Eurybia hemispherica ‘Baby Blues’ (southern prairie aster), formerly known as Aster hemispherica, is a little-grown South Central US (Kansas south to Florida) native aster that’s thrived in our full sun garden since 2011. This Van der Giessen Nursery collection of this little-known mesic (moderately moist) to dryland species hails from the Black Belt region of
The Aster hemisphere Read More »
Every year, we post photos from our years long experiment growing the African native lithops (living stones) in the garden. Our success underscore our contention that so much of the information you find on-line and in books, is simply incorrect. As we’ve discussed in the past, lithops are much more winter hardy than is generally
Mythops – The Art of Living Stoned Read More »
I first met orchid trees on a Florida vacation when I was quite young, amazed at both the fascinating leaves and the unique flowers. At the time, I assumed the entire genus to be tropical. I was decades later, when I discovered that in fact there are a few Zone 7 winter hardy species. Our
Three years ago, we wrote about a new, winter hardy selection of bushy muhly grass, Muhlenbergia dumosa, collected by Patrick McMillan in the Patagonia mountains of Arizona, that should be much more winter hardy than the Zone 9 genetics that have been in the trade since the 1980s. From our initial planting in 2020, our
From Patagonia with Love Read More »
A splendid native ornamental grass that is virtually unknown in both gardens and Google, is the East Coast (Rhode Island south to Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula) coastal native, Panicum amarulum or dune switchgrass. It was named in 1900 from specimens in Virginia Beach, and for years lived a free and independent life, until someone decided that
Another Panic-ed Name Change Read More »
We love any plants that attract our native blue-winged wasps, Scolia dubia, to the garden, and few plants do that better in fall than the beautiful Sedum ‘Frosted Fire’. These amazing beneficial pollinators attack pesky insects like Japanese beetle grubs, so this is an insect you want to attract to your garden. In our area,
Blue wings and Pink flowers Read More »
Thriving through our summer of heat is the fascinating Asparagus horridus. If you can’t tell from the photo, the foliage of this asparagus fern is actually masses of needle-sharp spines, from hence the specific epithet arises. This species is little-known in ornamental gardening circles, although foragers actually harvest the young foliage for food before the
Asparagus is Horrid Read More »
Here is a photo of one our many superb rain lily selections, Zephyranthes ‘Summer Snow’. This is Not an exceptional display but a perfectly typical display that follows most every rain event in the summer. The rain lilies do not flower continuously but burst forth periodically over the many frost-free months of the year. One
Room for One More? No way! Read More »
One of our favorite summer combinations is our planting of Amorphophallus konjac ‘Gordon’s Gold’ in the middle of this patch of the North American native Juniperus horizontalis ‘Wiltonii’ (aka blue rug juniper). This patch of groundcover juniper looks completely normal until mid-June, when the love lily emerges with it’s stunning gold foliage. What a contrast
I don’t know how you can look at a mushroom and not be in awe of the beauty of nature. I was blessed to catch this stunning Hen of the Woods, Grifola frondosa, last week. Unfortunately, they’re as ephemeral as a sand castle in the surf, but if you know how to cook, you can
The Art of Shrooms Read More »
