More lycoris continue to open every day. Their flowering season coincides quite close with the hurricane season. These amazing amaryllids pop up almost overnight, sans foliage. If you’re curious to take a deep dive into the genus, check out our lycoris study gallery Lycoris chinensis is a spring-leaf species from China. Lycoris longituba is the
Many gardeners grow hardy aroids in their garden, ranging from the tiny arisarum to the giant amorphophallus, but few folks have tried members of the genus, Taccarum (tacky-arum). Taccarum is a small genus of only six species, all native to South America. As a nice addition, the flowers have no detectable fragrance. In our trials,
The Hardy Tacky Arum Read More »
Through the years, we’ve trialed 27 different clones of Amorphophallus krausei in the garden for winter hardiness, but only two have consistently survived. The largest is a 2005 Alan Galloway collection from from Son La, Vietnam. Here it is in the garden this week with the 5′ tall flower spikes. The spikes are followed by
It’s that time of year, when the surprise lilies, Lycoris, that we have scattered throughout the garden begin to pop. Actually, due to our early summer rains, they began popping in early July this year, 2-3 weeks ahead of normal. Surprise lilies are divided into two groups, based on when their leaves emerge….fall (October) or
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We’ve been fascinated with the African genus of bulbs, Ledebouria for many years, and one of our best successes has been the South African Ledebouria ovalifolia, which has thrived outdoors in our garden In 2015, we spotted a single streak of variegation on one leaf. After eight years of work, we have isolated that original
For baseball fans, you know the Say Hey Kid as the great Willy Mays, but in horticutlure, we have a Say Hey Kid also, Arisaema sahyadricum (say-hey-dricum). This little grown, Jack-in-the-Pulpit hails from India, where it was just discovered in 1993. Compared to most jacks that flower in the spring, this is a summer flowering
Through the years, we’ve trialed over 130 different agapanthus species and cultivars. One we currently have on trial that has us in love is Agapanthus ‘Quink Drops’. Not only are the buds near black and the flowers dark blue, but the sturdy flower stalks have reached 5′ tall. This is unquestionably the tallest agapanthus we’ve
In July 2018, we flowered our first Titan Corpse Flower, Amorphophallus titanum. Our plant was # 594 to flower in its entire history of cultivation. Since that time, another 141 have flowered worldwide, bringing the total number to 735. If you’d like to see who else has flowered these amazing giants, here is our complete
Clash of the Titans Read More »
As we mentioned in a recent blog, we have a ridiculously large collection of Crinum lily cultivars and species. Despite this, we’re always making new crosses in our goal to improve the quality of plants available. Despite their being nearly 1,000 named crinums, there is still dramatic room for improvement. Below is one of our
The Crinum Show Continues Read More »
The US native (Maine south to Alabama) Lilium canadense is looking quite lovely in the sunny garden this week. This particular form is from Cabarrus County, NC. Hardiness Zone 3a-8b.
