In flower in late March at JLBG is the sweetly fragrant Osmanthus x burkwoodii ‘Elizabeth Lawrence’, a plant we acquired from the late garden writer, Pam Harper. This sweet olive is a cross of the Turkish Osmanthus decorus and the Chinese native Osmanthus delavayi, created by 20th century English nurserymen, Arthur and Albert Burkwood. The
The Burkwood’s Sweet Legacy Read More »
Most folks only know daphnes that retain evergreen foliage, but one of our favorite exceptions is the Chinese native, Daphne genkwa, which happens to be in full flower at JLBG this week. This floriferous species needs moist, but well-drained soils, unlike so many of its European counterparts. Unlike the commonly grown, Daphne odora, it has
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Passion drives everything at NC State — the donors’ passions fuel our students’ passions, and our students’ passions inspire our donors’ passions. NC State University is hosting their annual Day of Giving on Wednesday, March 26, 2025. Please consider donating in support of Juniper Level Botanic Garden to preserve this world-class resource for future generations. You can
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We wanted to share another thought-provoking column by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume about the myths of the invasive species movement. Clear-cutting is Clear-cutting, No Matter Where the Trees are From: A rant against dogma and eradication As regular readers know, critiquing the “invasive plant” narrative is one of my main themes here. The name of the
Clearing the Muddy Water Read More »
We were recently checking some surprising winter damage on one of our Schefflera delavayi specimens in the garden, and when we sliced open a stem, we found a lovely example of a chambered pith arrangement. Pith is a lightweight polystyrene like material, composed of parenchyma cells, and found in the center of stems of dicot
We never know who will show up at our Open Nursery days, but it was great to chat with Jim and Stephany Putnam of HortTube at our recent open weekend. This local couple do so much to promote gardening and share good plant information all over the country…we salute your amazing work! Here is a
I remember watching the first Planet of the Apes movie in 1968, and being struck by the depiction of Earth’s landscape after a nuclear war in which humans were wiped out. Unquestionably, humans manipulate landscapes for our own use, and have done so since we evolved into two legged creatures some 4-5 million years ago.
I have seen the Garden’s Future Read More »
Looking lovely in December are the Japanese Laurels of the genus, Aucuba. If you’ve hung around any southern gardeners, you already know that we often have some peculiar pronunciations. I’m from the south and still remember thinking, whaaat, the first time I heard someone talking about the A Coobers in their garden. Perhaps many folks
You would think with 220 new Aspidistra (cast iron plant) species discovered since 1980 that botanists would have found them all, but that seems to be far from the case. This oddity just flowered in our collection this month, and is obviously yet another new species. This is one of the final collections (2018) made
Cast-ing a Wider Net Read More »
One of the program features of the Perennial Plant Association’s annual meetings are a series of industry awards. One of those is the highly competitive Landscape Design Awards, where the countries top landscape architects and designers whose work prominently featured perennials, learn if their designs won. There are several design categories: 1) residential designs under
