Emerging beautifully from its winter slumber is the elegant native fern, Dryopteris x australis. The 4′ tall clumps look superb all through the heat of summer. Despite the “down under” sounding specific epithet, “australis” actually means “from the south”, referring to its’ natural range from from Virginia to Arkansas, where it is found in moist
In our almost 40 years of gardening here at JLBG, I have yet to find any other vine that’s better to cover a fence than our native (West Virginia south to Florida and west to Texas) Bignonia capreolata. In full flower now, this amazing evergreen vine covers a fence quickly, but without trying to take
Looking lovely in the garden this week is the amazing native (Pennsylvania south to Georgia) Fraser’s sedge, Carex fraseriana. This sedge is so odd, that it spent much of its life, relagated to it’s own, lonely genus, Cymophyllus. We failed with this countless times, before we planted one in between rocks, which seems to have
Looking lovely in the garden in early April is our NC collection of Carex physorhyncha. This North American native sedge, found naturally in dry woodlands, has been taxonomically mixed with Carex albicans var. australis, and we still need a taxonomic rumble to get this finally sorted out. Whatever we wind up calling it, it’s a
Looking lovely in the garden this week is the amazing Southeastern US native, Amsonia tabernaemontana ‘Storm Cloud’. Amsonia, commonly known as blue star, are a group of mostly native, typically deer-resistant perennials, prized both because they make such good drought-tolerant plants and they bear one of the few true blue flowers in the perennial world.
Storm Clouds Brewing Read More »
The genus Asarum are primarily late winter flowering woodland perennials in the pipevine (Aristolochiaceae) family, that have long been a focus of our collection efforts. Asarum includes the former genus, Hexastylis, that Southeast US botanists still struggle emotionally to give up. We trim the previous years foliage away as the flowers emerge, so we can
Gingers are Ready and Willing Read More »
We always know that spring isn’t far away when our native mayapples, Podophyllum peltatum, emerges, as it’s doing now. This ephemeral groundcover, native to the entirety of Eastern North America, is a great garden plant, if you have the space. Unlike its Asian counterparts, it spreads quickly and widely, before going summer dormant as hot
Flowering this week are an array of winter flowering trout lilies of the genus Erythronium, a plant I’ve admired since being a young child, and seeing it grow naturally near our Raleigh, NC home. Erythronium is a genus of only 33 species, spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere. While many of the cold climate species won’t
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Carpeting the woodland garden now is the North American native spring ephemeral, Sanguinaria canadensis. This widespread wildflower is native to virtually the entire Eastern US. The common name, bloodroot, comes from the red pigment, Sanguinarine, which can be found in all plant parts, especially the underground rhizomes. The red pigment has long been used for
Red Roots and White Flowers Read More »
Flowering season for the southeastern US native trilliums is just beginning, with many running up to a month behind normal. The first to open each year is the north Florida population of Trillium maculatum, represented here by Trillium maculatum ‘Kanapaha Giant’. We will have trilliums flowering from now through April. The key to success is
Trillium Countdown Read More »
