Big hair comes and goes in fashion, but Panicum virgatum ‘Ledbetter Blues’ takes big hair to a whole new level. This exceptional form is a Wade Roitsch (Yucca Do) selection from Lee County, Texas. This cultivar defies the current trend toward narrow selections, by being yuuuge. Although the size of our 3.5 year old clump
Really big, Texas-sized Hair Read More »
Hedychium ‘Raffillii’ is hard to miss in the mid-August garden, with its brilliant floral show. It’s little wonder this 1941 Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit (AGM) winner is touted as one of the finest ginger lilies ever introduced. For us, this Hedychium coccineum selection is one of the earlier ginger lilies to flower,
Two of the lovely silver-foliaged clones of the tropical Agave desmettiana are looking quite lovely in our container display this summer. The first is Agave desmettiana ‘Quicksilver’ with a narrow green border, and below is Agave desmettiana ‘Silver Moon’, with a narrow white border. Agave desmettiana is one of the most highly prized of the
We recently had a taxonomic eureka moment, when our wild collected bulb of Lycoris shaanxiensis came into flower. Although we have grown hundreds of bulbs, we received from the former Kaichen Nursery (Chen Yi) of China as Lycoris shaanxiense, not a single one of those ever turned out to be correctly identified. 99.99 % of
Where does Peppermint Come From? Read More »
Back in 2004, we noticed an odd fern in our spore pots of Dryopteris tokyoensis, so we set it aside for planting in the garden. After several years in the ground, we concluded that it seemed to be a hybrid of the Asian Dryopteris tokyoensis and the North American Dryopteris ludoviciana…something we really didn’t think
Our native switch grass, Panicum virgatum is at the height of its popularity, but that’s getting ready to expand with the introduction of two unique new selections. Panicum virgatum ‘Blue Spear’, from plant breeder Hans Hansen of Walters Gardens, created an entirely new type of inflorescence, that he calls, fused panicles. This gives the grass
Switching up Switch Grass Read More »
We’ve written before about several of the new windmill palm hybrids that are becoming available thanks to crosses being made in Europe. One that has really impressed us are the hybrids with the silver-backed Trachycarpus princeps, and the dwarf, Trachycarpus nanus. We call these seed strains, Trachycarpus x nanceps (unpublished) ‘Little Prince’. We use this
As the Windmills Turn Read More »
After having the same personalized plate for over 45 years, it was finally time to turn our faded, unreadable tag to the Motor Vehicles office, in exchange for a new one, which recently arrived. In NC, much of the income from personalized plates goes to an array of efforts including highway beautification and plant preservation.
Licensed to Garden Read More »
We are thoroughly enchanted by a little-known Southeast native ornamental grass, Schizachyrium divergens, and in particular, a ZZ-Top like, super hairy version, named Schizachyrium divergens ‘The Fuzz’. We say little-known, because it was formerly dumped into the widespread Schizachyrium scoparium, which seems an unconscionable taxonomic stretch. Some taxonomists now consider it a Texas endemic, while
Emmenopterys henryi is a poorly known, but highly-prized, large (150′ tall) tree in the Rubiaceae (coffee) family. It was described by plant explorer, E.H. Wilson, as one of the most beautiful of the Chinese trees, yet, it was a tree, that for years, rarely flowered in cultivation. It’s namesake, Irish botanist, Augustine Henry, first discovered
Emmenopterys – The Need for Heat Read More »
