Flowering for the last month is the amazing, winter-flowering Urophysa henryi. Formerly an Isopyrum, this rare Chinese endemic in the Ranunculaceae family, has thrived for over five years in our rock garden. Now that we finally have some spare seedlings, thanks to ours self-pollinating last year, we’ll be trying this around the garden to see
Urophysa…URO Star Read More »
Flowering here in mid-to-late February is the demure Coptis omeiensis. This dwarf, evergreen woodland perennial, with fern-like foliage, is from the Chinese provinces of Sichuan and Henan, and is in full blazing glory. In the wild, it grows in rock cracks at elevation of 3,000′ to 6,000′ feet, but it’s been quite happy in the
Someone call a Cop-tis Read More »
Looking wonderful in the garden in mid-February is Aspidistra retusa ‘Nanjing Green’. This little-known cast iron plant species was shared with us in 2000, by the late plantsman, Greg Speichert. The specific epithet “retusa” is a Latin word meaning blunt (adj.), and not blunt (noun), despite it also being pretty smoking hot. We like the
The Blunt Cast Iron Plant Read More »
Have you met Anna yet? This charmer is a member of the Gesneriad clan, first cousin to the better known African violets, sinningias, and gloxinias. Anna ophiorrhizoides has only been with us for a year and a half, but we’re certainly hoping to make this a long term relationship. Before she moved to North America,
An introduction to Anna Read More »
We were late wading into the epimedium craze, and without the assistance of epimedium guru, Darrell Probst, still might not have done so. Up until the mid 2000s, we had avoided epimediums, due to both their confusing taxonomy as well as the lack of many showy garden forms. Early introductions such as Epimedium x rubrum,
A Fluttering of Fairy Wings Read More »
One of the great plants to help the winter garden look less drab are the evergreen Solomon’s seals, of the genus, Disporopsis. This Bill Baker discovery in China, was later determined to be a new species, and in 2015, was named Disporopsis bakerorum, to honor Bill. Our oldest clumps are 20″ tall x 5′ wide.
Bill Baker’s Bakerorum Read More »
Looking lovely in the mid-January winter garden is the fern, Neolepisorus fortunei ‘Green Ribbons’. This fascinating evergreen fern looks nothing like what most gardeners are familiar with, when they think ferns. Neolepisorus is one of several genera of ferns, known as ribbon ferns. These ferns grow epiphytically (on trees) and lithophytically (on rocks), mostly in
Decorate the Woodland with Green Ribbons Read More »
We were recently admiring the lovely russet fall coloration of a mat of Selaginella uncinata. This lovely woodland groundcover from Central China and south into Vietnam, has a lovely metallic blue hue during the growing season, but we also like this change to the semi-evergreen foliage in fall. This is such a great, well-behaved garden
Falling for Spikemoss Read More »
One of our favorite ferns, known as Cat’s claw fern, is putting on quite a show this fall. Onychium japonicum is a plant I’d never met until a 1996 expedition to Yunnan, China. Although it was a bit depauperate in the wild, the potential I saw, was far exceeded by its garden performance. We now
Hemiboea subacaulis var. jiangxiensis ‘Jiangxi Bells’ is looking great in the garden over the last month. This gem is an amazing new, hardy gesneriad from a joint collection by Scott McMahon (Atlanta Botanic Garden), and Mark Weathington (JCRA). Discovered in Jinggangshan, China, this seems to be a new species to cultivation. The 1′ wide, fuzzy-leaf
Bells from Jiangxii Read More »
