We wanted to share a late November photo of our selection of our native evergreen wild ginger, Asarum minus ‘Woodland Wonder’, which came from a division from a plant we found growing back in 2000, in North Carolina’s Davidson County. Perhaps, one day, we’ll have enough of this exceptional clone to share.
It’s the time of year, we all hopefully stop and take time to thank those who are so important in our lives. I (Tony) am incredibly blessed to be embarking on our 40th year in business in 2026. No sane person thought our model of building a private, ex-situ conservation botanical garden, and mail order
Below is our stunning, seventeen year old specimen of the Subequal Ironwood, now measuring 30′ tall x 20′ wide. Below, is our plant this week, showing off it’s beautiful fall color in early November. Parrotia subaequalis is the Chinese version of the better known Persian ironwood, Parrotia persica. This is so rare in the wild,
Nearly Equal Ironwood Read More »
Flowering this week in the garden is the little-known, Hydrangea hypoglauca. Hydrangea taxonomy has been in a bit of flux, especially within the group of species that comprise the Hydrangea heteromalla complex. One of the taxonomic segregates from that group is Hydrangea hypoglauca, which hails from forested mountains between 600 and 12,000′ elevation in the
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.
The amazing glade fern, Diplaziopsis pycnocarpa has long been one of our favorite native ferns, but it’s a bit of a loner. This fern, whose native range is from Maine to Louisiana, also has a bit of an identity crisis, formerly being known as Homolasorus pycnocarpus, Diplazium pycnocarpon, Athyrium pycnocarpon, and before that, several other
From the Glade to your Shade Read More »
The Incredible Hulk of the plant world has returned, once again, to seek a mate. It’s been just over two years since our Amorphophallus titanum ‘Homo Erectus’ gifted us with a giant inflorescence, so we’re thrilled to welcome another flowering event. Below is a photo of our plant on July 3, so, based on past
It’s Back…Homo erectus returns! Read More »
From an ex-situ conservation standpoint, we are a bit fanatical about trilliums. We grow many thousand trilliums from seed each year, and also travel around the country studying trilliums in the wild, which has given us an incredible opportunity to make some amazing selections. At JLBG, we currently grow over 1,600 different trillium selections, which
Trillium – Round 2 Read More »
This January, we first flowered Hippeastrum idimae, a 2017 published species from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that we received from our friends at Yucca Do in 2015. This new species was discovered by amateur Brazilian botanist, Idimá Gonçalves da Costa, in a long-ago deforested area, where it had survived among a few granite outcrops. This
Not your Average Amaryllis Read More »
Most of the prehistoric sago palms we grow in the garden are Chinese natives, yet a few of the most unusual, winter hardy ones we grow are actually North American natives. Ceratozamia hildae, which looks great this week, hails from oak woodlands in the provinces of Queretaro and San Luis Potosi, at elevations up to
Mexican Bamboo Cycad Read More »
