Flowering for the last month is the amazing, winter-flowering Urophysa henryi. Formerly an Isopyrum, this rare Chinese endemic in the Ranunculaceae family, has thrived for over five years in our rock garden. Now that we finally have some spare seedlings, thanks to ours self-pollinating last year, we’ll be trying this around the garden to see
Over two weeks behind this winter, the new growth of the Mediterranean native, Dracunculus vulgaris has finally emerged. This lovable monster is now only a few weeks away from showing off its foul-smelling, phallic, but visually fascinating inflorescence, a large maroon spathe with a dark purple spadix. Watching this is sort of like a train
The Vulgar Dragon Awakens Read More »
Looking good in the garden this week is our selection of the Croatian native lenten rose, Helleborus croaticus ‘Bells of the Ball’. This is a seedling grown from a Will McLewin wild seed collection, without benefit of breeding. Unlike most Helleborus x hybridus, this is a completely deciduous species. This plant gets full sun for
Cracking Croaticus Read More »
Looking lovely in the garden now is one of the most overlooked of the Southeast US native palms. Sabal etonia may look superficially similar to the better known Sabal minor, but while Sabal minor is typically found in swamps and ditches, Sabal etonia comes from dry sandy scrub habitat in North Central Florida. It is
Our oldest patch of Adonis amurensis ‘Fukujukai’ is now 18 years old and looking lovely in the winter garden this week. This a cold climate plant from The Russian Far East, Korea, and into Northern Japan, so it generally doesn’t love the hot, humid south, but this is one of a few clones that have
Astonishing Adonis in the Garden Read More »
Looking great in the garden in early March is Cornus officinalis ‘Spring Glow’. I remember when the late J.C. Raulston first planted this in the 1980s at the arboretum that now bears his name. It elicited so many comments, that he finally named and introduced it to commercial horticulture. As it did over forty years
Spring Glow – No Mas Read More »
We’ve recently wrapped up our Winter Open Nursery and Garden and would love thank everyone who took time out of their busy lives to attend. Despite the snow just a couple of days before we opened, we were blessed with absolutely beautiful winter weather and plenty of sun. Visitors who attended were able to see
The Plants of the JLBG Winter Open Nursery and Garden Read More »
Flowering season for the southeastern US native trilliums is just beginning, with many running up to a month behind normal. The first to open each year is the north Florida population of Trillium maculatum, represented here by Trillium maculatum ‘Kanapaha Giant’. We will have trilliums flowering from now through April. The key to success is
Trillium Countdown Read More »
I have long been enamored with golden foliage plants, especially pines of the genus, Pinus. We’ve trialed quite a few of species with gold selections, but the only one that has survived in our hot, humid summers is the Japanese Red Pine, Pinus densiflorus ‘Ogon-aka-matsu’, which is commonly sold as ‘Aurea’. Our garden specimen is
Flowering this week in the garden is one of our more unusual hardy native aroids, Symplocarpus foetidus, aka: skunk cabbage. Although the floral aroma is barely detectable by humans, it does work well enough to draw in flies for pollination. Since skunk cabbage evolved to flower in the winter, often under snow, it learned to
That Cabbage Smells like Skunk Read More »
