Angel Trumpet Time
We are enjoying a lush flowering of angel trumpets this fall, with their sweetly fragrant, nocturnal flowers. This is the cultivar Brugmansia x candida ‘Double White’, looking quite lovely this week.
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Flocking to Eysenhardt
Eysenhardtia is a small genus of only 13 species in the pea family, Fabaceae, native from the Southwestern US, south into Central America. The star of the genus in our climate is Eysenhardtia texana, in particular, a winter hardy Patrick McMillan collection from Uvalde, Texas. For us, this small, deciduous, dryland shrub, is adorned with
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Oh Beni, She is Really Keen
Few shrubs we grow evoke an emotional response quite like Osmanthus fragrans ‘Beni Kim Mokusei’. For all its power to inspire devotion, however, it has no connection to the perfectly coiffed televangelist Benny Hinn. This amazing Chinese native evergreen comes in white, yellow, and orange flowered forms. The orange flowering clones are known as Osmanthus
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Giant Formosa Lily
We’ve just finished the flowering season for the amazing, Taiwan native, Lilium formosanum. This amazing lily comes true from seed, and for us, flowers the first year from seed. After three years, it reaches 6′ tall in our climate, Zone 8a, Raleigh, NC. The deliciously sweet flowers make such an amazing show in August, at
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A Really Big Mardi Gras
I was just photographing our 21 year old specimen of Abelia x grandiflora ‘Mardi Gras’, and as we like to do, took measurements, which showed our plant is now 8′ tall x 10′ wide. I should also note that this is growing in an unirrigated part of the garden, without benefit of fertilizer. Just for
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This Woodvamp is Simply Golden
A splendid new selection, of the little-known, native (Virginia to Texas) Hydrangea barbara, is the gold-foliaged Hydrangea barbara ‘Chattahoochie Sunrise’. If you don’t recognize the name, it was formerly known as Decumaria barbara, before members of the genus hydrangea had an unexpected family reunion. We have grown this amazing discovery from Georgia plantsman, Cliff Brock,
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Raffill’s Ginger
Hedychium ‘Raffillii’ is hard to miss in the mid-August garden, with its brilliant floral show. It’s little wonder this 1941 Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit (AGM) winner is touted as one of the finest ginger lilies ever introduced. For us, this Hedychium coccineum selection is one of the earlier ginger lilies to flower,
I hate to be a tease, but…
Several of our new crinum seedlings are looking quite nice after our recent rain, so we wanted to share the beauty. Building up enough numbers to share takes years, so none of these are available yet. Most are winter hardy from Zone 7a and south, but a few should be fine into Zone 6. Enjoy.
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Durango Kid
The North American (Durango, Mexico) native, Hymenocallis durangoensis, has been absolutely spectacular this month in the garden, where we grow it in full sun, in average to moist soils. Sadly, this spider lily never sells very well, so we keep having to dump our surplus nursery stock at years end. We’re just stubborn enough to
A Purple Queen in the Garden
Putting on an incredible show now is one of my favorite evergreen magnolias, Magnolia crassipes ‘Purple Queen’. This amazing selection comes from legendary Japanese nurseryman, Akari Shibimichi. Our four year-old plant is now 7′ tall x 7′ wide. Both the floral show and delicious fragrance are outstanding. Magnolia crassipes is the purple-flowering counterpart to the
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