There are few North American native shrubs that put on a better show for us and the native bees, than silver prairie clover, Dalea bicolor var. argyaea. This amazing dryland evergreen in the legume family, is clothed in small, bright silver foliage, which, starting for us in early October is adorned with hundreds of small
A Daily Dose of Dalea Read More »
Putting on an elegant show in the fall woodland garden is the hardy gesneriad, Briggsia mihieri. Some taxonomists have recently moved it to a sister genus, Glabrella mihieri, but we’ll let the dust settle before making the change. Native to only three Chinese provinces, Guangxi, Guizhou and Sichuan, it’s a high elevation plant, occurring between
Leucophyllum langmaniae ‘Purple Lion’ is the second selection of barometer bush that has thrived for us, since 2019. This is another collection from the amazing field work of plantsman, Patrick McMillan. Hailing from north of Monterrey in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, this cold and heat/humidity tolerant clone has been an amazing performer in our garden, forming
Mexican Barometer Bush Read More »
A few years ago, we purchased seed of Iberis gibralterica, an African perennial candytuft. What we got instead was a lavender flowered form of the annual candytuft, most likely, Iberis umbellata. Imagine, a mail order nursery sending out a mis-identified plant. In our crevice garden, it puts on an early spring, show, before going dormancy
What a lovely surprise to find our native liver leaf (Hepatica americana) in flower in the garden on Christmas day. This fabulous North American native, evergreen perennial, is found in moist woodlands, throughout the Eastern US. Because this collection is from Western South Carolina, it’s flowering months earlier than forms from colder regions. The common
Liver for Christmas Read More »
Emerging in the woodland garden now are the amazing toothworts of the former genus, Dentaria. Dentaria ‘Green Snowflake’ below, is our 2017 introduction of our hybrid between two natives, Dentaria heterophylla and Dentaria dissecta. This foliage sailed through our recent low temperatures of 15 degrees F. In another eight weeks, the clump will be topped
Here come the Green Snowflakes Read More »
We’re enjoying the mid-summer show of grass-leaf Barbara’s buttons, Marshallia graminifolia ‘Georgetown’. We grew this from a Patrick McMillan/Zac Hill seed collection near Georgetown, SC. Marshallia graminifolia is a coastal plain endemic, found from NC to Georgia, where it forms a short basal rosette of narrow, linear foliage, that’s topped with 20″ tall flowers stalks,
Early April is peak time at JLBG for Ajuga flowering, commonly known as bugleweed. We think these amazing new cultivars are a great solution to reducing the need for mulch in sun to part sun landscaped areas. Some of the new colored leaf cultivars are even more spectacular when in flower…below are a few.
Trumpeting Bugleweed 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
The Naked Chinese Daphne Read More »
In 2021, our staff spotted one of our patches of Ajuga ‘Black Scallop’, in which part of the clump had mutated to a form which had foliage that was nearly 2-3 times as large as the original. We moved the sport nearby and watched it over the next three years until we were sure the
