JLBG's Plant Evaluation & Identification

The focus of plant evaluations is to study new plants in cultivation to determine their adaptability to JLBG's Zone 7b climate, their ornamental suitability, and their potential to become good, non-invasive garden plants.

New plants are carefully evaluated at JLBG and at other cooperating sites. It is JLBG's goal to offer plants that will not become invasive (i.e., invade and displace natives in functioning natural ecosystems).

JLBG adheres to the Botanical Garden and Nursery Codes of Conduct as adopted at the 2001 St. Louis Summit on Invasive Plants and encourages other institutions to do the same.

Realizing that it is impossible to completely predict invasiveness in every ecological region of the country, JLBG implores gardeners to watch for plants that show true invasive potential and to report those findings back to JLBG.

Please understand that re-seeding around the garden is very different from invading natural areas.

JLBG also understands while a species may be invasive, cultivars within that species may not exhibit those particular undesirable traits. While the invasive plant issue is a great area of concern here at JLBG, a proposed nationwide ban of plants that are only invasive and hardy in Hawaii or South Florida is absurdly extreme.

JLBG is wary of a small, but vocal, group of plant bigots who advocate a horticultural ethnic cleansing as a means of satisfying their myopic and static view of nature. As with all vices, JLBG believes moderation, common sense, and responsibility are the key to good outcomes.

The JLBG taxonomy staff works to identify plants from JLBG's botanical expeditions, assisted by taxonomists and researchers around the world. New species from JLBG's collections, of which there have been many, are published with the assistance of similar individuals.

JLBG is pleased to have been a cooperating partner with numerous worldwide scientific research projects over the last 25 years. JLBG also works to assign proper cultivar names to plants developed by others who failed to do so.