I grew my first cycad over 55 years ago, and the excitement of these prehistoric, dinosaur-food plants still hasn’t worn off. Although I’ve long since given up on those that need to go indoors in winter, the number we’ve found to be winter hardy here at JLBG keeps expanding. Once we exhausted the available species,
Cher says we’re never too old for Sex? Read More »
We’re preparing for the release of a new cast of characters for 2024, through our current funding arm, Plant Delights Nursery. One of the “cast” that we’ve been trialing for six years is a new cast iron plant hybrid from Japan, Aspidistra ‘Hanado Raku’ PPAF. This is one of those plants that elicits all kind
A New Cast of Characters Read More »
Looking lovely in the garden during the Christmas holiday season is a plant that hails from around the world, most notably Iran, and into the surrounding Caucuses. Despite this disparate climatic origin, Danae racemosa has thrived in much of the country as a pass-along plant for over a century. Danae is one of many plants,
A Laurel and Hardy Garden Addition Read More »
The thuds on the roof of our nursery office isn’t the hooves of eight reindeer, but instead is that of the roof height citrus trees planted nearby, dropping their newly ripened fruit. Here are two Citrus ‘Ichang Lemon’ fruit that dropped into my pocket on a recent garden walk. Well aided by gravity, these dense,
At the lowest levels of the horticultural world are those plants that naturally carpet the forest floor. One of our favorites belongs to the genus Aspidistra, commonly known as cast iron plants. During the spring and summer, they are barely noticed in the garden, but as everything else around them goes dormant in fall, their
We just love Rohdea, Japanese sacred lilies, and our collection is a showstopper in the winter garden. The winter fruit display adds yet another attractive element to these evergreen perennials. Here’s a clump of Rohdea japonica ‘Taiyoden’ in late December.
Late December marks our first flowering of Iris planifolia. This odd native to Southern Europe and Northern Africa has a similar distribution to the better-known Iris unguicularis, but this Iris belongs to the group, known as Juno or bulbous iris. These deciduous iris are extremely sensitive to summer moisture, which is why this resides in
First Flowers of Flat Iris Read More »
Looking great well into December is the North American native, Salvia chamaedryoides, known as Blue Oak sage. This evergreen, dryland native hails form 7,000′ to 9,000′ elevation in the Chihuahuan Desert of northern Mexico. For us, it flowers heaviest in spring and fall, with dark, cobalt blue flowers. It’s one of the few silver leaf
Smart as a Blue Oak Read More »
2024 marks a significant change for us at Juniper Level Botanic Garden, with a number of exciting changes on the way, starting January 1. After 5 years of background work, we are pleased to launch our new JLBG Membership program. Anyone joining in 2024, will be forever memorialized as a Founding Member of JLBG, showing
A Time for Change at JLBG Read More »
It’s time for the start of Christmas rose/snow rose season to begin. We were delighted to find our clump of the Balkan native, Helleborus niger ‘Jesko’ in full flower. These are always exceptional honeybee favorites, as well as being great evergreen perennials for the winter season. We find that light shade to a couple of
It’s time for snow….roses Read More »
