The floriferous Cestrum parquii ‘Orange Peel’ is a stunner in the summer garden as you can see by this weeks photo. This amazing South American dieback shrub is a literal flowering machine during the heat of summer. For us, it eventually matures into an 8′ tall x 8′ wide clump. We find hummingbirds and butterflies
Juniper Level Botanic Garden has an extensive hardy fern collection, and looking quite amazing for mid-January is Adiantum poiretii ‘Argentine Lace’. This maidenhair fern was grown from our 2002 Argentine spore collection of a little-known and rarely-grown species, native to South America, South Africa, and the Arabian peninsula. It has thrived for us at JLBG
Many gardeners grow hardy aroids in their garden, ranging from the tiny arisarum to the giant amorphophallus, but few folks have tried members of the genus, Taccarum (tacky-arum). Taccarum is a small genus of only six species, all native to South America. As a nice addition, the flowers have no detectable fragrance. In our trials,
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Flowering now in the garden is the little-known South American (Chile/Argentina) cousin of tomatoes/potatoes, Fabiana imbricata. This oddity doesn’t have anything that we’d call true leaves. Instead, the upright stalks are clothed in evergreen green scales, and the stalks are topped with clusters of these unique honey-scented flowers. We found that dry, well-drained, partially sunny
Fab in the Garden Read More »
Here are a few of our favorite hardy Hippeastrums flowering in the garden this week. Many gardeners incorrectly know these South American bulbs as Amaryllis, which is an entirely different genus of two species of South African bulbs, which do not thrive here. Hardiness is Zone 7b-10b.
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One of the nice surprises after our 11 degree F freeze was how well our Escallonia ‘Iveyi’ fared. Few people on the US East Coast are familiar with these South American woody members of the Escalloniaceae family. Escallonia ‘Iveyi’ is actually a hybrid that originated at the UK’s Caerhays Castle, where it was discovered as
I’m going to go out and a limb and guess that few people grow Colletia paradoxa…commonly known as anchor plant. Colletia was named to honor French botanist Philibert Collet (1643-1718). I’m not quite sure what we find so fascinating about this botanical oddity, but something causes us to be drawn to a plant with large spines,
The genus rhodophiala is in a state of flux. Some taxonomists believe the genus actually doesn’t exist and should be merged with rain lilies, while others consider it a perfectly valid genus with 27 species. Oh, the joys of taxonomy. To most gardeners, the genus rhodophiala are simply dwarf hippeastrum (horticultural amaryllis), the most commonly
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We always look forward to late June with the patches of Sinningia tubiflora burst into flower. This rhizomatous perennial, first cousin to African Violets’, is rock hardy to 0 degrees F. This South American native (Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay) forms a dense deciduous groundcover, topped with these long-tubbed, honeysuckle-fragranced flowers that attract nocturnal moths with
Starting in late winter, the amazing blue-flowered South American Ipheion ‘Rolf Fiedler’ begins its stunning floral show in the garden. This rare native, which has only been found on the top of two hills in Uruguay, has yet to be formally assigned a confirmed species name, although some botanist believe it to be Ipheion peregrinans.
Rolfing in the Garden Read More »
