Looking absolutely elegant in a crevice garden seep is the native Carex echinata. Although star sedge is quite common from Maine to Minnesota, it’s quite rare in NC. This is seed grown from a population in the mountainous Alleghany County, NC, although it’s thriving in our coastal plain garden. In the wild, this clump former
A Star Sedge is Born Read More »
This year marks our first flowering of the Mediterranean Alp native, Lilium pomponium. This lily is native to dry, rocky, alkaline soils, and has been right at home in our crevice rock garden. It’s probably good, however, that we didn’t read how difficult it is to grow before we tried it. These are now three
Several years ago, I fell in love with a new holly on a visit to Garden Treasures Nursery, and two years later, our specimen has lived up to my high expectations. Ilex vomitoria ‘Panhandle Gold’ is a selection of our native (Virginia to Texas) yaupon holly, discovered by Florida nurseryman, John Davy. We don’t know
Holy Golden Moment Read More »
In flower now in our crevice garden is the amazing Puya alpestris, a plant better known by its common name of sapphire tower. This native bromeliad to the Chilean Andes south of Santiago, is a plant we really shouldn’t be able to grow, yet here it is in flower. This is growing at the south
Puya – The Magic of Amethyst Read More »
We’ve planted quite a few lobivias through the years, and killed quite a few, since our climate is a bit too cold for most species of this member of the cactus family from South America. One that has survived, and is putting on quite a show now is the Northern Argentina native, Lobivia aurea var.
Ambivalent Lobivia Read More »
Every year, I fall further in love with the false yew, Cephalotaxus harringtonia ‘Golden Dragon’. These eight year old plants are our oldest, and now measure 30″ tall x 6′ wide. This incredible import from Japan, holds it color year round when planted where it will receive at least full sun for a few hours.
Staring Down a Golden Dragon Read More »
After a winter where our temperatures drop below 15 degrees F, all the foliage on our cycad fry. We wait until 1 month before last frost (around March 15) to remove the old foliage, which you can see in the photo below. One month later, on April 15, the new fronds are emerging. A month
It’s Aliiive! Cycas Rebirth Read More »
Looking amazing in the garden now is the stunning Strawberry Fields deutzia. This amazing 1927 hybrid selection from France’s Lemoine Nursery is actually correctly named, Deutzia ‘Tourbillon Rouge’, but that’s not exactly a great sellable name in Western culture, so it’s no surprise that nursery marketing folks improperly re-named it. Despite the name issues, it’s
Strawberry Fields Forever Read More »
As we prepare for the upcoming NFL season, we thought we’d offer a horticultural football analogy with this native plant combination of two evergreens, Heuchera ‘Grande Amethyst’ and Juniperus horizontalis ‘Copper Harbor’. Here, in this Minnesota Vikings color theme, the coral bell (heuchera) is the quarterback, carrying the color, and first drawing your eye. The
Vikings Quarterback-Receiver Combo Read More »
I failed for decades to keep the European gas plant, Dictamnus albus alive in our heat and humidity. Despite these mounting failures, I keep trying new genetics as they become available. Finally, this month, we have met with our first success with our first gas plant flowering. Although gas plant looks superficially nothing like its
Gaslighting in the Garden Read More »
