Last year, we wrote about the famous Sabal ‘Birmingham’ palm, but until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t visited the old specimens at Raleigh’s Jaycee park in well over a decade, so I thought it was time to check on their status. We don’t know an exact planting date, but best guesses are that they
A Visit to Birmingham Read More »
The seed pots below may not look particularly exciting, but to us, this birthing moment is one worth celebrating. Just over a year ago, we flowered our first plant of the North American native (New York south to Louisiana), Frasera caroliniensis. Like an agave, frasera takes up to two decades to flower, after which it
Frasera in Re-runs Read More »
Looking absolutely elegant in a crevice garden seep is the native Carex echinata. Although star sedge is quite common from Maine to Minnesota, it’s quite rare in NC. This is seed grown from a population in the mountainous Alleghany County, NC, although it’s thriving in our coastal plain garden. In the wild, this clump former
A Star Sedge is Born Read More »
Looking dazzling at JLBG for the last couple of weeks is the amazing Davidia involucrata ‘Sonoma’. As you can see, the common name is quite apt since when in flower, it resembles a tree laden with handkerchiefs. This coveted Chinese native is related to our native black gum, in the family, Nyssaceae. This mystical tree
Excuse me while our Handkerchief Tree Flowers Read More »
Several years ago, we grew seed of Dianthus anatolicus, native from Tibet to Turkey, and while all were interesting and deliciously fragrant, one, which we named Dianthus ‘Lunatic Fringe’ stood out from the rest for its exceptional floral show, and heat/humidity tolerance. Our original plant, pictured below, is now almost five years old and still
This week marked our annual flowering of the endangered African aroid, Pseudohydrosme gabunensis ‘Stained Glass’, which we first flowered in 2021. Kew Gardens recently posted that they just flowered it for the first time ever in the UK. This tropical African rain forest genus is comprised of only three species, all from the countries of
From an ex-situ conservation standpoint, we are a bit fanatical about trilliums. We grow many thousand trilliums from seed each year, and also travel around the country studying trilliums in the wild, which has given us an incredible opportunity to make some amazing selections. At JLBG, we currently grow over 1,600 different trillium selections, which
Trillium – Round 2 Read More »
I have long been a fan of the fascinating dryland geophyte, Asphodeline lutea. Native from the Mediterranean through the Caucuses, and south into Africa, Asphodeline lutea is prized for its early spring spikes of bright yellow, star-like flowers. About a decade ago, I heard rumors of an orange-flowered form, which immediately went on my desiderata
Asphodels…a Color Change Read More »
Looking good in the garden this week is our selection of the Croatian native lenten rose, Helleborus croaticus ‘Bells of the Ball’. This is a seedling grown from a Will McLewin wild seed collection, without benefit of breeding. Unlike most Helleborus x hybridus, this is a completely deciduous species. This plant gets full sun for
Cracking Croaticus Read More »
Even after growing the hardy Cyclamen hederifolium for over five decades, I’m still amazed by the incredible diversity of leaf patterns. Since cyclamen are obligate out-crossers (they can’t have productive sex with themselves), the pattern diversity from each new crop of seedlings continues to expand. In the garden, we plant similar patterned forms nearby, resulting
Psyched for Cyclamen Read More »
