screening plant

Viburnum 'Moonlit Lace'

Moonlit Lace on a Moonlit Night

I was admiring our specimen of Viburnum ‘Moonlit Lace’ the other evening, and wanted to upate our previous post about its mature size. It’s still being touted on-line as maturing at 3-4′ tall x wide, which simply isn’t the case. This 9 year old specimen is currently 7′ tall x 12′ wide. Based on the

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Thuja occidentalis 'Degroot's Spire'

A Phallic Native

There are few plants better to add a upright, phallic statement to the garden, than the native (Canada south to South Carolina) American arborvitae, Thuja occidentalis ‘Degroot’s Spire’. It is truly odd that I’ve never heard a native plant talk that recommended planting this…hmm. I’ve grown this in every garden I’ve every built, valued for

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Ilex cornuta 'O. Spring'

O. Spring in Winter

Looking lovely in the winter garden is the variegated foliaged Ilex cornuta ‘O. Spring’. We’ve grown this informal-shaped holly for almost 40 years. Although it’s a male, and consequently doesn’t fruit, the foliage is more than enough reason to grow this, where space permits. The holly is named for the late Otto Spring, so the

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Aucuba japonica 'Big Mamma'

Woah…Meet Big Mamma

Due to the large number of neighbors endowed with ex-domus (outside of the house) hoarding tendencies in the Southeastern US, homeowners are always looking for unique evergreen screening plants over 6′ tall. While there are plenty of choices for full sun, the choices for shade are quite limited to plants like Fatsia, Illicium, Thujopsis, Taxus,

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Juniperus chinensis 'Aurea'

Chinese Gold

I first met Juniperus chinensis ‘Aurea’ at the JC Raulston Arboretum in 2018, grown from cuttings taken at Richmond, Virginia’s Maymont Garden. We struggled to find a cultivar name, toying first with naming it Juniperus ‘Maymont Gold’. It wasn’t until horticultural cultivar historian, Larry Hatch, of Cultivar.org, told us that this is the true Juniperus

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Ilex 'Emily Brunner'

Being Fruity isn’t always a Bad Thing

Looking good in its full fruit mode in mid January is the holly, Ilex ‘Emily Brunner’. This hybrid of Ilex cornuta and Ilex latifolia has proven to be one of the best specimen hollies we grow. A mature specimen is 20′ tall x 20′ wide, so if you’re planting this, give it enough space. Years

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Picea orientalis, Sabal 'DeFuniak'

Hot and Cold Detente

We love planting garden combinations that cause visitors to have a moment of cognitive dissonance. One of those moments in the garden currently is illustrated in the combination of Picea orientalis with Sabal ‘DeFuniak’. I remember a visitor once commenting that they didn’t like it that we had planted cactus with ferns, since they found

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