I first met the rarely-cultivated slender-leaf blazing star on a 2022 staff expedition with Patrick McMillan and Zac Hill, to Jasper County, SC. Here, Liatris tenuifolia grew throughout the dry, sandy habitat in between gopher tortoise mounds. The native range of this species, stretches from SC southwest to Mississippi. Our seeds from the expedition sprouted,
Slender-leaf Blazing Star Read More »
Flowering this month in our parking lot dryland garden is the true Eragrostis elliottii. Back in 1999, we introduced a plant under that name, which had been identified as that species by a Florida taxonomist. Well, it turned out to be the South African Eragrostis chloromelas that’s now being sold nationwide as Eragrostis ‘Wind Dancer’.
Elliot’s Eragrostis Read More »
Over a decade ago I decided to try planting the native Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) in the maritime grassland exhibit at the South Carolina Botanical Garden. To my amazement, this species that I knew of from the fringes of saltmarsh in the Lowcountry thrived in both wet and dry soils of the upper Piedmont of South
Ramble On — A Native Groundcover with Year-round Interest and a Pollinator Smorgasbord Read More »
Despite the impending flooding late last week, Patrick, Zac, and I took off to the mountains of western South Carolina for a few days of botanizing. Despite the monsoon-like rains, we managed to visit seven amazing sites. Below is a highlight. One stop was at a giant granitic outcrop. The rocks are covered in an
Very Wet behind the Ears Read More »
Great new plants for the garden do sometimes just happen. They can occur as a spontaneous sport from an existing planting, as a seed selection that has much better garden traits, but many of our most useful and ecologically important plants in the garden have their start in exploration. I was thinking about this today
Riverbank Sundrop; The Journey Begins Read More »
You go straight through to the round of botanical superstars if you recognize this little-known southeast native (SC to Florida), Piriqueta caroliniana. This Patrick McMillan collection from coastal SC has thrived all summer in our full sun rock garden, flowering constantly, with new flowers opening every other day. This oddity is a member of the
