Due to the large number of neighbors endowed with ex-domus (outside of the house) hoarding tendencies in the Southeastern US, homeowners are always looking for unique evergreen screening plants over 6′ tall. While there are plenty of choices for full sun, the choices for shade are quite limited to plants like Fatsia, Illicium, Thujopsis, Taxus,
Woah…Meet Big Mamma Read More »
Our clump of the ancient Mexican cycad, Ceratozamia kuesteriana is now flowering, and looking for love. Well, flowering isn’t exactly the most accurate term, since when this species evolved some 16 million years ago, flowering hadn’t yet been invented. Back in the day, most plants still formed cones…think wind pollinated conifers. To ensure cross pollination,
PlantMatch.com Really old lady, but still looking for Love Read More »
Looking good in its full fruit mode in mid January is the holly, Ilex ‘Emily Brunner’. This hybrid of Ilex cornuta and Ilex latifolia has proven to be one of the best specimen hollies we grow. A mature specimen is 20′ tall x 20′ wide, so if you’re planting this, give it enough space. Years
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We had a number of hybrid Cycas (sago palms) to flower this year, but almost all were females. Unfortunately, we had only one male plant to flower, and it opened long after the females were receptive. Despite this, one of our females is still holding on to the unfertilized ovules, which result in these seasonally
Looking lovely in December are the Japanese Laurels of the genus, Aucuba. If you’ve hung around any southern gardeners, you already know that we often have some peculiar pronunciations. I’m from the south and still remember thinking, whaaat, the first time I heard someone talking about the A Coobers in their garden. Perhaps many folks
We’re enjoying the annual fruit drop on our native Ginkgo this month. Word on the streets is to never plant a seed grown ginkgo, since you could get a female tree, which according to articles, smell worse than an aging garbage dump. As is so often the case, there is a lot of exaggeration going
Do you remember Ginkgos Read More »
Cortaderia is a genus of 20 species of ornamental grass, only one of which is grown commercially. This is peak flowering month in the garden for a couple of the lesser-known species of pampas grass. The first is Cortaderia araucana, which hails from Central/Southern Chile and Argentina. It’s much smaller than Cortaderia selloana and has
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Our bank of false yew, Cephalotaxus harringtonia ‘Brooklyn Gardens’ is ready to release its pollen, aka: conifer sperm. Conifers grew up before flowering plants were invented, so they can’t rely on insects like bees and butterflies to assist them with sex. In the old days, plants depended on wind to assist with sex, so surviving
Yew Sperm, Coming Soon Read More »
Looking good in the garden this month is Aucuba japonica var. borealis ‘Male Man’. The subspecies “borealis” is from a much colder region than typical Aucuba japonica, and consequently will survive much further north, reportedly as far north as Zone 6a. This subspecies grows in the Honshu region of Northern Japan, where they are subjected
Time for the Male Man Read More »
Our oldest, 21 year-old Cycas taitungensis finally decided to flower this year, but it waited until three months after all the other cycads had finished coning. Plants in the genus Cycas are dioecious, with male and female cones on separate plants. Our specimen turned out to be a female, and by the time we finally
