Four score and seven years ago….make that actually three years and six months ago, the NC Department of Transportation commandeered almost an acre of JLBG for the construction of the new Raleigh outer loop, Interstate 540. Below is an image from 2021 as land clearing had just begun. Here’s the same view this week, as
Pyrrosia polydactyla ‘Middle Finger’ is an excellent clone of the Taiwanese native five-fingered tongue fern with an exceptionally long middle pinnae. Quite a few nurseries, especially in the Pacific Northwest, offer this as another clumping, but uniquely different species, Pyrrosia hastata. In the garden, it’s quite at home in dry shade, especially happy growing on
Middle Finger Fern Read More »
Hypericum lloydii has looked great in the garden for the last few years. This little-known, imperiled (G4 rank) Southeastern US native, has shown excellent potential as a garden plant. In the wild, it’s found in dry open woodlands and woodland edges in well-drained soils in a narrow band from Virginia south to Alabama. In the
Lloyds St. John’s Wort Read More »
This past weekend, I noticed an unexpected fragrance from the mixed border that surrounds our home. It didn’t take long to realize that it was time for the amazing Autumn tea olives, Osmanthus fragrans to begin their perfumed floral show. The first to open for us this year is the amazing Osmanthus fragrans var. aurantiacus
We really love the bamboo genus, Borinda, to the point that everytime I hear O.C. Smith’s 1987 beach music classic, Brenda, I think he’s singing about our bamboo. Our 18 year old clump of Borinda boliana is one of our absolute favorite non-invasive bamboos. Despite the fact that it doesn’t gallop, it’s still a large
It’s hard to miss the giant Hedychium flavum (no relation to the rapper, Flavor Flav) in the garden this month. I first met this gem of a ginger lily years ago, when I was botanizing in Northern Vietnam, near the town of Sapa, where the arching stems were easy to spot, hanging from the steep
A Flava-rite Flavor Read More »
On October 17, JLBG is excited to welcome the International Oak Society as part of their seven-day tour of the Carolinas. If you have an Oak fetish, these are your people. The event follows the International Oak Symposium in Knoxville, Tennessee from October 7-10. You’d hope that Raleigh, as the City of Oaks, would have
Looking lovely on our patio now is the amazing century plant, Agave desmettiana ‘Galactic Traveler’. The coloration on this amazing, tropical, spineless, specimen is truly surreal. We hunted for years, before attaining a single division five years ago, and for the first time this year, we have propagated enough to share through Plant Delights.
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Okay, how many out there are growing kungias? Be honest, now! Kungia is a little-known genus of only two species of succulents, native to Gansu, Shanxii, and northern Sichuan, China. The majority of plants that look anything like this are almost all native to the deserts of Africa, so it’s not surprising that our Kungia
For those who have joined us as a Founding member of JLBG, our quarterly members only newsletter is now available for your reading pleasure. Below is a teaser from our Founder’s message to members. Summer 2024 has been an interesting one from a weather perspective. As of August 5, we had recorded 48 days above
Summer Member Newsletter now on-line Read More »
