I love odd plants, and the southeast native Lachnocaulon (pronounced lack no colon) is about as odd as they come. This bog native, often found growing with pitcher plants, forms a mound that looks like a giant pin cushion. Here is a plant of Lachnocaulon anceps (NC west to Texas) in full flower this week
Looking good in the garden this week is the amazing fern, Dryopteris x australis. This rare fern is a US native…despite the confusing name, hailing from only a few scattered locations from Virginia west to Arkansas. In reality, the name “australis” means from the south. This splendid specimen grows in both sun and shade, and
Those tricky plant names Read More »
Here is a small sampling of the amazing array of flowers that are in the garden currently (late April/early May) on our pitcher plants. The genus Sarracenia is native to North America and hails from Canada south to Florida, where they are found in seasonally damp bogs. In the garden or in containers, they are
A Pitcher of Flowers Read More »
Iris ‘Gerald Darby’ is one of those iris that doesn’t even need to flower to be garden worthy. Here it is in our garden this week, emerging with its’ purple leggings. This gem is a North American native hybrid of Iris versicolor and Iris virginica, known as Iris x robusta. This introduction of Iris breeder
Ever since I was a small kid, I’ve observed Zephyranthes atamasco (atamasco lily) in the wild, where they grow in swampy wooded lowlands. Atamasco lily is also one of many great nomenclatural muddles with regard to it’s correct spelling. When it was first named by Linneaus, back in 1753, it was assigned to genus amaryllis,
Atamasca or Atamasco? Read More »
Couldn’t resist this photo of a couple of carpenter bees looking for a drink after a hard day of work, and happened on this enticing stray pitcher full of water. Oh, if they only knew…
Hmmm… We love sarracenias…such great garden entertainment and without going on-line!
Too buzzed to fly? Read More »
Raise your hand if you’ve grown macbridea in the garden. Raise your hand if you’ve even heard of macbridea. This cute North American native (NC, SC, GA) bog mint has really impressed us in the garden. Flowering started in the last few weeks, and shows no sign of abating. We’re always cautious with mint relatives,
The NC native Polygala aurea is putting on quite a show in the bog garden here at JLBG. There are few plants, native or otherwise, with such brilliantly screaming orange flowers. Perhaps we need to see if we can propagate this since we never see it offered for sale.
Flowering now at JLBG is one of our cute Southeastern natives known as Bog Buttons (Lachnocaulon anceps). The entire family, Eriocaulaceae, has a similar stature with small grass-like foliage, topped by these long antennae-looking structures. In the wild, these can be found in low, often flooded ditches, but they are easily grown in constructed bog
