If you like botanical oddities, then the cute Camellia parvilimba is just what you’ve been looking for. This miniature species, is tiny, in terms of flowers, leaves, and overall stature. Camellia parvilimba is the victim of a taxonomic tug of war, with many taxonomists classifying it as simply a tiny form of Camellia euryoides, while
Honey, Who Shrunk the Camellia? Read More »
We’ve experimented with a number of conifers through the decades, and as you can imagine, we’ve killed quite a few of those experiments. One of the nice surprises has been the unexpected success of Pinus strobiformis ‘Loma Linda’. Pinus strobiformis is the Southwestern US (Sierra Madre Occidental) equivalent of the Northeastern native white pine, Pinus
Looks like a Strobe Read More »
Flowering now at JLBG is the dwarf, highly threatened pineapple lily, Eucomis montana. In botanical terms, the word “montana” indicates from the mountains. This stunningly elegant pineapple lily species hails from the northern end of South Africa’s Drakensberg Mountains (Mpumalanga, Free State, and Swaziland), where it can be found growing in grasslands on rocky hillsides.
One of our great native small trees is Cyrilla racemiflora, commonly known as Titi. The genus, itself, is so odd, that it warrants its own family, Cyrillaceae. Although there are 10 species in the genus, this is the only one in commerce. Interestingly, the other nine species only occur in Cuba. In the wild, Cyrilla
Looking great recently is a new, still undescribed dryland, shrub mint from south-central Georgia. This amazing dwarf Clinopodium sp. nov. Upson County, matures at only 6″ tall x 18″ wide with a stunning show of pink flowers for us, in early June. We’ve long treasured the shrubby wood mints, but this is truly exceptional. Hopefully,
The Missing Shrub Mint Read More »
Looking great as it emerges from dormancy is Asparagus cochinchinensis ‘Graham’s Cracker’, our incredible 2015 introduction, that came from NC gardener Graham Ray, who originally purchased this dwarf seedling from Plant Delights. Asparagus ‘Graham’s Cracker’ makes a very tight, upright, 18″ tall x 18″ wide clump, great for a textural contrast in the garden. For
Nothing signals that winter in trending toward spring in our garden more than the seriously cute, Amana anhuiensis. Most folks have probably never heard of this miniature bulb, since it was only published in 2013. The genus itself, was first published in 1867 as an Orithyia, before becoming a tulip a few years later, and
We love the winter color forms of the fascinating spikemoss, Selaginella tamariscina. This Asian (China, Japan, Korea, Russia, India, Taiwan, Thailand, and Philipines) native naturally has solid green foliage, but through the centuries, Japanese gardeners have made countless selections with colored foliage. I’m particularly fond of Selaginella ‘Golden Sprite’ (below). In growth, these make very
While most gardeners are quite familiar with boxwoods of the genus, Buxus, far less are familiar with their close cousins, sweet box of the genus Sarcococca. Sarcococca is a small genus of only 15 species of small woody evergreen shrubs, ranging from the Western Himalayas to Thailand, with one long lost family member that resides
Christmas boxes through the Garden Read More »
One of the most festively fashionable plants in the garden during the winter holiday season is undoubtedly, Ruscus aculeatus ‘Elizabeth Lawrence’. This amazing evergreen perennial has a wide native range through Southern Europe and into Asia, but in the wild, most plant are either male or female. They also range naturally in height from 2′
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