One of the most popular garden specimen century plants has long been Agave parryi subspecies truncata. Due to their distribution in the Southwest US and Mexico, the hardiness of the various populations varies tremendously. These small (relatively speaking) century plants are mass-market landscape staples in warm temperate and frost-free parts of the desert southwest. Try
Truncating a Hardiness Project Read More »
We have long been fans of the Asian ferns in the genus, Woodwardia. Of the eleven species in the genus, five are North American, and the rest are Asian. Our particular infatuation are with the giant, evergreen species, including Woodwardia prolifera, Woodwardia unigemmata, and the hybrid, Woodwardia x izuensis. All of these have huge, tropical
Wards of the Woods Read More »
I snapped this photo of Agave geminiflora ‘Leaping Lizards’ last week, as we were bringing our tender, potted agaves in for the winter. When I gaze at this, I get the feeling that I’m either looking down on one of those three dimensional pinwheels, or an M.C. Escher drawing. The green form of this unusual
After six failures to launch, we’ve finally succeeded in growing one of the most fascinating of our native ferns, Asplenium rhizophyllum (formerly Camptosorous rhizophyllus). Known by the common name of walking fern, the long frond tip of this tiny fern, roots into the organic debris or moss everywhere it touches, forming a new plant. If
Walkin’ Man’s Fern Read More »
In 2007, we released an amazing silver blue, winter hardy form of Agave x protamericana, named A. ‘Silver Surfer’. Unfortunately, the tissue culture lab that was producing it for us closed, and supplies over the last decade have been virtually non-existent. We’ve reverted by to our old, less efficient method of using offsets, which are
Silver Surfer Returns Read More »
The cast iron plant fall-flowering season has begun, and we happened to catch this amazing flower of Aspidistra quadripartita ‘Giraffe’ this week. Because these bizarre flowers are born at or near ground level, they are easy to miss, by all but the most obsessive gardeners. This is a little-known, low elevation species from Guangxi, China.
Four-Part Cast Iron Plant Read More »
This spring, we posted photos of the obscure Japanese native woodlander, Ainsliaea cordifolia, but we wanted to follow up with the same plant in riotous bloom, as we move into late October. There are actually 57 species of this Aster family genus, all from Southeastern Asia. Growing Ainsliaea in your home garden is certainly a
Ainsliaea in Riotous Bloom Read More »
Kit Kat has decided that her favorite napping spot in the garden is on our patch of Carex eburnea. This amazing little North American native sedge with soft, needle-thin foliage likes dry woodlands and makes a perfect spot for an afternoon siesta. Since this isn’t the fastest growing of sedges, it may take a while,
One of the more spectacular genera of fall-flowering plants is the tobacco relative, Brugmansia, in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The genus, Brugmansia, was named in 1805 to honor Sebald Brugmans (1763–1819), a natural history professor at Leiden University, Netherlands. These fragrant flowers are designed to attract pollinators that include large, nocturnal hawkmoths. Below is our clump of
Brugman’s Angel Trumpets Read More »
The wonderful ginger lily, Hedychium ‘Anne Bishop’ is making a stunning show in the mid-October garden with it’s incredible display of huge heads of fragrant orange flowers. We’ve never been able to track down the origin of this cultivar, or the identity of this particular Anne S. Bishop. Not only does this put on a
Anne Bishop is a Late Bloomer Read More »
