We’ve grown a number of herbal thymes through the years, and most either take over the garden or die in our hot, humid summer. One that has really impressed us recently is the wonderful Thymus neiceffii, known as Juniper leaf thyme. This native to the Balkan peninsula forms a ground-hugging silvery mat that looks very
What a Nice Thyme Read More »
Flowering now in a shaded part of the crevice garden is the lovely Cunila origanoides (American Dittany). Of the 20 species in the genus of shrub mints, all from the Americas, this is the only one with a US distribution, being found from in a wide band from New York west to Texas. These are
We’re loving the amazing Agastache ‘Pink Pearl’ in the garden. This incredible Terra Nova introduction is the most densely flowering agastache clone we’ve ever grown. These are our two year old clumps in the drier part of the garden. As long as you give these a sunny, well-drained spot, they’ll reward you with an incredible
Discovering Pink Pearls in the Garden Read More »
Flowering now in the garden is Blephilia ciliata, a little-known clumping mint cousin, native from Vermont south to Georgia and west to Texas, where it occurs in open woods and meadows. In form, Blephilia ciliata is a woodland version of bee balm without the pesky spreading tendency. Downy wood mint forms a 1.5′ tall x
Gettin’ down with Downy wood mint Read More »
I can hear the chants from the Tennessee volunteer faithful, as they begin humming the State song of Tennessee. Instead, we are referring to one of their finest ornamental plants from the Cumberland Plateau region (TN, KY, and SC), the Federally Threatened Conradina verticillata ‘Rocky Top’, commonly referred to as Cumberland rosemary. For the last
Good ole’ Rocky Top Read More »
Our plant of Arp rosemary is looking quite spectacular this time of year. This seven year-old plant is now 7′ tall x 11′ wide. This is a lovely plant, but not one for a small location. It was discovered by the late Texas plantswoman and herb specialist, Madeline Hill, in the town of Arp, Texas.
Looking great in mid-January in our crevice garden, is the shrubby Mediterranean native, Teucrium marum, known more widely as kitty crack. The incredibly fragrant foliage is enough to drive your cats wild…far beyond anything you’ve seen from its cousin, Nepeta catarica (cat nip), which is also in the Lamiaceae family. It you really want to
A Crack full of Kitty Crack Read More »
Flowering in the garden this week is our Macon, Georgia collection of the southeast US native Asarum arifolium ‘Macon Jars’. Other forms of A. arifolium from further north in it’s range won’t be flowering for several more weeks. We trim the old anise-scented foliage of our asarums so we can better enjoy the amazing floral
Blooming Jar Heads Read More »
Few gardeners outside of California and the Pacific Northwest have tried growing Cupressus sargentiae (Sargent’s Cypress). We often assume that plants endemic to California won’t grow on the East Coast, but our trials have found such a broad assumption to be quite false. Our specimen from Patrick’s collection north of San Francisco still looks great
Flowering this week is the amazing Southeast native subshrub, Clinopodium georgianum. The leaves have a wonderful fragrance of strong peppermint, and the flower show isn’t bad either. This is Zac/Jeremy’s collection from Henry County, Alabama. A carpenter bee working nearby stopped in for a floral snack.
