As you know by our many past posts, we are fascinated by the amazing flowers of the Pig’s Butt arum, Helicodiceros muscivoris, which will be opening in several more weeks. We’re equally amazed at the three dimensional structural scaffolding that the plant contrived to support such a heavy, one-sided flower. Below is the glaucous, angular
Pig’s Butt Scaffolding Read More »
One of the finest late winter bulbs we’ve ever grown is the stunning Nothoscordum sellowianum. This incredible South American bulb, hails from the regions around Buenos Aires. When we first tried this back in the late 1980s,. we planted it in shade, which it didn’t appreciate. Before it died, we moved our last bulbs to
False Yellow Crocus Read More »
Here is our production block of the spring-leaf lycoris species and hybrids. Sadly, the only one of these amazing plants that is widely known is the hybrid, Lycoris x squamigera. These are much slower to offset than the fall-leaf species, so when we dig a clonal block to offer, it may be five of more
Surprise Production Read More »
Looking great in the early March garden is the miniature Narcissus ‘New Charm’. This Narcissus cantabricus hybrid was bred by Oregon’s Walter Blom, and released in 2005. We love the miniature daffodils that don’t require us to deal with the masses of unsightly foliage that persists long after flowering.
One of the earliest bulbous plants to pop up in the garden is Fritillaria verticillata, also known as Fritillaria thunbergii. This Central Asian native has no problem starting to grow while low temperatures are still in the teens F. The leaves form hooks at the end in case climbing on a neighbor is needed. Within
Looking lovely in the garden this week, despite the cold, wet rain, is Iris reticulata ‘Carolina’. This Dutch selection of the tough, easy-to-grow, bulbous iris from the Caucuses, was introduced in 2012 by W. van Lierop & Z. B. V. We obtained this as a form of Iris reticulata, which is correct if you agree
Carolina Fan in Winter Read More »
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 »
Once we made our first wide cross in the genus Arisaema, back in the early 1990s, we realized that there were probably few interspecific crosses in the Araceae family that weren’t possible, so we ramped up our work, as time permitted. The genus, Amorphophallus, was one of these in which we further explored the lack
Crossing into the Impossible Read More »
Now that we’ve passed 2,600 blogs, which equates to one blog per day for 7.17 years, I thought it might be interesting to pull back the curtain on how we organize the images we share. Much of the way we look at images was influenced by our mentor, the late J.C. Raulston. J.C. once lamented
Pulling Back the Image Curtain Read More »
While the peak season for crinum lilies is May-July, there’s always quite a few blooms in late summer and even into early fall, before our first frost turns the foliage and remaining flowers into green slime. Here are a couple of clones that stood out in the garden this week. The first is Crinum ‘Bright
