Fragrant flowers are an often overlooked (or under-smelled) feature of the garden. But planting a garden full of fragrant flowers delights the nose, both day and night. The summer garden is full of wonderfully fragrant plants to tickle your nose and calm your senses. Here are some images taken yesterday in the garden…if only they […]
The Smells of Summer Read More »
If you have a soggy area or damp soils, don’t drain it! We have marginal aquatic perennial plants for wet soil that are great for landscaping everything from rain gardens to bog gardens. These garden perennials love moist spots and will make you fall in love with perennials that dry soil gardeners only dream of
Don’t Let Gardening Bog You Down Read More »
The genus xmangave is an exotic botanical curiosity that was derived from a cross between a succulent agave and a manfreda. Crosses between two genera are somewhat rare in cultivation and extremely rare in nature. However, agave and manfreda have broken all the rules and ‘hooked up’ on more than one occasion to produce the attractive
Mad About xMangave! Read More »
Amorphophallus are exotic plants in the aroid family, famous for their bizarre flowers and whose odor leaves no doubt as to why they are also called corpse flower or Voodoo lily. Some varieties are tropical, while others are perennial in temperate zones. Here are some images of hardy amorphophallus in the garden.
A Little Garden Voodoo Going On Read More »
The genus Sinningia is a South American gesneriad (African violet and gloxinia relative). Hummingbirds and butterflies just love the tubular flowers of Sinningia, and several species including Sinningia tubiflora, are quite fragrant. Sinningia flowers come in a wide array of colors from white, to yellow, pink, red and all shades in between. Sinningia species are
Tubing! Hummers! Summer! Read More »
We value the purple coneflower as a great summer-flowering perennial in the native plant garden as well as the mixed perennial border. Coneflowers attract both butterflies and hummingbirds. Purple coneflower species are easy to grow, heat- and drought-tolerant native perennials. Two things that echinacea plants do not like are heavy clay soils and poor winter drainage. We
Coneflower Rainbow Read More »
True, not all false red yuccas are red! The genus Hesperaloe is a small genus of just 7 species that are related to aloe, yucca, and agave. All 7 species of hesperaloe are native to the Chihuahuan desert in the southern US and the area around Coahuila in northern Mexico. The “red” part of red
Recently took this photo of the amazing white-spotted leopard plant, Farfugium ‘Kaimon Dake’…so glad to have this back in stock finally! Now you can have your very own white-spotted leopard!
White-spotted leopard Read More »
Cynanchum ascyrifolium is first cousin to the popular wedding flower, stephanotis. Despite it’s ease of growth in the garden, and hardiness to Minnesota, it’s always been a poor seller. We wanted to share the photo of our 2′ tall x 3′ wide clump taken last week in the garden. We could be persuaded to propagate
Stephanotis kissin’ cousin Read More »
Since redbuds were a favorite plant of the late J.C. Raulston, and a feature of the garden that bears his name, I assumed that I had seen or grown all of the known species. Boy was I wrong, as I learned from Scott McMahon, Manager of International Plant Explorations for the Atlanta Botanical Garden on
A new redbud to cultivation Read More »
