One of the garden ferns that we have admired since its 2011 planting is the Australian/New Zealand native, Diplazium australe. This incredible, fine-textured fern, forms a 3′ tall deciduous clump. In the wild, it can be found streamside and in moist forests, but it’s thrived for us in average to dry soils. It’s virtually unknown
Ferner from Down Under Read More »
One of the oddest, and consequenty, coolest ferns we grow in the garden is Lepisorus palmatopedatus, which translates in to palm-foot, scaly-sori fern. We’ve grown this Chinese (Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou) oddity for over three years, and it justs gets better each year, spreading slowly, via an underground rhizome. For us, it’s been mostly evergreen
It’s been four years that we’ve been trialing the dwarf princess lily, Alstroemeria ‘Zoe’. We were hesitant about it’s winter hardiness, especially after everyone got burned by the tender Alstroemeria ‘Rock and Roll’. After an extensive trial period, it has proven to be an outstanding, albeit slow-growing, gem for the garden. Below is a photo
Last year, we posted fall pictures of our Sabal bermudana in full green leaf, but we would also like to share a current photo of the same specimen in its winter dress. As you can imagine, being from Bermuda, this palm isn’t enamored with our cold winter temperatures. Consequently, any nights that fall below 20
Flowering now in the garden is one of the rarest of the lenten rose hybrids, Helleborus x belcheri ‘Pink Ice’. This cross of the European Helleborus niger and the Chinese Helleborus thibetanus, was developed by Kevin Belcher at the UK’s Ashwood Nurseries. Since Helleborus thibetanus has been a miserable failure in our hot summer climates,
Belching in the Winter Garden Read More »
Ceratozamia microstrobila has been an amazing cycad in our trials, as you can see from the recent photo below. This rare species hails from the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains of Northern Mexico (Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosi), where there are only six populations remaining in the wild. Our 13 year old garden specimens have thrived in
Many of the winter gold colored spruces don’t color up well in our climate. Once exception is the Norway spruce selection, Picea abies ‘Aurea Magnifica’, which has been absoluty wonderful during our cold weather.
One of the amazing broad leaf evergreen shrubs we wrote about three years ago is the Chinese Euonymus myrianthus. We were excited then, and are even more so now. Our specimen has reached 8′ tall, on the way to 12′-15′. The glossy dark green leaves look great all year. We’re still waiting for our plant
Many-Flowered Euonymus Read More »
In only its third winter in the garden, Camellia vietnamensis has already surpassed our expectations. The large, single white flowers that start for us in early winter, combined with the beautiful foliage has been exceptional in our trials. So far, our plants have sailed through 14 degrees F. There seems to be quite a bit
From Vietnam, with Love Read More »
We have long had a love affair with the conifer genus, Podocarpus. Of the 116 currently recognized species, many are much too tropical for our long, cold winters. We have trialed 23 species here at JLBG, and so far have found only 8 that will survive in our climate. The most unusual, and least-known of
Parlatore’s Podocarp Read More »
