“You should have seen my garden last week” or some variation on this theme is a common refrain when visiting a garden. I felt much this way recently when I led a tour of Juniper Level Botanic Garden. I just could not find a knock-your-socks off clump of Rhodophiala bifida. So here is a glorious
Hill Country Red Perfection Read More »
The procession of Lycoris (Surprise lilies) continues as we pass mid-August. Here are some recent images. So far, this year, we have flowered over 300 different taxa. Below is Lycoris aurea, which has the widest natural range of any lycoris, from India to Africa, south to Indonesia. Winter hardiness of this fall-leaf species is dependent
A Summer of Surprises Read More »
Another of our favorite fall alliums is the lovely Allium kiiense, which hails from the Honshu Japan penisula by the same name. Last year, we had so many plants that went unpurchased, we planted a mass instead of throwing them out. Below is that mass in full flower this week. Hardiness Zone 5a-9b.
From Kii with Love Read More »
Looking great in the garden in November are our collection of x Amarines. These are a fascinating man-made group of hybrids between two South African genera of bulbs, Amaryllis belladonna and Nerine, first described in 1961. These grow their foliage in winter, which is a problem in climates as cold as ours. If the foliage
Amarine – a Manmade Gem Read More »
Flowering in the crevice garden in early November is the little-known South African bulb, Strumaria discifera ssp. bulbifera. These hail from the winter wet/dry summer region of the Western Cape, and have been right at home in the ground here since 2018. Okay, so it’s not as flashy as a tulip of daffodil, but to
Strumming on a Strumaria Read More »
Colchicum autumnale ‘The Giant’ is in full flower in our alpine rock garden this week. This widespread Central European species bursts out of the ground for us in mid-late October with a stunning show. The cultivar, ‘The Giant’ has abnormally Y-U-G-E flowers. Hardiness Zone 5a-8b.
Land of the Giants Read More »
Flowering this week is the lovely fall-flowering Allium thunbergii. This specimen is a 1993 Dan Hinkley collection from the Heuksan Islands, well off the coast of South Korea. Many of the plants on the Heuksan Islands have been isolated so long, that they have speciated (evolved into a new species). In this case, this plant
Looking lovely this week in the garden is Crinum politifolium, which hails from Tanzania. Not many people think of East Africa as a source of Zone 7b hardy plants, but areas such as the Southern Highland hold a wealth of horticultural potential, especially for geophytes, that hasn’t been well explored.
Polite Crinum Lily Read More »
I posted photos earlier from our lycoris selection back in August, but the season extends through September and into October. Below are some of the later flowering varieties. With a selection of cultivars, you can easily have a lycoris in flower from early July until mid October. Lycoris ‘Tipping Point’ looks like the common Lycoris
The Last Surprises Read More »
The star of the fall garden this year has been Colchicum tenorii (recently corrected to Colchicum cilicicum), which has been flowering for weeks. Our clump of this Italian native bulb, began as a single bulb in 2000. Once the flowers finish next week, the large, green leaves will emerge and continue to grow through the
The Tenor of Colchicums Read More »
