One of the first shrubs we planted at JLBG in the late 1980s was the giant snowball bush, Viburnum macrocephalum sterile form. Today, this amazing selection of the Chinese native species, tops out at 25′ tall. In April each year, it puts on a truly indescribable show, as you can see from our new April
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Looking quite dazzling in mid-April is our specimen of the Chinese fringe tree, Chionanthus retusus ‘China Snow’. The incredible masses of white flowers perfume quite an area during the flowering period. This is a particularly heavy-flowering selection from the late nurseryman, Don Shadow. Mature size is 30′ tall x 30′ wide, with a winter hardiness
Looking great in the garden in early March is Cornus officinalis ‘Spring Glow’. I remember when the late J.C. Raulston first planted this in the 1980s at the arboretum that now bears his name. It elicited so many comments, that he finally named and introduced it to commercial horticulture. As it did over forty years
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For years, I assumed olives would not be winter hardy in our formerly Zone 7b garden, but after killing several clones in our attempts to confirm this, we finally found success in 2006 with the self-fertile, Olea ‘Arbequina’. The name Arbequina, comes from the Spanish village Arbeca, where this hardy olive cultivar originated in the
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On October 17, JLBG is excited to welcome the International Oak Society as part of their seven-day tour of the Carolinas. If you have an Oak fetish, these are your people. The event follows the International Oak Symposium in Knoxville, Tennessee from October 7-10. You’d hope that Raleigh, as the City of Oaks, would have
On a recent trip to Asheville, I made a long overdue stop at Hefner’s Nursery in Conover, NC. I have known about Hefner’s Nursery for decades, and always admired their plants at our state nursery trade show, but had never managed to visit. I was prompted to finally stop after running into current president, Randy
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One of the trees that the late J.C. Raulston cherished, and hoped to see become more widely planted is the Asian (China, Japan, Korea) native, Euscaphis japonica, commonly called the Korean sweetheart tree. This little-known genus consists of only two species, and in 2017, one taxonomist proposed eliminating the genus altogether, and moving it into
In flower now at JLBG is the fascinating tree, Firmiana simplex. This odd Chinese/Taiwan/Japan native, with smooth green-striped bark, produces these fascinating flowers that mature to seed receptacles which resemble three-part umbrellas with lots of heads (seed) underneath. This odd tree is currently a member of the Malvaceae family, making it a cousin to hibiscus,
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Flowering now at JLBG is the handsome Jack tree, Sinojackia xylocarpa ‘La Grima’. Sinojackia, named after the late Arnold Arboretum staffer with three first names, John George Jack, is a Chinese native that is quite rare in the wild. In cultivation, this styrax relative matures at a compact 20′ tall. The cultivar ‘La Grima’ is
You don’t know Jack Read More »
In flower this week is the amazing evergreen Magnolia ‘Inspiration’. This extremely floriferous hybrid is a cross of Magnolia doltsopa x laevifolia, often sold incorrectly as a selection of the latter. Very few nurserymen still grow it because it grew too fast in containers…what an odd problem. Our ten year-old specimen is now 15′ tall
