Early April is peak time at JLBG for Ajuga flowering, commonly known as bugleweed. We think these amazing new cultivars are a great solution to reducing the need for mulch in sun to part sun landscaped areas. Some of the new colored leaf cultivars are even more spectacular when in flower…below are a few.
Trumpeting Bugleweed Read More »
Looking lovely in the garden this week is the amazing native (Pennsylvania south to Georgia) Fraser’s sedge, Carex fraseriana. This sedge is so odd, that it spent much of its life, relagated to it’s own, lonely genus, Cymophyllus. We failed with this countless times, before we planted one in between rocks, which seems to have
On a 2019 botanical expedition to Montgomery County, NC, our staff (Zac and Jeremy) discovered this never before documented natural hybrid between Dentaria dissecta (Cardamine dissecta) and Dentaria laciniata (Cardamine contactenata). We’ve christened two clones from the population, Dentaria x lacinisecta ‘Whitened Teeth’ (top) and Dentaria ‘Angel Hair’ (below). Now, we just need to have
Whitened Teeth and other Dental Work Read More »
Flowering now is the amazing groundcover selection of the European daphne, Daphne cneorum ‘Pygmaea’. For years, we were told this wouldn’t grow in our climate, and if you treat them too well, they will not thrive. This is in flower now, growing in our dryland berm, composed of 50% Permatill gravel, 25% native sandy loam,
How Low can you Grow? Read More »
From an ex-situ conservation standpoint, we are a bit fanatical about trilliums. We grow many thousand trilliums from seed each year, and also travel around the country studying trilliums in the wild, which has given us an incredible opportunity to make some amazing selections. At JLBG, we currently grow over 1,600 different trillium selections, which
Trillium – Round 2 Read More »
I became entranced with the South African succulent genus, Aloinopsis, years ago, after discovering that Colorado rock gardener Bill Adams had found many of them hardy there in Zone 5/6. We tried quite a few, but found that while they take our winter cold temperatures, they do not take winter moisture. Once we built our
How Low can Aloinopsis Go? Read More »
Almost jumping out of the ground in early April (NC) is the heat-tolerant Ligularia japonica ‘Chinese Dragon’. This amazing, clumping perennial is one of a small number of the genus that will thrive in our summers. These grow best in regular to slightly moist soils, where they prefer light open shade or a few hours
The Dragon Awakens Read More »
Looking lovely in the garden in early April is our NC collection of Carex physorhyncha. This North American native sedge, found naturally in dry woodlands, has been taxonomically mixed with Carex albicans var. australis, and we still need a taxonomic rumble to get this finally sorted out. Whatever we wind up calling it, it’s a
I’m just back from a quick trip to Texas, where I was able to witness the amazing Texas bluebonnet show in person. Lupinus texensis is a short-lived annual that thrives in rocky, dry soils, in full sun. Decades ago, I was told by a gardening expert that we couldn’t grow them in NC, so that’s
The Bluebonnets of Texas…and North Carolina Read More »
In flower in late March at JLBG is the sweetly fragrant Osmanthus x burkwoodii ‘Elizabeth Lawrence’, a plant we acquired from the late garden writer, Pam Harper. This sweet olive is a cross of the Turkish Osmanthus decorus and the Chinese native Osmanthus delavayi, created by 20th century English nurserymen, Arthur and Albert Burkwood. The
The Burkwood’s Sweet Legacy Read More »
