I always love plants with both good foliage and good flowers, and Iris ensata ‘Variegata’ fits the bill. Here is our garden clump now, even before the lovely flowers emerge. Japanese iris can grow in both shallow standing water as well as in regular garden soil.
Variegated leaf Japanese Iris Read More »
It’s hard to imagine a more beautiful spring bulb in the garden that the Gladiolus byzantinus. Completely untouched by plant breeders, this beautiful Mediterranean species is flowering for us now, but will be completely dormant a few weeks after flowering. Unfortunately, most of the plants in commerce are a very inferior clone. This is the
Byzantine Gladiolus Read More »
Flowering now in the garden are the pitcher plants, and here’s a new photo of Sarracenia ‘Daina’s Delight’. The flowers are truly other-worldly. Pitcher plants are actually very easy to grow if you can provide full sun and fairly moist, acidic soil…just not soil that stays soggy. In containers, grow them in straight peat moss
Sarracenia ‘Daina’s Delight’ flowering Read More »
A plant with the opposite fragrance of the sauromatum is flowering in one of our rock gardens…Dianthus ‘Sangria Splash’. We trial lots of dianthus (hardy carnation), and most are bred to be potted plants and don’t survive our brutal summers. This gem has been growing in our full sun rock garden for years alongside cactus
Dianthus ‘Sangria Splash’ Read More »
Sauromatum venosum…one of many aroids known by the common name, voodoo plant is in full flower at the gardens. Pollinator flies are lured by the fragrance and squeeze down past the constrictions in the floral tube looking for the source of the odor. Here they become trapped and unknowingly repeatedly pollinate the flower until they
Sauromatum venosum in flower Read More »
The peonies were insanely beautiful this weekend for open house. Here’s one of the stars, Paeonia ‘Cora Stubbs’…great sturdy stems and huge, fragrant flowers. We only offer peonies that we’ve trialed here at Juniper Level Botanic Garden for heat tolerance, great flowering, and good stem sturdiness.
We have really enjoyed watching Cycas taitungensis re-emerge from the winter…now going through its alien phase.
Cycads continue to re-emerge Read More »
Also looking amazing in the garden now is the small bulb, Nothoscordum montevidense, shared by the late bulb guru, Dr. Thad Howard, who found it growing in Mexico. Full sun makes it very happy.
Nothoscordum montevidense Read More »
Dianthus barbatus ‘Heart Attack’ is a perennial sweet William that’s looking great right now. This gem was shared with us many years ago by our first garden curator, James Stevenson, who is now the Education Coordinator at the Florida Botanic Garden in Pinellas County, Florida.
Dianthus ‘Heart Attack’ Read More »
Thanks so much for visiting Plant Delights and Juniper Level Botanic Gardens and for making our spring open nursery and gardens so successful. Each day, after everyone leaves, Anita and I venture out in the garden, cameras in hand to capture some of the beautiful moments to share with those who weren’t here. We’ll open
Thanks for visiting! Read More »
