Our hanging basket of the evergreen Pyrrosia lingua ‘Corymbifera’ is looking lovely as we head toward another fall season. This Japanese selection of the epiphytic tongue fern has excellent vigor, forming a dense clump either in a container or in the ground. This moss-lined basket is now six years old, and lives outdoors year round
Flat-top Cluster Fern Read More »
We’re just wrapping up the flowering of the “starfish” group of cast iron plant species. While none are reliably winter hardy in the ground here in Zone 7b/8a, they make amazing house plants. The first and second are Aspidistra pulchella, and the final two images are Aspidistra radiata. The giant upright purple flower buds on
Casting for Starfish Read More »
Pyrrosia polydactyla ‘Middle Finger’ is an excellent clone of the Taiwanese native five-fingered tongue fern with an exceptionally long middle pinnae. Quite a few nurseries, especially in the Pacific Northwest, offer this as another clumping, but uniquely different species, Pyrrosia hastata. In the garden, it’s quite at home in dry shade, especially happy growing on
Middle Finger Fern Read More »
While Tropical Storm Debby was soaking JLBG with 4.3″ of rain, I was off to Connecticut and Rhode Island for a presentation and some nursery/garden visits. It didn’t look like I was going to make it, after one flight cancellation and four rebookings, but thanks to several unexpected moments of good luck, our plane touched
I first met Aspidistra bogneri, when I crawled through a dense jungle of limbs in North Vietnam’s Ha Giang Province in 2005. There I was, face to face with a 5′ tall cast iron plant. Until that moment, I didn’t know such a plant even existed. Fast forward, 19 years later, it’s currently flowering in
Casting Around in Bogner’s Shadow Read More »
Looking great in the summer garden is the stunning cast iron plant, Aspidistra elatior ‘Asahi’. This amazing woodland evergreen is a plant we can’t imagine gardening without. The leaf patterning is brightest as the new leaves emerge in June/July. Grown as a house plant, it needs to get some size before you will see the
Sunlight in the Woodland Read More »
During the holidays, house plants often get relegated to dark, unattended corners, but some house plants make great holiday decorations without any special seasonal input. One of those is the Taiwan native cast iron plant, Aspidistra attenuata. Here are 3 clones in our collection, all photographed this year on Christmas day. In order, they are
We can’t imagine gardening in a climate where we couldn’t grow these amazing bold-textured evergreen winter wonders. Here is Aspidistra ‘Goldfeather’ in the garden this week, glowing in the winter light. For those in colder winter climates, the common name of cast iron plants give an indication of how tough they are as house plants
Now that winter is giving us a sneak preview of what’s in store for the next few months, the evergreen plants in the garden are really starting to shine without all those pesky deciduous perennials. Aspidistra, or cast iron plants, are one of our favorites, and they really look so good in the garden now.
