Golden Joy
Stachyurus chinensis ‘Golden Joy’ is looking fabulous in our garden. This new gold-leaf sport of Stachyurus ‘Joy Forever’, discovered by plantsman Ron Rabidou, has been a wonderfully bright spot in the woodland garden at JLBG
Who put the Kunth in Kunthii?
Looking superb this week is our great native fern, Thelypteris kunthii (southern shield fern) So what is a kunth? In fact, this fern gets its name from German taxonomist, Carl Sigismund Kunth (1788 – 1850). Kunth was one of the first people to categorize North American plants, mostly from the collections of German botanists, Humboldt and
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Pale Puma
We love the winter hardy spiderworts, and Tradescantia ‘Pale Puma’ is one of our favorites. This hybrid of two northern Mexican species, T. pallida x sillamontana forms a lovely compact deciduous groundcover. Here it is in the garden this week, colored nicely and awaiting the first frost, which will send it into dormancy. In colder
Squirrel-skin Cap
One of the Jim Phillips sculptures at JLBG decided they needed something to keep its head warm, so it added this life-like squirrel-skin cap. Nature never ceases to entertain.
Where Fuchsias fear to tread
We were so thrilled when the Japanese began hybridizing fuchsias to tolerate hot, humid summers, that we did mental backflips. Over two decades later, these amazing plants still thrill us with both their tolerance of our harsh summers and winters. Here’s a photo of Fuchsia ‘Sanihanf’ in the garden today. Good siting (part sun and
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Flame Thrower
Cercis ‘Flame Thrower’, a JC Raulston Arboretum release from NC State woody plant breeder, Dr. Dennis Werner, was just awarded the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Plant of the Year for 2021. In Europe, Cercis ‘Flame Thrower’ is marketed as Eternal Flame. Here is our plant at JLBG this summer. Congratulations to Denny and the
When Jupiter drops, this oregano’s golden
A new hybrid that just been amazing in our garden this summer is Origanum ‘Drops of Jupiter’. This Walters Garden introduction is the ultimate edimental…a cross of the gold-leaf culinary oregano, Origanum vulgare, with the flowering Origanum laevigatum. The result is an amazing flowering plant with incredibly fragrant golden foliage. Here is our plant at
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Similar Spider Fern
We’ve been growing the Chinese Arachnioides simulans, the similar spider fern, for over a decade, in which time, it’s proven a superb performer. Here’s a photo from the gardens this week. Finally, this spring, we got around to sowing spore, in the hope we can make this available soon though Plant Delights Nursery…fingers crossed for
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My Summer Vacation trip to Lambou Field, Florida
Back in the early 2000s, I printed out every exchange from the International Bulb Society email list that discussed the bulb genus, hymenocallis (spider lilies). Most conversations originated with Victor Lambou, who was obviously an authority on the genus. It’s now been years since the Bulb Society went defunct and I had lost track of
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Sleeping Beauty
We’ve written before about plants that get much larger than we are told in the catalog descriptions. Well, our latest example is Buddleia ‘Sleeping Beauty’, a hybrid of Buddleia lindleyana and Buddleia davidii. In two short years in the garden, it became a monster, reaching a 7′ tall x 12′ wide with no sign of