Late summer and fall are a great time to enjoy the plumes of our US native ornamental grass, Panicum virgatum. Here are two photos from the garden this week. The first is one of my favorites, the giant Panicum ‘Cloud 9’…an introduction from Maryland’s defunct Bluemount Nursery. Below this is a new dwarf, blue-foliage introduction
It’s a grass, don’t panic…umm Read More »
Flowering now at JLBG is one of our cute Southeastern natives known as Bog Buttons (Lachnocaulon anceps). The entire family, Eriocaulaceae, has a similar stature with small grass-like foliage, topped by these long antennae-looking structures. In the wild, these can be found in low, often flooded ditches, but they are easily grown in constructed bog
Sweeping sedge is in full flower in the garden today. The North American native (Canada south to Florida and west to Texas) Carex bromoides swept us off our feet! This delightful small evergreen sedge forms a 6″ tall x 30″ wide, delicate-textured patch of green hair-like foliage. Although it prefers moist to mucky wet soil,
Back in 2004, I was botanizing in rural Bienville Parish, Louisiana, where I ran across this fascinating narrow-leaf native sedge, a small piece of which returned home for trials. After six years of trialing, we named it Carex retroflexa ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (alluding to the location where the famous pair met their demise) and added
Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda Bought a Sedge Read More »
So many gardeners are now growing the wildly popular Muhlenbergia capillaris, they’ve forgot to checkout some of its great relatives. Here’s one of my favorites, the truly elegant Muhlenbergia rigens (deer muhly) putting on a heckuva show here at JLBG now. Native from Texas to California, deer muhly tolerates drought well, but not sloppy wet
Another great muhly grass, Muhlenbergia rigens…a neglected cousin Read More »
I just snapped this photo of the amazing North American native Muhlenbergia capillaris ‘White Cloud’ in flower here at JLBG. It doesn’t get any better than this.
Muhlenbergia ‘White Cloud’ flowering now Read More »
Ornamental grasses make such great combinations. Looking outside our back door now is this combo of Chasmanthium ‘River Mist‘ with tricyrtis, and a thelypteris fern. No colorful flowers…only great textures and form.
Variegated Sea Oats combination Read More »
One of our favorite native plants is in full flower in the garden…the unusual white-topped sedge. Dichromena (Rhynchospora) latifolia makes a slowly spreading patch that resembles a carex until the odd white flower spikes occur in mid-summer. Although it usually is found in seasonally flooded sites, we have found it also makes a great specimen
White-topped sedge Read More »
