We have long had a love affair with the conifer genus, Podocarpus. Of the 116 currently recognized species, many are much too tropical for our long, cold winters. We have trialed 23 species here at JLBG, and so far have found only 8 that will survive in our climate. The most unusual, and least-known of
Parlatore’s Podocarp Read More »
I first met the genus, Exbucklandia, in the fall of 1996, at China’s Kunming Botanic Garden. At the time, I’d never heard of this odd, evergreen witch hazel cousin. Not only was the plant odd, but the genus name was an equal oddity. It was originally named by Scottish taxonomist, Robert Brown in 1832, as
The Buckland Faux Paus Read More »
While most everyone knows about, or has had a first hand experience with a persimmon, few gardeners have ventured to grow anything outside of two species, our native, Diospyros virginiana, and the Japanese persimmon, Diospyros kaki. Would you believe that there are an astounding 787 species of persimmon. In fruit this week at JLBG is
Parsimonius Persimmon Read More »
Looking great in the garden now is our specimen of Turkish Fir, Abies bornmuelleriana. Our 27 year old specimen was planted as a young seedling, and has shown none of the root disease problems associated with our similar looking native, Abies fraseri. This is despite it being planted where the roof gutters dump water. The
The Born Supremacy Read More »
Our 25 year old Magnolia platypetala has been spectacular over the last few weeks, until our recent lows in the teens. Not to worry, as the unopened flower buds should be fine. The fuzzy brown buds, which are beautiful in their own right, open to large, fragrant white flowers. Taxonomically, it’s often listed as a
We have long had a fascination for evergreen oaks, and one we absolutely love is the Asian, Lithocarpus hancei var. ternaticupula. I have never seen this in another botanical collection, although a few certainly must exist. We tried two seedlings from different Taiwanese collections, and the lowland collection quickly succumbed to our cold winters. The
Looking great in the garden, as we turn the page on a new year is the Japanese bay tree. I first met Machilus thunbergii (Lauraceae) thanks to my horticultural mentor, the late J.C. Raulston, who extolled the virtues of this evergreen tree, native to Taiwan, Southern China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. J.C. had been frustrated,
One of our favorite evergreen trees is the little-known, Trochodendron aralioides. I first met the wheel tree at the JC Raulston Arboretum back in the 1980s, quickly falling in love with the fascinating foliage, which is arranged at the branch tips, like spokes on a wheel. As the curator of the Arboretum’s Lath House, I
Driving the Wheel Tree Renaissance Read More »
For years, I assumed olives would not be winter hardy in our formerly Zone 7b garden, but after killing several clones in our attempts to confirm this, we finally found success in 2006 with the self-fertile, Olea ‘Arbequina’. The name Arbequina, comes from the Spanish village Arbeca, where this hardy olive cultivar originated in the
The Color of Olive Read More »
Our recent intense rains, 7″ in four days, made this garden spider web show up beautifully in front of our coning Keteleeria davidiana. We have some cones most years, but this year there are almost as many cones as their are needles.
