When we built our retirement home a few years ago, we surrounded the patio with pollinator plants, one of which was a mass of the native Eupatorium purpureum ‘Little Red’. For the last few weeks, we can sit in our screen porch and watch a steady parade of butterflies. This amazing perennial, which forms an
Little Red is Butterfly Bait Read More »
It’s lycoris time at JLBG, as we’re just wrapping up the early part of the flowering season (July 15-August 10). Most of the early blooming surprise lilies are the spring-foliaged species and hybrids. Typically, there are only a few of the fall-foliaged selections that flower during this early period. Sadly, most gardeners have only grown
The Season of Surprises Read More »
Looking great in the garden now is our clump of Physostegia virginiana ‘Pink Manners’. This offspring to the shorter, white-flowered, Physostegia ‘Miss Manners’, is one of the finest summer-flowering North American (Canada to Florida) native perennials we grow, yet when we offered it for sale, sales were miserable, which leaves us perplexed. The 4′ tall
The plant genus, Rhexia is a primarily North American native genus in the Melastomaceae family, making it a cousin to the popular tropical house plant, Tibouchina. Rhexia is a genus of only thirteen species, of which we’ve grown eight. The most widespread is Rhexia virginica, which naturally occurs from Canada south to Texas. They are
Trained Rhexia vs. Untrained Rhexia Read More »
Looking great recently is a new, still undescribed dryland, shrub mint from south-central Georgia. This amazing dwarf Clinopodium sp. nov. Upson County, matures at only 6″ tall x 18″ wide with a stunning show of pink flowers for us, in early June. We’ve long treasured the shrubby wood mints, but this is truly exceptional. Hopefully,
The Missing Shrub Mint Read More »
We’ve assemble a decent collection of Hydrangea through the years, and while we love them all, it’s hard to to beat the Japanese/Korean mountain hydrangea selection, ‘Mak20’. This creation was a seedling from Hydrangea serrata ‘Maiko’, selected by the breeders at Michigan’s Spring Meadow Nursery. Our oldest plants are now eleven years old, and they
Tuff Mountain Hydrangea Read More »
Putting on quite a show this week is the native bog orchid, Calopogon tuberosus…aka: grass pink. In the wild, these have a huge native range, from Canada south to Florida. Loving the same growing conditions as sarracenia (pitcher plants), they thrive here in full sun, in a bed of 50% peat/sand. If you have time
Grass Pink Swamp Orchid Read More »
Looking amazing in the garden now is the stunning Strawberry Fields deutzia. This amazing 1927 hybrid selection from France’s Lemoine Nursery is actually correctly named, Deutzia ‘Tourbillon Rouge’, but that’s not exactly a great sellable name in Western culture, so it’s no surprise that nursery marketing folks improperly re-named it. Despite the name issues, it’s
Strawberry Fields Forever Read More »
I failed for decades to keep the European gas plant, Dictamnus albus alive in our heat and humidity. Despite these mounting failures, I keep trying new genetics as they become available. Finally, this month, we have met with our first success with our first gas plant flowering. Although gas plant looks superficially nothing like its
Gaslighting in the Garden Read More »
Flowering this week in the garden are two stunning buckeyes, Aesculus pavia ‘Splendens’ (native from Ohio through Texas) on the right, and its offspring, Aesculus x carnea on the left. Aesculus x carnea is a cross of Aesculus pavia and the European Aesculus hippocastanum. It’s hard to imagine two more showy trees for the spring
Aesculating the Buckeye Battle Read More »
