A few years ago, we purchased seed of Iberis gibralterica, an African perennial candytuft. What we got instead was a lavender flowered form of the annual candytuft, most likely, Iberis umbellata. Imagine, a mail order nursery sending out a mis-identified plant. In our crevice garden, it puts on an early spring, show, before going dormancy
One of the most amazing native plants we’ve ever had the pleasure of introducing is Aaron Floden’s Triosteum aurantiacum ‘Barry Purple’. Horse gentian is a little-known North American native which hails from mesic woodland from Canada south to Georgia. This deciduous 3′ tall x 3′ wide clumping perennial usually has green foliage, but this exceptional
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In 2015, one of our crazy plant explorer friends, mentioned that he was heading to Iran to botanize for for plants. The first thing that popped into my mind, was my long-standing quest to acquire some wild documented poet’s laurel, Danae racemosa. Surprisingly, he was able locate fruiting plants from the Mazandaran region, just north
There are few plants in the garden that put on a holiday show like Photinia serratifolia ‘Green Giant’. I’ve admired this since I was a young horticulture student at NC State, where the west wall of the horticulture building housed some ancient specimens. This member of the rose family hails from China, Japan, Taiwan, and
Christmas Photinia Read More »
Here’s a fun combination from the fall garden, with Ginkgo ‘Mariken’ sporting it’s fall colors. In a supporting role are Cephalotaxus ‘Golden Dragon’, Mahonia tikuensis ‘Datun’, and Hedera colchica ‘Green Spice’. There isn’t a right or wrong way to combine garden textures and forms, but simply paying attention to them makes a garden so much
Textures and Forms of Fall Read More »
The deciduous Korean spindle tree has been looking quite sharp for the last month. Native to Japan and Korea, Euonymus oxyphyllus is a small tree, usually to only 8′ tall in cultivation, that brightens the fall garden with its showy fruit. Reportedly, it can reach 25′ with great age, but that certainly wouldn’t be in
A Sharp Heart’s a Bustin Read More »
We usually don’t think of seed as being one of the more showy part of the plants, but that’s not the case with the Southeast Asian (Japan, China, Taiwan) native, Amorphophallus kiusianus. After flowering, these form a stunning seed head, usually atop a 2-3′ tall stalk. The berries first turn pink, then over a course
Looking so good in the garden is the North American native, Ilex x attenuata ‘Sunny Foster’. This amazing hybrid between two native hollies, Ilex opaca and Ilex cassine, was first discovered in the wild in the 1920s and named Ilex x attenuata ‘Foster #2’. ‘Sunny Foster’ originated in 1964, as a yellow branch sport on
I was walking underneath our trellis of the native Wisteria macrostachya last week, and was amazed how artfully Mother Nature had arranged the seed pods on the patio. Wisteria seed are heavy, and would naturally drop in a single pile, but instead, the pods twist, and in doing so, ballistically shoot the seed out at
We’ve just named the third selection of our Rohdea x japensis (Rohdea japonica x Rohdea chinensis) hybrid this winter, this one for its incredible fruit show. We’ve christened this Rohdea x japensis ‘Super Fruit’. Later this winter, we’ll divide our original clump and start down the production pipeline, which should take about 5-6 years to
