John Gutting is a passionate advocate for native plants. So when this landscape architect from Church Hill, Maryland, was presented the task of restoring a formal walled garden, outfitting it with parterres of tightly clipped boxwoods wasn't an option. He stuck with his passion, and the results are beautiful.

The garden is only 100 feet square. It consists of two equal sections--a sunny upper garden devoted to meadow plants and a semi-shaded lower one for moisture-loving types. A central pathway, sheltered by a handsome wood-and-metal arbor, leads you through a gateway from one section to the other.

The plantings represent a selection of species native to the Chesapeake Bay region. When I visited the garden during the spring, the flowers were glorious. In the upper garden, trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) and crossvine (Bignonia capreolata) draped the arbor with bright scarlet blossoms. Dwarf-eared coreopsis (Coreopsis auriculata 'Nana'), blue star (Amsonia tabernaemontana), golden star (Chrysogonum virginianum), and other wildflowers carpeted the ground. In the lower garden, cheery yellow blooms of golden groundsel (Senecio aureus) were mirrored in the waters of a perimeter pond.

But this is not a one-season garden--John planned it for a succession of bloom. "From April to November, there's a symphony of colors, flowers coming in and bowing out," he says. "This is what happens in nature all the time." For example, late summer and autumn give witness to joe-pye weed (Eupatorium purpureum), goldenrod (Solidago sp.), asters, cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), and swamp sunflower (Helianthus angustifolius) in bloom. Many of the flowers play host to butterflies and hummingbirds.