One of our favorite evergreen trees is the little-known, Trochodendron aralioides. I first met the wheel tree at the JC Raulston Arboretum back in the 1980s, quickly falling in love with the fascinating foliage, which is arranged at the branch tips, like spokes on a wheel. As the curator of the Arboretum’s Lath House, I
Driving the Wheel Tree Renaissance Read More »
After a long and magnificent flowering season, we’re now enjoying the fruit of the Gloriosa lily, Gloriosa superba. This sprawling vine has an odd distribution that includes both the Indian subcontinent, as well as Central and Southern Africa. There are many names in the genus, since through the years, taxonomists have named seemingly every variation.
Something Seedy about Gloriosa Read More »
Those of us of an advanced age remember the old, but ubiquitous 1950s/1960s television commercials from the late John Cameron Swayze, extolling the toughness of Timex watches. I have flashbacks to that tagline every time I look at our plants of Rhododendron ‘Elizabeth Ard’ (sold as Southgate Grace). Through the years, I’ve killed far more
Rhodies that Take a Lickin’ and Keep on Tickin’ Read More »
Most people wander through life so fast, they miss many of the small joys, like appreciating the diversity of fern spore patterns. As you can see in the photos below, each genus of fern has its own unique spore arrangement, which are used by taxonomists to determine who is related to who. Some spores form
Preceding Pre-seeding Read More »
One of the legendary palms of the Southeast US, is a plant known simply as Sabal ‘Birmingham’. It’s origin is the stuff of legends, and like a good legend, grows better with the passage of time. What we know is that the palm first came to the knowledge of the public in 1976, when a
It’s hard to resist posting photos of the late-flowering, Southeast US native, Symphyotrichum (Aster) elliottii. It’s namesake was SC Natural History and Botany Professor, Steven Elliott (1771-1830). After most of the garden has shut down for fall, this amazing and exceedingly vigorous aster bursts into flower, quickly becoming a landing pad for an array of
Putting on quite a show this month is the North American native, Malvaviscus drummondii ‘Big Momma’. This supersize form has been flowering all summer, but continues unabated as we move into fall. In the wild, malvaviscus grows in dry shade, but we have found that slightly moist sun produces a much more showy plant. This
For years, I assumed olives would not be winter hardy in our formerly Zone 7b garden, but after killing several clones in our attempts to confirm this, we finally found success in 2006 with the self-fertile, Olea ‘Arbequina’. The name Arbequina, comes from the Spanish village Arbeca, where this hardy olive cultivar originated in the
The Color of Olive Read More »
Flowering for over a month now is the Southeast (NC to Alabama) US native, Ampelaster carolinianus. This odd aster is actually a woody vine, and our plant below is growing on our 7′ tall deer fence. As you can see in the top image, it’s a great fall attractant for Monarch butterflies. The stems remain
In 2022, we introduced Ruellia sp. nov. ‘Humility’, a new, still unpublished Southeast US native species, found in 2013, by our taxonomist, Zac Hill, in southern Alabama. Until it’s formally published with an official name, we gave it a cultivar. Not only is it easy to grow, and attractive in flower, but the October foliage
