We’re always looking for more “green mulch” plants, which cover the ground, reducing weed pressure, while not choking out desirable plants. One such plant we feel should be more widely grown is Erigeron pulchellus. This amazing perennial is native to every state east of the Mississippi River. So, why isn’t it grown in every garden?
Blooming now in the crevice garden is one of our favorite edimentals. If you haven’t heard this word before, it’s the new combo term for edible ornamentals. Crambe maritima, known as sea kale, is a plant we first grew for its fragrant flowers, only to find it incredibly tasty, both fresh and cooked. We are
Few flowering plants are older than members of the genus chloranthus, which first originated between 22 and 150 million years ago, during a time that flowering plants were just evolving, and long before nurseries or garden centers came into existance. Chloranthus aren’t just interesting botanically, they also are unique textural plants for the spring woodland
Chloranthus – Respect your horticultural elders Read More »
Chionanthus retusus ‘China Snow’, a heavy flowering selection of Chinese fringe tree has been stunning for several weeks in the gardens at JLBG. This amazing Don Shadow selection is far more floriferous than the species, which was already quite spectacular.
White as China Snow Read More »
Looking truly superb this spring is the South African ice plant, Delosperma dyeri in the crevice garden. We can’t grow this in typical soil due to our high rainfall, but in our crevice garden where gravel is the main planting media, it performs like a champ.
The bees are buzzing with excitement over the impending flowering of five clones of Agave ovatifolia here at JLBG. We’ve never had a year with quite this many whale’s tongue agaves spiking at once, so it should be quite a show. Here’s our Agave ovatifolia ‘Frosty Blue’, which was the first to spike, but the
It’s hard to imagine a more spotted hardy plant than Arum x diotalicum ‘Chui’. Shared with us by UK plantsman John Grimshaw, this hybrid of Arum italicum and Arum dioscoridis shares the best traits of both species…the leaf markings of Arum italicum and the floral (spathe) staining of Arum dioscoridis. We hope to have enough
Chui hits the spot(s) Read More »
Looking stunning today is Iris ‘Bold Awakening’. This is one of the arilbred iris (50% of the genetics are middle-eastern species that hate rain). The only place we can grow these is in our gravel-filled crevice garden, where they thrive.
Just snapped this photo of the amazing Amsonia ‘Storm Cloud’ in the garden. This was a 2011 discovery in Central Alabama on a botanizing trip with Hans Hansen.
Most folks in the Southeast US consider sweetgums to be a less than desirable tree, while gardeners in most foreign countries consider Liquidambar styraciflua to be a garden gem. Over the years, we have collected cuttings of quite a few gold sports from roadside botanizing expeditions, but none have proved to have good enough garden
