Flowering in the garden this week is the fascinating, but little-known Houstonia procumbens. This Southeastern US coastal native (South Carolina west to eastern Louisiana) is a spreading, winter flowering bluet. We collected cuttings in Clay County, Florida in 2003, and this patch has been thriving in our sunny alpine garden since then, forming a 1.5′
Houstonia…we have a great plant Read More »
For the last couple of decades, we’ve enjoyed having beehives here on the JLBG property. For most of that time, they were owned by the Bayer Crop Sciences group, but after their merger a few years ago, their nearby bee research center shut down. After that we were able to work with a former Bayer
Buzz…Spread the Word Read More »
Here’s our oldest specimen of xFatshedera ‘Curly’ in the garden this week. This fascinating bi-generic cross between the vining English Ivy (Hedera helix) and shrub Fatsia japonica ‘Moeseri’, was originally made 110 years ago this year, at France’s Lizé Frères Nursery. Since that time, we have been able to track down seven foliar mutations that
Bi-generic and Proud Read More »
Several plants emerge in the fall/winter season…some native, and others from far away Mediterranean climates. One of the most unusual plants we grow is the pig’s butt arum, Helicodiceros muscivorus. Depending on the location of the original population on one of the Mediterranean islands, it can emerge in our climate as late as February or
Up and at ’em in Winter Read More »
On behalf of our management team, Jasper, Henry, Kit Kat, Buddy, Jake, Elwood, and all of our Homo Sapiens staff, we’d like to wish you a wonderful Holiday Season and a Purrfectly Delightful 2023! Happy Holidays!
In 2006, NC plantsman, and our long time customer, Graham Ray of Greensboro, emailed to see if we were interested in a dwarf Asaparagus densiflorus (Sprengeri) fern that he grew in his rock garden, and had been winter hardy for several years in his Zone 7a garden. We had already worked with several asparagus species
The Little Asparagus that Could Read More »
Our oldest clump of the North American native Agave lophantha ‘Splendida’ is preparing to celebrate its 10th anniversary in the garden at JLBG. What started as a single pup, now has an extended family. Please join us in sending birthday wishes to this great century plant selection.
Splendid Splendida Read More »
I’m just back from a recent plant trip to coastal Virginia and wanted to share some trip highlights and photos. Mark Weathington of the JC Raulston Arboretum and I headed north for a quick 2 day jaunt to the Norfolk area of Virginia. Our first stop was the garden of long time garden friend, Pam
Virginia is for Plant Lovers Read More »
We all love the color of leaves in fall…at least until they need to be raked. Here are a few that we enjoyed at JLBG recently. Acer triflorum ‘Aureum’ really put on a lovely show with leaves that held on quite a while. It also colored later than most other maples. Euonymus carnosus was quite
Act Like a Tree and Leave Read More »
Great new plants for the garden do sometimes just happen. They can occur as a spontaneous sport from an existing planting, as a seed selection that has much better garden traits, but many of our most useful and ecologically important plants in the garden have their start in exploration. I was thinking about this today
Riverbank Sundrop; The Journey Begins Read More »
