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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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Hippeastrum idimae

Not your Average Amaryllis

This January, we first flowered Hippeastrum idimae, a 2017 published species from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that we received from our friends at Yucca Do in 2015. This new species was discovered by amateur Brazilian botanist, Idimá Gonçalves da Costa, in a long-ago deforested area, where it had survived among a few granite outcrops. This […]

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Aspidistra elatior 'Morning Frost'

Morning Frost

The cast iron plant, Aspidistra elatior ‘Morning Frost’ is looking particularly dapper in the winter garden. We think the variegated cultivars of cast iron plants provide a lovely touch of brightness in the winter woodland. Typically, cast iron plant foliage lasts for 2-3 years, and by year three, it begins to look ragged. Every spring,

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Opuntia messacanta ssp. lata in winter

Sickly Prickly

While summer visitors to JLBG often admire our extensive collection of Opuntia (prickly pear), few folks rave about them during the winter months. That’s because most prickly pears have a less attractive phase during cold weather. For a plant that’s composed of mostly water, opuntias learned to survive winter, by dramatically reducing the water content

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Pyrrosia hastata 'Storm Watch'

Counting Fingers

We’ve recently written about the running tongue ferns, Pyrrosia lingua, but wanted to delve deeper into those winter hardy Pyrrosia species which, instead, form tight clumps. The two most prevalent clumping species in cultivation are Pyrrosia hastata and Pyrrosia polydactyla. Unfortunately, the two species are thoroughly mixed in the trade, most likely because they came

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Agave x ocareginae 'Green Artichoke'

Time to Slice and Dice an Artichoke?

In 2014, as part of our agave breeding program, we made a cross of two winter hardy century plants from Northern Mexico, Agave ocahui and Agave victoriae-reginae. By 2016, the seedlings from that cross were large enough to be planted outdoors. From our seedling offspring, we made ten initial selections, which represented the diversity of

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Ceratozamia hildae

Mexican Bamboo Cycad

Most of the prehistoric sago palms we grow in the garden are Chinese natives, yet a few of the most unusual, winter hardy ones we grow are actually North American natives. Ceratozamia hildae, which looks great this week, hails from oak woodlands in the provinces of Queretaro and San Luis Potosi, at elevations up to

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