There are a number of very exciting new ajugas to hit the market in the last few years, but one of our favorites has a longer history. Ajuga reptans ‘Planet Zork’, which we first acquired in 2004, is a non-flowering, crinkled-leaf sport of Ajuga ‘Burgundy Glow’. It was brought to the US from Japan, and
Safe Landing on Planet Zork Read More »
In 2019, our research staffers were botanizing in Montgomery County, NC, when Jeremy stumbled on this painted buckeye (Aesculus sylvatica) seedling with new pink growth. In the past, we have not had good luck transplanting seedling aesculus, but thankfully this one survived nicely and two years later, it looked great this spring as the new
Pink Painted Buckeye Read More »
April is an amazing month for wild gingers of the genus asarum, in the garden. Here are a few that are looking particularly stunning this week.
Looking great in the garden today is our collection of the native spring ephemeral trout lily, Erythronium harperi. This native to a small region on the Tennessee/Alabama border is currently considered a subspecies of E. americanum, but will most likely be elevated to species status before long. Unlike many running species, this remains a tight
Harper’s Trout Lily Read More »
One of our garden finds from 2013 is this lovely pewter colored toothwort, that we believe to be a hybrid of two southeast US native species, Dentaria diphylla x heterophylla. If stock building up continues well this spring, we’ll be able to finally share next January. It’s hard to capture the color well in a
Welcome Pewter in the Garden Read More »
We have long enjoyed the winter-flowering, evergreen Clematis armandii, but had no idea the variability that existed until we acquired this new form from China in 2012. Unlike the more commonly known Clematis armandii var. armandii, which has 4 petals per flower, the subspecies hefengensis from Southwest Hubei Province in China has six petals. We
Epimedium sempervirens ‘Snowshoe Lake’ is looking particularly lovely today. We haven’t offered this before, so, do you like it enough that we should propagate a few from the garden?
Snowshoe Lake is very white today Read More »
One of my OCD exercises is keeping a list of desiderata plants for the garden, which I’ve either seen or heard about, and want to try. At this point, the list is closing in on a ridiculous 3,000 items. Some desiderata we find in less than a year, while others may grace the list for
Spirea thunbergii ‘Ogon’ is one of our favorite garden shrubs for its’ golden summer foliage, but we also adore it for it’s late winter/early spring floral show. Here it is at JLBG this week before the golden foliage emerges. You can see why it’s known by the common name, Bridal wreath spirea.
Flowering this week is our selection of Magnolia floribunda ‘Bridal Bouquet’. When we visited Yunnan, China in 1996, we were able to return with three seed of Magnolia floribunda, a species which seemed completely absent from American horticulture. The resulting seedlings were planted into the garden, where two promptly died during the first winter. Thankfully,
Winter Bridal Bouquet Read More »
