One of the frustrations of creating so many amazing new baptisia cultivars is the difficulty in getting them propagated to share. The propagation part of baptisias is actually easy, but it’s the overwintering of cuttings that is not. We root our baptisia cuttings in 48 count cell packs early in the growing season, and by
This Bud’s for You Read More »
Most years in fall, we sell off several of our large potted specimen century plants to make room in our overwintering greenhouse. 2024 was no different, but as is usually the case, all of the plants don’t sell. One that didn’t move was our large pot of Agave asperrima ‘Grand Duke’, so we decided to
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This January, we first flowered Hippeastrum idimae, a 2017 published species from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that we received from our friends at Yucca Do in 2015. This new species was discovered by amateur Brazilian botanist, Idimá Gonçalves da Costa, in a long-ago deforested area, where it had survived among a few granite outcrops. This
Not your Average Amaryllis Read More »
I was walking underneath our trellis of the native Wisteria macrostachya last week, and was amazed how artfully Mother Nature had arranged the seed pods on the patio. Wisteria seed are heavy, and would naturally drop in a single pile, but instead, the pods twist, and in doing so, ballistically shoot the seed out at
The cast iron plant, Aspidistra elatior ‘Morning Frost’ is looking particularly dapper in the winter garden. We think the variegated cultivars of cast iron plants provide a lovely touch of brightness in the winter woodland. Typically, cast iron plant foliage lasts for 2-3 years, and by year three, it begins to look ragged. Every spring,
While summer visitors to JLBG often admire our extensive collection of Opuntia (prickly pear), few folks rave about them during the winter months. That’s because most prickly pears have a less attractive phase during cold weather. For a plant that’s composed of mostly water, opuntias learned to survive winter, by dramatically reducing the water content
Looking good in the garden as we end January is the Himalayan native ground orchid, Goodyera biflora. In the wild, it can be found in Nepal, Bhutan, China, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, up to 6,500′ elevation. This is a first cousin look-alike to our Southeast native, Goodyera pubescens. Goodyera biflora is a lithophyte, growing
We’ve recently written about the running tongue ferns, Pyrrosia lingua, but wanted to delve deeper into those winter hardy Pyrrosia species which, instead, form tight clumps. The two most prevalent clumping species in cultivation are Pyrrosia hastata and Pyrrosia polydactyla. Unfortunately, the two species are thoroughly mixed in the trade, most likely because they came
In 2021, our staff spotted one of our patches of Ajuga ‘Black Scallop’, in which part of the clump had mutated to a form which had foliage that was nearly 2-3 times as large as the original. We moved the sport nearby and watched it over the next three years until we were sure the
In 2014, as part of our agave breeding program, we made a cross of two winter hardy century plants from Northern Mexico, Agave ocahui and Agave victoriae-reginae. By 2016, the seedlings from that cross were large enough to be planted outdoors. From our seedling offspring, we made ten initial selections, which represented the diversity of
Time to Slice and Dice an Artichoke? Read More »
