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 »
Living in the community of Juniper Level, there should be little surprise that we have a significant collection of junipers from around the world. One of the rarest and most unusual is Juniperus cedrus (Canary Island Juniper). This native to high elevations in the Canary Islands, almost went extinct, due to overharvesting, which is now,
The Cedar-like Juniper – Juniperus cedrus Read More »
The legend of screaming mandrakes of the genus Mandragora is enough reason to grow these fascinating members of the Solanaceae (tomato, potato) family. I’m always reminded of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins 1956 classic, I Put a Spell on You, every time I’m working nearby. We’ve actually tried all four species in the genus, but so far
The Mandrake Lives…Quietly, for Now Read More »
It was on a 2008 expedition to Taiwan, where I met the Taiwan native spruce, Picea morrisonicola. This amazing plant was named in honor of its native habitat on Mt. Morrison, which was, as was the colonialistic habit at the time, named for English missionary, Robert Morrison (1782-1834) . Today, the mountain is known as
I first met the genus, Exbucklandia, in the fall of 1996, at China’s Kunming Botanic Garden. At the time, I’d never heard of this odd, evergreen witch hazel cousin. Not only was the plant odd, but the genus name was an equal oddity. It was originally named by Scottish taxonomist, Robert Brown in 1832, as
The Buckland Faux Paus Read More »
Back in 2016, we were fortunate to flower a plant of Agave victoriae-reginae in the garden. We were intrigued to see if we could create a hybrid with it, and the amazing Agave ovatifolia. Since we didn’t have Agave ovatifolia (pictured below) in flower that year, we used pollen we’d saved from a 2013 flowering,
Victor Victoria – Sex in Reverse Read More »
One of the most popular garden specimen century plants has long been Agave parryi subspecies truncata. Due to their distribution in the Southwest US and Mexico, the hardiness of the various populations varies tremendously. These small (relatively speaking) century plants are mass-market landscape staples in warm temperate and frost-free parts of the desert southwest. Try
Truncating a Hardiness Project Read More »
Aloe grandidentata has been a lovely surprise in our hardiness trials for the genus. This caespitose (doesn’t grow on a stalk) species forms 1′ wide dull green rosettes, spotted white, that spread via short underground rhizomes. The plant in the photo below is only 2.5 years old from a single division. We’d killed this twice
Big-tooth Medicine Plant Read More »
