2025 sets a record as we welcomed 22 different century plants into flower. We’ve set up our ladders for the pollination ritual, where we hike to the top with pollen we forcefully extracted from potential suitors and do our best to impregnate the moms. Then, we wait and hope for viable seed. This is Agave
The End of the Century is Approaching Read More »
Below are a few of the amazing baptisias flowering at JLBG that we snapped new photos of, over the last few weeks. It’s truly hard to imagine the vast garden improvements that have occured, since we and a couple of other breeders (Jim Ault and Hans Hansen) began working with the genus in the late
As much as we wish we could grow the purple leaf Norway maples, they simply will not survive our hot, humid summers. We were cautiously optimistic when we heard that the breeders at J. Frank Schmit, had created a more heat tolerant version, Acer ‘Crimson Sunset’ (aka: JFS-KW202), by crossing the purple Norway maple, Acer
I always find it amusing when I encounter gardeners with a staunch opposition to hybrids and cultivars in their garden, despite them being unable to look in the mirror and realize that they are both a hybrid and a cultivar. The first photo below is our wild collected lungwort from Croatia, Pulmonaria officinalis. The second
I Hate Hybrids – Lungwort time Read More »
Looking quite lovely in the garden this week is Magnolia ‘Frank’s Masterpiece’ from magnolia breeder, Dr. Frank Galyon of Knoxville, TN. This represents a hybrid of Magnolia x soulangeana ‘Deep Purple Dream’ and Magnolia ‘Paul Cook’. This amazingly fast growing selection is expected to mature at 30′ in height. For us, this normally flowers in
Frank’s Masterpiece Read More »
One of the frustrations of creating so many amazing new baptisia cultivars is the difficulty in getting them propagated to share. The propagation part of baptisias is actually easy, but it’s the overwintering of cuttings that is not. We root our baptisia cuttings in 48 count cell packs early in the growing season, and by
This Bud’s for You Read More »
In 2014, as part of our agave breeding program, we made a cross of two winter hardy century plants from Northern Mexico, Agave ocahui and Agave victoriae-reginae. By 2016, the seedlings from that cross were large enough to be planted outdoors. From our seedling offspring, we made ten initial selections, which represented the diversity of
Time to Slice and Dice an Artichoke? Read More »
One of our 2019 selected offspring from our cross of Agave ovatifolia and Agave x pseudoferox, and subsequently named Agave x ovox ‘Picture Perfect’ is looking lovely in the garden in January, as it shows off its amazing leaf banding and bud imprinting. This has only been in the ground for five years, so it’s
Those of us of an advanced age remember the old, but ubiquitous 1950s/1960s television commercials from the late John Cameron Swayze, extolling the toughness of Timex watches. I have flashbacks to that tagline every time I look at our plants of Rhododendron ‘Elizabeth Ard’ (sold as Southgate Grace). Through the years, I’ve killed far more
Rhodies that Take a Lickin’ and Keep on Tickin’ Read More »
As we were putting away the tender xMangaves for the winter, I took time to grab one more photo of a plant that has enchanted open house visitors this year. xMangave ‘Bridal Falls’ is a creamy edged sport of xMangave ‘Falling Waters’, developed by Walters Gardens Director of New Plant Development, Hans Hansen. This gem
