One of our great native small trees is Cyrilla racemiflora, commonly known as Titi. The genus, itself, is so odd, that it warrants its own family, Cyrillaceae. Although there are 10 species in the genus, this is the only one in commerce. Interestingly, the other nine species only occur in Cuba. In the wild, Cyrilla
It’s odd when one of the rarer members of a plant genus is actually one of the best garden subjects. Such is the case with the rare (G3 rank) wine cup, Callirhoe bushii. Although there are only 50 populations in the wild, scattered from Arkansas to Kansas, it is certainly one of the most amazing
We were recently visited by a well-known landscape designer, who specializes in Southeastern US native plants. As we walked through the crevice garden, and I pointed out a clump of Polygonella americana, he was shocked at how nice it looked. His comment was that American jointweed always looked scraggly in the wild, so he hadn’t
American Jointweed – Smoke this Over Read More »
Looking great in the garden is the superb fern hybrid, Adiantum x mairisii. We received our first plant in 1993, as a gift from the late fern collector Nancy Swell of Virginia. The similarity in name to the Chinese native Adiantum mariesii, has caused a good bit of confusion in fern collections. This sterile hybrid,
Looking great recently is a new, still undescribed dryland, shrub mint from south-central Georgia. This amazing dwarf Clinopodium sp. nov. Upson County, matures at only 6″ tall x 18″ wide with a stunning show of pink flowers for us, in early June. We’ve long treasured the shrubby wood mints, but this is truly exceptional. Hopefully,
The Missing Shrub Mint Read More »
We have a ridiculously large collection of Solomon’s Seal species and cultivars from around the world, and flowering now is one of our many favorites, Polygonatum stenophyllum, whose epithet means narrow leaves and hails from Korea into the Russian Far East. This belongs to the group of whorled-leaf species, where the leaves are attached all
Narrow-leaved Solomon’s Seal Read More »
Flowering for the first time this year is one of our favorite umbellifers (carrot family), Molopospermum peleponnesiacum. We grow this for the fernlike foliage, so flower stalks are just an add-on. Molopospermum is a monotypic genus, meaning there is only a single species, which in this case hails from the Alps (France, Italy), and Pyrenees
Moly’s po sperm…Umm Read More »
We’ve assemble a decent collection of Hydrangea through the years, and while we love them all, it’s hard to to beat the Japanese/Korean mountain hydrangea selection, ‘Mak20’. This creation was a seedling from Hydrangea serrata ‘Maiko’, selected by the breeders at Michigan’s Spring Meadow Nursery. Our oldest plants are now eleven years old, and they
Tuff Mountain Hydrangea Read More »
2025 sets a record as we welcomed 22 different century plants into flower. We’ve set up our ladders for the pollination ritual, where we hike to the top with pollen we forcefully extracted from potential suitors and do our best to impregnate the moms. Then, we wait and hope for viable seed. This is Agave
The End of the Century is Approaching Read More »
One of the little-grown, but fabulous native milkweed species is Asclepias perennis. In the wild, this amazing plant is found from Indiana south into Texas, where it grows in seasonal flood plains, swamps, ditches, and otherwise wet areas. In the garden, however, we have found it very happy in average to moist garden soils, as
White Swamp Milkweed Read More »
