It’s always exciting for us when we finally are able to build up enough stock of a new agave we’ve selected, so we can finally publicly share. Since some agaves never offset naturally, they must first spend years confined to our 50 Shades of Gray torture bench, where we perform unthinkable deeds to force them
New Releases from The Tortured Agave Department Read More »
In 2007, we released an amazing silver blue, winter hardy form of Agave x protamericana, named A. ‘Silver Surfer’. Unfortunately, the tissue culture lab that was producing it for us closed, and supplies over the last decade have been virtually non-existent. We’ve reverted by to our old, less efficient method of using offsets, which are
Silver Surfer Returns 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 »
We’re enjoying the mid-summer show of grass-leaf Barbara’s buttons, Marshallia graminifolia ‘Georgetown’. We grew this from a Patrick McMillan/Zac Hill seed collection near Georgetown, SC. Marshallia graminifolia is a coastal plain endemic, found from NC to Georgia, where it forms a short basal rosette of narrow, linear foliage, that’s topped with 20″ tall flowers stalks,
We trial quite a few sedges in the garden, some of which are a bit aggressive, while others that make fantastic garden specimens. One of our newer favorites is our selection of Carex basiantha ‘Cousin Itt’. This species is native from NC west to Texas, where it grows in average to moist forests, often over
I was shocked and saddened to learn of the recent passing of my college classmate, Kim Hawks, 72. Kim and I shared a lot in common, starting with attending the same high school, horticulture classmates at NC State, both of us would start mail order nurseries, travel together in China for a month, and both
One of the truly fabulous Southeast natives, that is completely unknown to gardeners, is the amazing Trautvetteria nervata. The genus, Trautvetteria, a member of the Ranunculus family, is already poorly known. Even the comprehensive Kew Gardens database makes a mess of the species list. Trautvetteria nervata, a coastal plain denizen of only a few counties
Trautvetteria – Queen of the Swamp Read More »
Looking great as it emerges from dormancy is Asparagus cochinchinensis ‘Graham’s Cracker’, our incredible 2015 introduction, that came from NC gardener Graham Ray, who originally purchased this dwarf seedling from Plant Delights. Asparagus ‘Graham’s Cracker’ makes a very tight, upright, 18″ tall x 18″ wide clump, great for a textural contrast in the garden. For
Looking lovely in the garden this week is the amazing Southeastern US native, Amsonia tabernaemontana ‘Storm Cloud’. Amsonia, commonly known as blue star, are a group of mostly native, typically deer-resistant perennials, prized both because they make such good drought-tolerant plants and they bear one of the few true blue flowers in the perennial world.
Storm Clouds Brewing Read More »
Several years ago, one of our agave seedlings from a cross of Agave lophantha x Agave x pseudoferox, germinated with golden foliage. As it grew, it showed a seasonal color change from having green leaves in summer and fall, but brightening to gold in winter. Although, we’ve named this Agave x loferox ‘Sunbeam’, we’re still
Century of Sunbeams Read More »
