It was on a 2008 expedition to Taiwan, where I met the Taiwan native spruce, Picea morrisonicola. This amazing plant was named in honor of its native habitat on Mt. Morrison, which was, as was the colonialistic habit at the time, named for English missionary, Robert Morrison (1782-1834) . Today, the mountain is known as
Morrison’s Spruce Read More »
Now that we’ve passed 2,600 blogs, which equates to one blog per day for 7.17 years, I thought it might be interesting to pull back the curtain on how we organize the images we share. Much of the way we look at images was influenced by our mentor, the late J.C. Raulston. J.C. once lamented
Pulling Back the Image Curtain Read More »
Looking superb in the garden in early November is Arum concinnatum ‘Far and Away’. This special selection is a 2024 Plant Delights/JLBG introduction of a superbly patterned form of the Cretan native Arum concinnatum, collected in 2004, by the late aroid specialist, Alan Galloway. Arum ‘Far and Away’ has the most heavily silver patterned leaf
Far and Away, but so Near Read More »
We have long been fans of the Asian ferns in the genus, Woodwardia. Of the eleven species in the genus, five are North American, and the rest are Asian. Our particular infatuation are with the giant, evergreen species, including Woodwardia prolifera, Woodwardia unigemmata, and the hybrid, Woodwardia x izuensis. All of these have huge, tropical
Wards of the Woods Read More »
We’ve previously mentioned that we are re-starting or renowned One More Block Tours, that we paused in the mid-1990s, due to starting the nursery. Our initial idea was to provide unique botanical/horticultural travel opportunities to visit exceptional nurseries, gardens, and natural areas. This new version of the OMB tours, which will also serve as a
One More Block Tours returns…Let the Travel Begin Read More »
Looking great throughout our rock garden sections is the elegant, evergreen desert fern, Cheilanthes eckloniana ‘Naude’s Neck’. Cheilanthes eckloniana is named after the 1800s Danish plant collector Christian Ecklon. We first met this gem on our 2005 expedition to South Africa. This is our 2013 Plant Delights/JLBG introduction, spore grown from plants along the road
African Desert Fern Read More »
I have long enjoyed botanizing in the wire grass/pine, fire habitats, found throughout the Southeastern US coastal plain. One of the namesake plants in these eco regions is wire grass, belonging to the genus, Aristida, of which there are 37 native species in the genus. Those in the Southeast US coastal plain were previously considered
Wised up about Wire Grass Read More »
I was first introduced to lowland loosestrife on a 2022 South Carolina botanizing trip with Zac Hill and Patrick McMillan. I was shocked that I’d never heard of Steironema hybridum before, despite it being a widespread US native from Canada south to Florida. How is it possible that this late season-blooming perennial wildflower is completely
Orphaned Lowland Loosetrife Read More »
Looking great in the garden now, is the rare, Southeast (NC, SC, GA) US native mint relative, Carolina bogmint. Macbridea caroliniana is a Federal Species of Concern (Global G2 rank), found most often in sphagnum bog edges, open forested bottomlands, and savannas. The first photo below is our newly named, dark pink-flowered clone ‘Pink Hill’,
Pink Hill Carolina Bogmint Read More »
We’re always excited when a new fern finds our garden to it’s liking, and such is the case with Cyrtomium tsinglingense ‘Li Ping’, which is now heading into it’s fifth year in the ground. This previously uncultivated species of holly fern is from a Mark Weathington collection in Shaanxi, China.
Sing-a-long Holly Fern Read More »
