North American natives

Allium oxyphyllum

The Acid Onion

Looking lovely in the late July garden is the rare North American native Allium oxyphyllum. This little-known species hails from the shale barren (eroded, and often baking steep slopes of degraded shale) region of Virginia and West Virginia, where it is extremely rare, with a global G2 rank. The 1′ tall x 1′ wide clump

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Hymenocallis durangoensis

Durango Kid

The North American (Durango, Mexico) native, Hymenocallis durangoensis, has been absolutely spectacular this month in the garden, where we grow it in full sun, in average to moist soils. Sadly, this spider lily never sells very well, so we keep having to dump our surplus nursery stock at years end. We’re just stubborn enough to

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Podophyllum peltatum 'Fuzzy Wuzzy'

Fuzzy Wuzzy

Podophyllum peltatum ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy’ is a 2015 discovery of former JLBG staffer, Jeremy Schmidt from Calhoun County, Alabama. This is undoubtedly, the hairiest of the American mayapple selections we grow. The foliage emerges with a lovely brown flush, before aging green. If the hairs weren’t enough, this clone flowers light pink, which is extremely rare

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Antennaria solitaria 'RDU'

Pussy Toes in the Garden

Putting on a lovely flower show in the garden is the North American native (PA to Oklahoma) Antennaria solitaria, commonly known as the southern single-head pussytoes. We’ve always had a “thing” for pussytoes, a primarily North American genus of 70 species. Despite being native in acidic soils, our plants below are thriving in our alkaline

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Dirca palustris

The Dirt on Dirca

Flowering now in the winter garden are several members of the Thymelaeceae family. The more showy of those include the genera Daphne and Edgeworthia. Also in riotous bloom, is their cousin, little-known, not so fragrant, and far less showy North American native, Dirca palustris. It’s also known by its common name, leatherwood, which comes from

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Nolina matapensis

Cozying up to a Sonoran Bear Grass

Through the years, we have grown 21 of the 35 North American native species of bear grass species. Nolinas currently reside in the Asparagaceae family, with the likes of Agave, Dasylrion, Yucca, and of course, Asparagus. One Nolilna species we didn’t expect to be winter hardy is the Sonoran bear grass, Nolina matapensis. This very

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