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 »
Looking lovely in the garden now is one of the most overlooked of the Southeast US native palms. Sabal etonia may look superficially similar to the better known Sabal minor, but while Sabal minor is typically found in swamps and ditches, Sabal etonia comes from dry sandy scrub habitat in North Central Florida. It is
Below is our clump of Yucca ‘Southern Twist’ in the garden this month. This is a plant we discovered in 2011, near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and have also found as far south as the Florida panhandle. The only problem is that this plant doesn’t technically exist, according to the botanical literature. It’s possible that it has
The Mystery Soapwort Read More »
We love the fall foliage of the evergreen Southeast US (Alabama, Tennessee, and Texas) native, Croton alabamensis. This lanky, 5′ tall shrub is a member of the Euphorbia family. In early winter, it drops its summer, fruity-scented leaves, but not before they turn pumpkin orange. This has been considered by many botanists to be one
Show your team colors with a Croton Read More »
One of the legendary palms of the Southeast US, is a plant known simply as Sabal ‘Birmingham’. It’s origin is the stuff of legends, and like a good legend, grows better with the passage of time. What we know is that the palm first came to the knowledge of the public in 1976, when a
Birmingham’s Palm Read More »
It’s hard to resist posting photos of the late-flowering, Southeast US native, Symphyotrichum (Aster) elliottii. It’s namesake was SC Natural History and Botany Professor, Steven Elliott (1771-1830). After most of the garden has shut down for fall, this amazing and exceedingly vigorous aster bursts into flower, quickly becoming a landing pad for an array of
In 2022, we introduced Ruellia sp. nov. ‘Humility’, a new, still unpublished Southeast US native species, found in 2013, by our taxonomist, Zac Hill, in southern Alabama. Until it’s formally published with an official name, we gave it a cultivar. Not only is it easy to grow, and attractive in flower, but the October foliage
Just finishing its flowering season is the picture-worthy, fall-flowering native, Chromolaena ivifolia. This fascinating Southeast US (Florida west to Texas and south to Central America) native was a eupatorium in a former life, before being relegated to a genus that sounds more like it should be in the title to a follow-up to the Macarena
Koda-Chrom-olaena Read More »
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 »
Years ago, I had the privilege of serving on the NC Rare Plant Scientific Committee for eight years with Dr. Alan Weakley, and I can truely say, each encounter was an incredible learning experience. It’s not often you get to work closely with a true genius in your field. For those who don’t know Alan,
The Strength of Weakley Read More »
