One of our favorite new small trees is Styrax japonicus ‘Evening Light’…here it is in the JLBG gardens this week. The incredible black foliage serves as a lovely foil for the masses of pure white flowers. This fascinating introduction, was discovered in 2001 as a dark leaf seedling by Dutch nurseryman, Henny Kolster, and has
The native Camassia leichtlinii ‘Sacajawea’ is looking great at JLBG today. This selection of the US West Coast native thrives also here in the hot, humid, southeast US. This selection was named after Sacajawea, the a member of the Lemhi Shoshone tribe, who helped guide explorers Lewis and Clark in the early 1800s. When food
After being told several years ago that creating interspecific hybrids of arisaema (Jack-in-the-Pulpit) was virtually impossible, we started our own breeding program. Here are a few of our creations from our Contrarian Frankestein Lab that are looking quite nice this week.
Our 3-year old clump of Abutilon megapotamicum (flowering maple) is looking particularly splendid this week. Planted in full sun and compost amended soil, it has reached 6′ in height and 10′ in width. When grown in part sun or light shade, both flower production and size is reduced. In mild winters like we’ve had recently,
Here are more delospermas (ice plants) looking great at JLBG this week. The first two are the most moisture tolerant, Delosperma cooperi (purple), and Delosperma ‘Kelaidis’ (peach). At the bottom is Delosperma sutherlandii, which is a species that we’ve never been able to keep alive in our wet summers prior to building the crevice garden.
Here are two of our favorite new redbuds growing at JLBG…both from the NC State breeding program of Dr. Dennis Werner. The first is Cercis canadensis ‘Flame Thrower’, which boasts pumpkin colored leaves that emerge gold. The second is Cercis canadensis ‘Golden Falls’, a fabulous pendulous form, whose leaves remain gold all summer.
Here’s a fun combination this week with Gladiolus byzantinus ‘Cruentus’ mingling with Baptisia alba. The European native glads, such as this and Gladiolus italicus are the earliest gladiolus to flower in our climate.
I’ve heard asparagus called lot of things, especially by young kids, but here’s one that really lives up to the name, Asparagus horridus. The large spines on this subshrub do a great job protecting the fruit from predators. We’ve long sought to collect as many asparagus species as can be grown in our climate and
The next morning, we were in for a weather event. The storm that had swept over North Carolina a few days before had followed us to the UK, and predictions were for torrential rains and 60-80 mph winds. For the night prior, we had stayed at the lovely Colesbourne Inn, part of the Colesbourne Estate
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