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If you can’t visit the garden every day of the year, we’ll virtually bring the garden to you with our daily blog, where we feature plants, plant trivia, or other JLBG-related happenings of interest.

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Monarda stipitaglandulosa

Glade Runner

Although it was discovered by U.T. Waterfall (not making this up), in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, in 1966, and subsequently named in 1970, the Glade Bee Balm, Monarda stipitaglandulosa is still little-known in gardens. This is only found in Arkansas and adjacent Oklahoma, where is grows in glades and open woodlands, over alkaline rock. These odd

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Musella rubrobracteata 'Sunrise'

If Live Gives you Bananas, Make ’em Orange

When I first read the 2010 paper describing the discovery of an orange-flowered Musella (dwarf yellow banana), I was hopelessly hooked, and my heart filled with lust. Hanging out at 4,000′ elevation in China’s Sichuan province was a previously undiscovered population of only 130 orange-flowered plants, compared the more typical yellow. When you have grown

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Acer pubipalmatum

Hairy Backside Maple

Looking quite stunning is the garden, is the Eastern Chinese (Anhui, Zhejiang provinces) native, Acer pubipalmatum. Our 13 year old specimen is now 15′ tall. Related to the more common Japanese maple, Acer palmatum, the main difference is the pubescent (hairy) leaf backs. If that isn’t complicated enough, taxonomists then lumped Acer pubipalmatum with Acer

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Hydrangea ampla

Ample Hydrangea

Flowering this week at JLBG is the little known, woody, vining Hydrangea ampla. Originally discovered in Sichuan, China, it has recently been discovered and collected in Northern Vietnam, often under the name Hydrangea megalocarpa, which is almost certainly the same plant. Our specimen, from an Ozzie Johnson/Scott McMahon collection, has thrived with no damage since

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Iberis umbellata seed pods

A Seedy Imposter

A few years ago, we purchased seed of Iberis gibralterica, an African perennial candytuft. What we got instead was a lavender flowered form of the annual candytuft, most likely, Iberis umbellata. Imagine, a mail order nursery sending out a mis-identified plant. In our crevice garden, it puts on an early spring, show, before going dormancy

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