They are a licensed grower for American Beauties, the country's first native plant brand, and they work with a pest specialist so a problem gets treated only where it actually is, which has cut the number of sprays they need. The Perennial Plant Association named them Grower of the Year in 2017.

Their natives and perennials are on their way to the shop.