One of our favorite textural plants in the woodland garden is the amazing Alpinia japonica ‘Green Waves’. This ginger rarely flowers here, unless we have a particularly mild winter, but who cares when you have great foliage like this. The ruffled foliage of this form, from the late specialty nurseryman, Don Jacobs garden, is not
Riding the Green Waves Read More »
I failed for decades to keep the European gas plant, Dictamnus albus alive in our heat and humidity. Despite these mounting failures, I keep trying new genetics as they become available. Finally, this month, we have met with our first success with our first gas plant flowering. Although gas plant looks superficially nothing like its
Gaslighting in the Garden Read More »
One of the great North American native plants that never gets a bad rap is Comptonia peregrina, commonly known as sweet fern. Looking good now, this wax myrtle relative in the Myricaceae family, is usually classified as a sub-shrub. The fragrant, finely textured foliage clothes the 2′ tall stems, which spread by underground rhizomes, to
Straight Outta Compton Read More »
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
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 »
