It’s lycoris time at JLBG, as we’re just wrapping up the early part of the flowering season (July 15-August 10). Most of the early blooming surprise lilies are the spring-foliaged species and hybrids. Typically, there are only a few of the fall-foliaged selections that flower during this early period. Sadly, most gardeners have only grown
The Season of Surprises Read More »
One of our more interesting new century plants is Agave ovatifolia ‘Glowing Angel’. This exceptional plant originated here, as a sport from Agave ‘Awakening Angel’, but without the blue edge. In winter, the foliage turns blue, but in early spring, the plant glows, with the intensity of the color radiating out from the center, which
Our recent Titan Arum flowering caused quite a stir in the area, resulting in 8,400 visitors to Juniper Level Botanic Garden. On the two other occasions we’ve had one flower, our attendance hadn’t exceeded 1,000 people, so having this many folks was quite unexpected. At times, the line to see, smell, and touch, exceeded 300
The Titan has Fallen Read More »
I doubt that even most native plant enthusiasts have grown the amazing spring-run spider lily. Hymenocallis rotata hails from only a few counties in north to central Florida, yet has thrived in our garden. The narrow leaves emerge alongside the 18″ tall flower stalk in mid July, which terminates in 2-4, pure white, large, nocturnally
Spring-run Spider Lily Read More »
We struggled for years to grow the commercial selections of the mostly heat-intolerant, North American native, alternate-leaf dogwood, Cornus alternifolia, which naturally ranges from Canada south to Alabama. It wasn’t until years 30 years ago when local botanist Jesse Perry provided us with seed from a local disjunct population, that we had plants to survive
The Lost Dogwood of Texas Read More »
We usually don’t think of seed as being one of the more showy part of the plants, but that’s not the case with the Southeast Asian (Japan, China, Taiwan) native, Amorphophallus kiusianus. After flowering, these form a stunning seed head, usually atop a 2-3′ tall stalk. The berries first turn pink, then over a course
We trial quite a few sedges in the garden, some of which are a bit aggressive, while others that make fantastic garden specimens. One of our newer favorites is our selection of Carex basiantha ‘Cousin Itt’. This species is native from NC west to Texas, where it grows in average to moist forests, often over
I’ve always been fascinated with the use of contrasting textures and forms in the garden, so this combination of the Texas native, Clematis carrizoensis and Agave x protamericana at JLBG, give one idea how that’s possible in the dryer part of the garden.
In flower in mid-July is the rare, woodland crinum lily, Crinum moorei ‘Moore Stripes’. This is the only striped leaf crinum lily that we’ve found to be stable. Our only regret is that it doesn’t offset faster.
This Crinum earns its Stripes Read More »
Looking great in the garden now is our clump of Physostegia virginiana ‘Pink Manners’. This offspring to the shorter, white-flowered, Physostegia ‘Miss Manners’, is one of the finest summer-flowering North American (Canada to Florida) native perennials we grow, yet when we offered it for sale, sales were miserable, which leaves us perplexed. The 4′ tall
