Last week when we were finishing dinner, Anita noticed that the setting sun was wonderfully illuminating a clump of Miscanthus ‘Little Kitten’, so we jumped up from the table, cameras in hand, to capture the moment below. Being mindful allows us to take in so many amazing, but fleeting moments in the garden.
When the Light is Right Read More »
A few years ago, I was fascinated to see a catalog listing for a new ornamental grass that I didn’t know, Calamagrostis ‘Cheju-Do’. This struck my eye because calamagrostis are great ornamental specimens, and in 1997, I had the opportunity to botanize Korea’s southern island, Cheju. We subsequently acquired a specimen, which prospered for us,
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,
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 »
Looking lovely in the garden now is one of our favorites, the variegated form of our native inland sea oats, Chasmanthium latifolium ‘River Mist’. This 2010 introduction is from our friends at ItSaul Plants of Georgia. It thrives for us in the end of a pitcher plant bog, although it’s also fine in much drier
We had to share a recent photo of the amazing Arundo donax ‘Peppermint Stick’. This is a classic “Go Big or Go Home” ornamental grass is for those who have a large enough garden. This stunning European native is best known as the source of fiber to make reeds for wood instruments. We love it
This Peppermint Stick takes a lickin’ and keeps on ticking Read More »
Cortaderia is a genus of 20 species of ornamental grass, only one of which is grown commercially. This is peak flowering month in the garden for a couple of the lesser-known species of pampas grass. The first is Cortaderia araucana, which hails from Central/Southern Chile and Argentina. It’s much smaller than Cortaderia selloana and has
No Pampering Pampas Grass Read More »
One of our nursery cats, Kit Kat was kind enough to pose for this textural combo shot with Carex oshimensis ‘Everillo’.
Ctenium aromaticum, or toothache grass, is a native ornamental grass, found naturally in acidic moist flood plains and savannahs from Coastal Virginia south to East Texas. This clump former has thrived in our bog garden here at JLBG, producing a tight evergreen 6″ tall x 1′ wide clump, topped, starting in early June with 3′
Toothaches, anyone? Read More »
In 2021, Patrick McMillan brought us seed of a desert prairie grass that he’d seen on an expedition to West Texas at elevations of over 8,000′. Below is the photo Patrick shared of Elionurus barbiculmis in the wild. Although interesting, it’s doesn’t seem overly ornamental. We grew out a number of seedlings and planted them
