During our recent Summer Open Nursery and Garden, I was able to spend a good bit of time with former JLBG staffer, Jeremy Schmidt, now of HortCo, to discuss our plans to rework an old rock wall in our Sunken Garden. With our plans now in place, we have already begun to relocate existing plants,
Many folks who visit JLBG have asked about former staffer, Jeremy Schmidt, who departed almost three years ago for a stint at Alabama’s Bellingrath Gardens. In the 15 years Jeremy was here, he installed our 300′ long crevice garden, our 550′ rock lined stream, several other garden streams, our dryland welcome berm, and countless other
The Rock Man Returneth Read More »
We are infatuated with the dwarf Greek daphne, Daphne jasminea, that lights up our dryland rock garden with small, white, star-shaped flowers in May and June. For us, flowering also continues sporadically throughout the summer. Our five year old specimen has reached 8″ tall x 20″ wide.
Look down at the White Stars Read More »
After going 0 for 3 in the past couple of decades to even get spores to even germinate, we now have the amazing, dwarf rock garden fern, Aspidotis densea (dense lace fern) thriving in the crevice garden. Because of it’s native range from Canada south through central California, we started with two strikes against us,
This year marks our first flowering of the Mediterranean Alp native, Lilium pomponium. This lily is native to dry, rocky, alkaline soils, and has been right at home in our crevice rock garden. It’s probably good, however, that we didn’t read how difficult it is to grow before we tried it. These are now three
Looking great in the crevice garden this month is our specimen of the Arizona native Dudleya saxosa ssp. collomiae. Through the years, we tried this succulent in several of our rock gardens with no success, until we planted one under a rock overhang, where it has thrived since 2018. As we suspected, winter hardiness wasn’t
Dudleya Done Right Read More »
I’m just back from speaking to a couple of North American Rock Garden Society Chapters in Massachusetts, an area I hadn’t visited in over two decades. My journey began at the Berkshire Botanic Gardens in Stockbridge, a venue I last spoke at in 1999. Over 50 folks showed up on a cold, drizzly day, as
Hanging with a Mass of Rockers Read More »
Our patches of Lithops (Living Stones) seem to enjoyed their first snow in years. This is something they never see in their native haunts, the deserts of South Africa. The experience and the accompanying 14 degree F temperatures have left them nonplussed.
Rockin’ in the Snow Read More »
Looking good in the garden as we end January is the Himalayan native ground orchid, Goodyera biflora. In the wild, it can be found in Nepal, Bhutan, China, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, up to 6,500′ elevation. This is a first cousin look-alike to our Southeast native, Goodyera pubescens. Goodyera biflora is a lithophyte, growing
It’s always a great day when our NARGS seed order arrives, as it did yesterday. So, what is a NARGS, you ask? NARGS is the North American Rock Garden Society, a group of rather intense gardeners from across North America, with some members scattered worldwide. NARGS has what I’m pretty sure, is the worlds largest
