Sotol Spikes
The lovely Mexican woody lily, Dasylirion berlandieri, is just finishing a bout of flowering. The flowers are magnets for both native bees as well as honeybees. Unlike their cousin, Agave, Dasylirion don’t die after flowering.
Crying Amethyst Tears
One of the many hardy sinningias that has really impressed us during the last few years is Sinningia ‘Amethyst Tears’. Here is our garden clump, flowering its head off in the middle of August. You’ve probably never heard of this, since it’s an unintroduced Yucca Do selection from plantsman Wade Roitsch.
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Sunlight in the Woodland
Looking great in the summer garden is the stunning cast iron plant, Aspidistra elatior ‘Asahi’. This amazing woodland evergreen is a plant we can’t imagine gardening without. The leaf patterning is brightest as the new leaves emerge in June/July. Grown as a house plant, it needs to get some size before you will see the
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Still Mad about Mangaves
Just back from the center of xMangave breeding at Walters Gardens in Michigan. xMangave are mesmerizing hybrids between Manfreda and Agave. Here are a few photos from the display garden there. Below is a variegated sport of M. ‘Mission to Mars’. These have reached 5′ in width. Mangave ‘Foxy Lady’ is a variegated sport of
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More Surprises
More lycoris continue to open every day. Their flowering season coincides quite close with the hurricane season. These amazing amaryllids pop up almost overnight, sans foliage. If you’re curious to take a deep dive into the genus, check out our lycoris study gallery Lycoris chinensis is a spring-leaf species from China. Lycoris longituba is the
Siberian Summer
Looking great in the garden despite our high temperatures is the Siberian native, Microbiota decussata. While the species typically struggles in our climate, the cultivar ‘Prides’ has been outstanding. Microbiota is essentially a groundcover juniper replacement for shade. For us, it matures with a 4′ wide spread, after 10 years. We have found that it
Piqued by Piriqueta
Raise your hand if you’ve grown the Southeast native perennial, piriqueta. Piriqueta caroliniana is a little-known Southeast US native that hails from NC, south to Florida. Botanically, it’s a member of the Turneraceae family, after being unceremoniously booted from its previous home in the passiflora family, Passifloraceae. We had never heard of the genus before
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Blackhawks
Looking great in the garden now is Andropogon gerardii ‘Blackhawks’. This Brent Horvath selection of the native (Canada south to Mexico) Andropogon gerardii, has beautiful, almost black foliage, compared to the typical glaucous green. Hardiness Zone 4a-8b
Spicate Ginger
Looking great in mid August is Hedychium spicatum. This is a ginger lily species we saw throughout our late 1990s travels in Yunnan, China. Pictured below are our 3 year old seed-grown specimen, which has already become a massive 5′ tall x 10′ wide. The flower is much smaller than some of the more showy
Summer Carnival
The variegated hardy hibiscus, H. ‘Summer Carnival’ has looked outstanding all summer. This Hans Hansen creation has both variegated leaves and flower buds. We’ve had these in the garden since 2017, and they continue to excel. Moist to wet soils and full sun are ideal, but they handle short term drought just fine. Hardiness is