In the plant world, plants that have no chance of selling, except to a tiny few crazed plant collectors, are called BIO plants, which stands for “of botanical interest only”. Coptis japonica var. dissecta fits the bill on all accounts. This fascinating Asian woodland perennial maintains a small evergreen rosette, topped in spring with tiny
The ultimate BIO plant Read More »
Here are a couple more cactus hybrids flowering in the gardens of JLBG, both created by our volunteer cactus/succulent curator, Vince Schneider. The first is a Trichocereus cross, the parents of which were created by a former volunteer, Mike Papay. Vince crossed two of Mike’s selections to come up with the gem. My camera had
A Rainbow of crazy cactus colors Read More »
The non-weedy Ajuga ‘Blueberry Muffin’ from the breeders at Terra Nova has really put on quite a show at JLBG this spring. We love the non-seeding and slow spreading traits…not to mention the amazing floral show.
Hungry for a Blueberry Muffin? Read More »
Magnolia officinalis var. biloba ‘Fireworks’ is stunning in the garden, from its dark purple buds to the vivid pink flowers. Typical Magnolia officinalis var. biloba has white flowers, so this amazing plant is most unusual.
I’ve discovered that after everyone leaves at the end of each day, Jasper sneaks down to our patch of Kitty Crack (aka: Teucrium marum) and takes a few hits…for medicinal stress relief purposes, I’m sure. Kitty crack is sooo much better than catnip!
Catatonic in the Garden Read More »
We’ve got some really superb unyaaw’s blooming now. Actually, if you’re not of the Cajun persuasion, they’re onions…of the genus Allium. The North American native Allium canadense is quite showy in the late spring/early summer garden. The first is a superbly dense flowering selection, Allium ‘White Flag’, made by the late bulb guru, Thad Howard.
Uun-yaaw noun (Cajun) Read More »
Our oldest clumps of the hardy orchid, Bletilla striata are just amazing…once we learned that these aren’t shade plants. These are under a tall pine and get 1-2 hours of sun.
Titilating Bletilla Read More »
Sounding more like a soft drink/crayon combination, Orangeola is actually a stunning selection of weeping, dissected, purple-leaf Japanese maple. Our oldest specimen at JLBG is now 27 years old, and measures 5′ tall x 12′ wide…sorry that size doesn’t really match what you’ll find on-line. We think it’s one of the most handsome clones we
To identify plants that are new to us, we start with the time-tested step of determining how close plants look to relatives we already know. This comes first, before we dive into floral dissection, etc. In most cases, we can get pretty close to a correct id, since we’ve grown and seen such a large
Obscure and Ambiguous Read More »
Just flowering at JLBG is our largest clone of the hardy aroid, Dracunculus vulgaris, that we named ‘Supersize’. This one produced a massive 30″ inflorescence. A typical length is 15-20″. We’d be curious is anyone has grown one any larger. As you can imagine, it was quite a feast for the pollinating flies.
Supersize & Vulgar Read More »
