I remember first seeing on-line images of Agave bracteosa ‘Monaco Princess’ over two decades ago, and it was lust at first sight. Tracking down my new found target of desire proved much more difficult than I could have ever imagined. After some deep on-line dives, I was able to determine that the plant was discovered
Lusting after the Princess of Monaco Read More »
Back in June 1998, I was botanizing in Southern Georgia, with Woodlander’s Bob McMartney, when I spied a spectacular patch of ornamental grass, growing alongside the road in remote Warren County. We turned around and dug a small division, before heading on. While I was excited at the prospect of a heat tolerant, blue-foliaged grass
Cryptomeria japonica ‘Araucaroides’ is looking nice now, but what does the name mean. Let’s start with first of the trinomial (three) parts of the name, Cryptomeria. It seems obvious that this probably should be a word used to describe people who purchased lots of Bitcoin before the recent rise. In reality, the word means “hidden
Looks like an Araucaria, but… Read More »
One of our favorite evergreen trees is the little-known, Trochodendron aralioides. I first met the wheel tree at the JC Raulston Arboretum back in the 1980s, quickly falling in love with the fascinating foliage, which is arranged at the branch tips, like spokes on a wheel. As the curator of the Arboretum’s Lath House, I
Driving the Wheel Tree Renaissance Read More »
It’s hard to resist posting photos of the late-flowering, Southeast US native, Symphyotrichum (Aster) elliottii. It’s namesake was SC Natural History and Botany Professor, Steven Elliott (1771-1830). After most of the garden has shut down for fall, this amazing and exceedingly vigorous aster bursts into flower, quickly becoming a landing pad for an array of
A few years ago, I was fascinated to see a catalog listing for a new ornamental grass that I didn’t know, Calamagrostis ‘Cheju-Do’. This struck my eye because calamagrostis are great ornamental specimens, and in 1997, I had the opportunity to botanize Korea’s southern island, Cheju. We subsequently acquired a specimen, which prospered for us,
Years ago, I had the privilege of serving on the NC Rare Plant Scientific Committee for eight years with Dr. Alan Weakley, and I can truely say, each encounter was an incredible learning experience. It’s not often you get to work closely with a true genius in your field. For those who don’t know Alan,
The Strength of Weakley Read More »
We’ve long been fans of the tropical crepe ginger, Costus speciosus. We’ve trialed it several times, however, with no long term winter hardiness here in Zone 7b…until…a group of friends were botanizing in far Northern Vietnam, near the Chinese border, when plantsman Ozzie Johnson spotted it growing there at 3,900′ elevation. Returning home with a
Costumed in the Garden Read More »
Ever since I was a kid, I was fascinated by the native orange-flowering (NY south to Mississippi) annual bog plant, Polygala lutea. The brilliance of the orange color nearly glows in the garden, but how in the world did the folks who named it, come up with the idea to use the specific epithet “lutea”,
Color-blind botanists Read More »
We just love the Japanese Gymnaster savatieri ‘Edo Murasaki’, and they have truly been exceptional this spring. As constantly happens, recent taxonomic work has kicked this out of the gym…or more accurately, kicked the gym out of the aster. After years of being a Gymnaster, new DNA tests move it back into the genus, Aster.
Well, Kiss my Gymnaster Read More »
