One of the legendary palms of the Southeast US, is a plant known simply as Sabal ‘Birmingham’. It’s origin is the stuff of legends, and like a good legend, grows better with the passage of time. What we know is that the palm first came to the knowledge of the public in 1976, when a
It’s hard to resist posting photos of the late-flowering, Southeast US native, Symphyotrichum (Aster) elliottii. It’s namesake was SC Natural History and Botany Professor, Steven Elliott (1771-1830). After most of the garden has shut down for fall, this amazing and exceedingly vigorous aster bursts into flower, quickly becoming a landing pad for an array of
Putting on quite a show this month is the North American native, Malvaviscus drummondii ‘Big Momma’. This supersize form has been flowering all summer, but continues unabated as we move into fall. In the wild, malvaviscus grows in dry shade, but we have found that slightly moist sun produces a much more showy plant. This
For years, I assumed olives would not be winter hardy in our formerly Zone 7b garden, but after killing several clones in our attempts to confirm this, we finally found success in 2006 with the self-fertile, Olea ‘Arbequina’. The name Arbequina, comes from the Spanish village Arbeca, where this hardy olive cultivar originated in the
The Color of Olive Read More »
Flowering for over a month now is the Southeast (NC to Alabama) US native, Ampelaster carolinianus. This odd aster is actually a woody vine, and our plant below is growing on our 7′ tall deer fence. As you can see in the top image, it’s a great fall attractant for Monarch butterflies. The stems remain
One of the poster horticultural children for fall flowering is the Chinese native, Hibiscus mutabilis. Because this plant has been shared so widely as a pass-along in deep south gardens, it picked up the common name, confederate mallow. The specific epithet name “mutabilis” was selected because many of the clones have flowers that emerge white,
The Mutable Mallow Read More »
In 2012 we received a small shipment of plants labeled Rohdea japonica, from the former Chen Yi Nursery in China. Although we grew many cultivated forms of the species from Japan, we were curious what it looked like in the wilds of China, since we’d never been able to study it there. We also ordered
Traveling down Rohdea Road Read More »
In 2022, we introduced Ruellia sp. nov. ‘Humility’, a new, still unpublished Southeast US native species, found in 2013, by our taxonomist, Zac Hill, in southern Alabama. Until it’s formally published with an official name, we gave it a cultivar. Not only is it easy to grow, and attractive in flower, but the October foliage
We love the evergreen Viburnum ‘Moonlit Lace’, a hybrid between Viburnum davidii and V. tinus, but are disappointed at the growth sizes given by on-line vendors. The largest mature size I found on-line is 4′ tall x 5′ wide. Our 8 year old plant below is now 7′ tall x 10′ wide. This is growing
Moonlit Lace – Supersize Me Read More »
I just snapped this photo of the amazing Ulmus parvifolia ‘Golden Rey’ last week, looking absolutely fabulous. We wish it didn’t seed around so much, as we really love everything else about this 1989 introduction from Oklahoman, Bruce Rey.
