Of the 2,500+ named cultivars of Galanthus (snowdrops), only a small percentage have yellow ovaries. This trait was first noticed in 1974, with the discovery of Galanthus ‘Wendy’s Gold’, and since that time, gold has become one of the most highly prized traits in snowdrops. Although we have a relative small collection of 72 snowdrop
There’s Gold in them Snowdrops Read More »
Fenway Park Golden Ivy is a fabulous, deciduous, Asian native vine for covering buildings, fences, or the belongings of sloppy neighbors. On the way to a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park in 1988, now-retired Arnold Arboretum Research Scientist, Peter Del Tredici, spotted a golden mutation on a Boston Ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), growing on
Fenway Park is a Hit Read More »
We’ve recently written about the running tongue ferns, Pyrrosia lingua, but wanted to delve deeper into those winter hardy Pyrrosia species which, instead, form tight clumps. The two most prevalent clumping species in cultivation are Pyrrosia hastata and Pyrrosia polydactyla. Unfortunately, the two species are thoroughly mixed in the trade, most likely because they came
In Greek mythology, chimeras are imaginary creatures, often formed by combining parts of several other creatures together into one. Classic examples are centaurs and mermaids. In plants, there are three types of foliage chimeras, sectoral, mericlinal, and periclinal. Sectorial is represented by plants like Philodendron ‘Thai Constellation, which has randomly flecked leaves. Periclinal chimeras are
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As a young gardener, the chance of growing the high elevation North American native quaking aspen in NC was always nothing more than a random thought that kept popping in my mind, being quickly dismissed, until we spotted one a few years ago at South Carolina’s Spartanburg Community College Garden. Garden director, Dr. Kevin Parris,
Not Quaking from the Heat – Aspens in NC? Read More »
There’s a word for people who try the same thing over and over again, but our insanity kept us trying every new cultivar of the heat-intolerant Japanese hakone grass in the hopes we’d find one that would thrive. The gardening gods answered when Hakonechloa macra ‘Sunflare’ first arrived here in 2017. This clumping woodland grass
