One of our favorite fall-flowering trees is the tropical-looking Schefflera delavayi. As a child, I was always enamored with schefflera on our family vacations to Florida, never dreaming it would be possible to grow these “tropicals” in our Raleigh garden. Fast forward 60 years, a number of “hardy” schefflera species in the Arailaceae family have
Delavay’s Schefflera is a now a Heap of Pleureum Read More »
We love our adult ivies…the well behaved adult shrub forms of the pesky vines. Based on our observations, so do the native pollinators, which flock to them like nothing else in our fall garden. Pictured below is our nine year-old clump of Hedera colchica ‘Green Spice’ flowering in early October. This is an adult form
Our Favorite Spice Girl – Green Spice Read More »
It’s hard to pass our picture perfect clump of Agave nickelsiae without stopping to take a photo. Agave nickelsiae, formerly known as Agave ferdinandi-regis, is a North American native century plant, found in dry, rocky hills in Mexican state of Coahuila. It was named to honor 19th century plant collector, Anna Nickels of Texas, who
Worth more than a Nickel Read More »
We’ve written many times about the huge number of plants we’ve killed, but we find that’s the best way to learn. Often, we have a good idea if a particular plant will be successful, and sometimes, it’s just a random attempt. Such was the case, when we planted a cultivar of Rocky Mountain subalpine fir,
Rocky Mountain Hurricane in NC Read More »
We’re just wrapping up the flowering of the “starfish” group of cast iron plant species. While none are reliably winter hardy in the ground here in Zone 7b/8a, they make amazing house plants. The first and second are Aspidistra pulchella, and the final two images are Aspidistra radiata. The giant upright purple flower buds on
Casting for Starfish Read More »
I first met Juniperus chinensis ‘Aurea’ at the JC Raulston Arboretum in 2018, grown from cuttings taken at Richmond, Virginia’s Maymont Garden. We struggled to find a cultivar name, toying first with naming it Juniperus ‘Maymont Gold’. It wasn’t until horticultural cultivar historian, Larry Hatch, of Cultivar.org, told us that this is the true Juniperus
As we prepare for the upcoming NFL season, we thought we’d offer a horticultural football analogy with this native plant combination of two evergreens, Heuchera ‘Grande Amethyst’ and Juniperus horizontalis ‘Copper Harbor’. Here, in this Minnesota Vikings color theme, the coral bell (heuchera) is the quarterback, carrying the color, and first drawing your eye. The
Vikings Quarterback-Receiver Combo Read More »
Spiking over the last few weeks before finally opening is the crazy agave relative, Beschorneria ‘Ding Dong’. All of us who have crazy relatives, can relate to family members that are somewhat off of the bell curve. Beschorneria has thick, evergreen, spineless leaves, and flower stalks that look like Christmas lights on LSD. Beschorneria ‘Ding
Ding Dong…Who’s There? Beschor-who? 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 »
Looking lovely in the garden now is one of the most overlooked of the Southeast US native palms. Sabal etonia may look superficially similar to the better known Sabal minor, but while Sabal minor is typically found in swamps and ditches, Sabal etonia comes from dry sandy scrub habitat in North Central Florida. It is
