I first met the rarely-cultivated slender-leaf blazing star on a 2022 staff expedition with Patrick McMillan and Zac Hill, to Jasper County, SC. Here, Liatris tenuifolia grew throughout the dry, sandy habitat in between gopher tortoise mounds. The native range of this species, stretches from SC southwest to Mississippi. Our seeds from the expedition sprouted,
Slender-leaf Blazing Star Read More »
I’ve always loved the North American native Indian grass, Sorghastrun nutans, but found the commercially available clones and seed strains to be poor performers in our heat and humidity. For years, I kept my eyes open for a better selection, and finally on a 2018 visit to the SC Botanic Garden, I spotted an amazing,
Eurybia hemispherica ‘Baby Blues’ (southern prairie aster), formerly known as Aster hemispherica, is a little-grown South Central US (Kansas south to Florida) native aster that’s thrived in our full sun garden since 2011. This Van der Giessen Nursery collection of this little-known mesic (moderately moist) to dryland species hails from the Black Belt region of
The Aster hemisphere Read More »
Three years ago, we wrote about a new, winter hardy selection of bushy muhly grass, Muhlenbergia dumosa, collected by Patrick McMillan in the Patagonia mountains of Arizona, that should be much more winter hardy than the Zone 9 genetics that have been in the trade since the 1980s. From our initial planting in 2020, our
From Patagonia with Love Read More »
A splendid native ornamental grass that is virtually unknown in both gardens and Google, is the East Coast (Rhode Island south to Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula) coastal native, Panicum amarulum or dune switchgrass. It was named in 1900 from specimens in Virginia Beach, and for years lived a free and independent life, until someone decided that
Another Panic-ed Name Change Read More »
Years ago, I had the privilege of serving on the NC Rare Plant Scientific Committee for eight years with Dr. Alan Weakley, and I can truely say, each encounter was an incredible learning experience. It’s not often you get to work closely with a true genius in your field. For those who don’t know Alan,
The Strength of Weakley Read More »
Hypericum lloydii has looked great in the garden for the last few years. This little-known, imperiled (G4 rank) Southeastern US native, has shown excellent potential as a garden plant. In the wild, it’s found in dry open woodlands and woodland edges in well-drained soils in a narrow band from Virginia south to Alabama. In the
Lloyds St. John’s Wort Read More »
While most folks think of wabbits when the hear Peter Cottontail, I can’t help but think of a very special Mexican century plant, Agave albopilosa. Agave albopilosa is simply the most amazing agave species ever discovered, and one that took the succulent world by storm when it was first published in 2007. The small population
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Flowering in the garden this week is the virtually unknown geophyte, we fondly refer to as the Milli Vanilli lily, aka. Milla magnifica. Native from the Mexican states of Guerrero and Morelos, this unusual member of the onion family grows from a bulb that remains dormant until mid-June. Once the bulb breaks dormancy, the long,
How could you not love a plant that can put on a show like this for months on end during the heat of the summer? So, why is is that so few people grow the amazing Euphorbia corollata? This amazing perennial is native to most every county east of the Mississippi River, even extending it
The Little Euphorbia that Could Read More »
