Putting on an elegant show in the fall woodland garden is the hardy gesneriad, Briggsia mihieri. Some taxonomists have recently moved it to a sister genus, Glabrella mihieri, but we’ll let the dust settle before making the change. Native to only three Chinese provinces, Guangxi, Guizhou and Sichuan, it’s a high elevation plant, occurring between
A perennial that’s certainly not rare, and one I wouldn’t garden without, is the amazing South American (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay) native, bicolor purple shamrock. Perennial for us, here in Zone 7b/8a, Oxalis triangularis ‘Atropurpurea’ looks great in spring, goes on vacation during the heat of summer, then returns in fall with another glorious display. For
One of the most colorful plants of the fall garden is Clerodendrum speciosissimum ‘Arkansas Hardy’. This Indonesian native is rightly listed as only hardy to Zone 9 by most sources. Years ago, however, Arkansas customer, David Cockrell, told us about a form that was winter hardy there, which he later shared. His clone, shown below
Eysenhardtia is a small genus of only 13 species in the pea family, Fabaceae, native from the Southwestern US, south into Central America. The star of the genus in our climate is Eysenhardtia texana, in particular, a winter hardy Patrick McMillan collection from Uvalde, Texas. For us, this small, deciduous, dryland shrub, is adorned with
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Leucophyllum langmaniae ‘Purple Lion’ is the second selection of barometer bush that has thrived for us, since 2019. This is another collection from the amazing field work of plantsman, Patrick McMillan. Hailing from north of Monterrey in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, this cold and heat/humidity tolerant clone has been an amazing performer in our garden, forming
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One of our longtime favorites of the Japanese cedar cultivars is Cryptomeria japonica ‘Araucarioides’. Most authorities have concluded that the original Japanese cultivar name is actually Cryptomeria ‘Enko’. The current name most likely came into use, when the plant was brought to Europe from Japan by German botanist, Phillip von Siebold in 1859. The long,
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Looking great during the fall harvest moon season is its namesake hardy begonia. Unlike all of the West Coast hybrids we’ve tried, Begonia ‘Harvest Moon’ is another gem from Georgia plantsman, Ozzie Johnson, that handles both our brutal summer heat and our cold winters. We can never have too many woodland perennials that flower in
We’ve long been fascinated with dwarf spruces that will survive our intense summer heat and humidity, and here are a few from our collection that are still looking great after a brutally hot, humid, and dry summer. The first is Picea abies ‘Hereny’. This dwarf Norway spruce was discovered in Hungary by Józsa Miklós, and
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In 2005, 21 years ago, we were botanizing in Northern Vietnam, when we decided to head east toward the town of Baba. After several hours, we arrived at the edge of a large river, only to find that the bridge, shown on our maps, had yet to be built. Instead of backtracking several hours, we
Looking great in the garden this week is one of our many favorite ferns, Microlepia strigosa ‘MacFaddeniae’. This interesting selection of the Japanese native fern was named for the garden of California’s Fay MacFadden, who got it from California’s Mr. Baldwin Nursery in the 1920s. Most winters it remains evergreen for us, but can become
