After finishing a recent lunch, I headed outside on the porch to fill our bird feeders. Normally, all the birds instinctively retreat to a safe distance, awaiting their new snack, but something was different this day. A solitary house finch remained, seemingly oblivious as I re-filled the feeder. Why, I wondered, did it not
Do you know beesia? Outside of the plant collector world, few people have heard of this obscure member of the Ranunculus family…first cousin to hellebores, thalictrum, and clematis. There are only two species, both native to moist woodland soils at high elevations in the Himalayas. Surprisingly, Beesia calthifolia thrives in our heat and humidity
Beesia – have you met yet? Read More »
We’ve raved about the gold-foliaged, evergreen Carex oshimensis ‘Everillo’, but always for the foliage. Today, we want to rave about its amazing floral show. Here are photos from the garden taken yesterday as it sports its late-winter flowers. We trim the old foliage back to better enjoy the show
Carex ‘Everillo’ in flower Read More »
We love the little-known Helleborus lividus, so here’s a photo of one of our clumps in the gardens today. Unlike most better known lenten roses, this amazing Spanish native loves heat and sun. Helleborus lividus isn’t hardy north of Zone 7b, and without summer heat, it looses even more winter hardiness. This is a
Helleborus lividus in flower Read More »
We’d like to sing the praises of the amazing Cyclamen coum. Here are photos from the garden today. These start flowering for us in mid-February and continue until April, after which time, they go summer dormant, re-emerging in fall. The secret to success is to plant them near trees/shrubs where they will remain dry in
Cyclamen coum in flower Read More »
Among many flowers in the garden today are the native trout lilies, Erythronium rostratum (Ohio to Texas). This small woodland ephemeral perennial is amazing, both for its foliage and flowers. By May, it’s gone to sleep for the summer. We are growing these from seed, which should take 2-3 years to have flowering-size plants
Trout lilies in flower Read More »
I just took this photo of the the amazing Tibouchina urvilleana ‘Variegata‘ sporting its winter colors. As temperatures in our cold frame hover around the mid-30’s – 40s, the foliage takes on this amazing purple overlay. When temps drop much below freezing, tibouchina becomes deciduous, but if you have a cool greenhouse or sun room,
Tibouchina foliage in winter Read More »
If you weren’t able to make it to our Winter Open Gardens and Nursery, here are some hellebore photos we took this morning. The first is the amazing Helleborus ‘Anna’s Red’. We’ll be adding more hellebores on-line after open house ends tomorrow (Sunday), but we really hope you can
Open Nursery and Garden Hellebores in flower Read More »
We are very excited to see that we have at least 9 agaves so far that will be flowering in 2016. Above is a recent photo of Agave victoriae-reginae where you can see the bud forming in the center where the leaves have become reduced in size. While we lose the agaves after flowering, we
Agaves and Mangaves Read More »
Greetings from Plant Delights Nursery and Juniper Level Botanic Garden. We hope you’ve received your 2016 Plant Delights Nursery catalog. If you’re an active customer and haven’t seen yours, drop us an email and we’ll send a catalog. If you’re not an active customer (haven’t purchased recently), you may shop online or order a printed
Plant Delights February 2016 Newsletter Read More »
