On a hot July day in the late '80s, I went out into my backyard to plant a butterfly bush (amazingly enough, the plant lived for several years). As I was digging a hole, something caught my eye as I threw a shovelful of dirt over to the side. There, sitting atop the fresh earth, was something I'd seen only in glass cases — an arrowhead.

As I picked up the flat piece of stone, I had this strange sensation. Someone had lived in this place, perhaps hundreds of years earlier. I looked around me and wondered what the world had looked like to the person who made this. Had an acorn from a white oak he had camped under become the 100-year-old tree hanging over my house? Did he ever seek shelter under the big shelf of exposed granite outside my kitchen? It was an awesome feeling.

Martha Tate / Special (ENLARGE)

Sourwood is Martha's plant pick for this week.

Martha Tate / Special (ENLARGE)

The leaves of Magnolia tripetala are impressive.

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Last Wednesday (a day when the leaves were at their peak), I took a legal pad and a pen and walked around, listing everything native I could recognize, again wondering just what was here when that arrowhead was made.

That list, which I keep adding to as things pop into mind, has made me particularly thankful for all the beauty of autumn and for the humans and other creatures who've made this their home over the years.

Following are some recommendations of good ornamental native plants you can find for sale. The choices are inspired by what's growing on these four acres in Atlanta:

• American beech: I have a giant one of these and then several in all stages of growth. They are all beautiful year-round. In midwinter, when the sun shines on the smooth silver trunk of the huge tree, it is breathtaking. The leaves stay on beeches all year (except for the largest ones); in autumn they are a gorgeous burnished orange mixed with green, and in February they are particularly beautiful when they turn a translucent cream color. A fabulous specimen tree for the landscape.

• Hearts-a-bustin Euonymus americana: In September, and sometimes hanging on until November, you have these interesting red and hot-pink seedpods on a spindly, open shrub. The leaves turn a pale cream color in late autumn. Great for a natural woodland.

• Christmas fern: These tough evergreen ferns look beautiful when red sweetgum leaves land on them in fall. In June, I like to cut the fronds to mix with daisies and Asiatic lilies for a nice bouquet.

• Cardinal flower Lobelia cardinalis: These bright red perennials were stunted by lack of rain this year, but they are a welcome sight in August and September. A tall, spiky flower that attracts hummingbirds.

• Umbrella magnolia Magnolia tripetala: You won't find this deciduous understory plant in the trade, but the very similar ashei is available. I love the whorl of giant leaves in summer, and then in fall, it's fun to pick up the sometimes 18-inch-long leaves and marvel at them.

• Native azalea: I have two kinds on the property. One is flammeum and a dark orange; the other is a fragrant white one blushed in pink (only found this one this year). I guess the latter is a hybrid of the alabamense. Native azaleas need more light than mine have for good bloom set.

• Some additional native treasures in my woods: Ginger (asarum), wood fern, painted buckeye, climbing wild hydrangea (beautiful clear light yellow autumn leaf color), wild Hydrangea arborescens (the deer love to lop off the flat, creamy blooms), sassafras, bloodroot, tiny wild anemones, trillium, both Florida and pagoda dogwoods, Virginia creeper, jack-in-the-pulpit, ironwood tree, water oak, scarlet oak, muscadine, Southern sugar maple (and other maples), white oaks, redbuds, some type of birch, black walnut, Magnolia grandiflora, black gum (great fall color), sycamore.

MARTHA'S PICK

Sourwood, Oxydendrum arboreum

About the plant: An exquisite smallish tree (can grow tall in the woods) that blooms in June, with creamy, spidery trusses. Most years, this is the first tree to turn in autumn. This year it was later (peaking last week), and the color was different, glowing orange instead of red. Leaves are oblong. Deciduous.

Use in the garden: A must-have tree. Plant at the edge of a woodland with an evergreen magnolia in back to show off the fall leaf color.

Planting and care: Plant in partial shade to part sun. Bagworms can be a problem some years.

Source: Land Arts, 809 N. Broad St., Monroe; 770-267-4500.

Martha Tate gardens in Atlanta and is co-producer of HGTV's "A Gardener's Diary." Her column on landscape design appears biweekly. Write to her in care of AJC Home & Garden, P.O. Box 4689, Atlanta, GA 30302.