Bluffton Blues
Looking great in late July is the rare Southeast native perennial Scutellaria mellichampii ‘Bluffton Blues’.
A Lust-worthy Alabama Maiden
Twenty years ago (2006), we were botanizing in Southern Alabama, when I spied a particularly unique clump of Adiantum pedatum with finely divided fronds. Despite the common name, Northern maidenhair fern, this was growing at the Southern extreme of its natural range. A small division returned back with us to NC, where it has formed
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Carpe Baptisia
Just wrapping up it’s flowering season is the little-known, Baptisia megacarpa. The specific epithet “megacarpa” refers to the large fruit. This very rare (G1/G2) species is known from only a small region of Alabama, Southern Georgia, and North Florida. In the garden, Baptisia megacarpa is one of the larger species, forming a 4′ tall x
A Tenuis Situation
This is the second year, we’ve tried to offer the Southeast US native (Arkansas through Texas) beardtongue, Penstemon tenuis, to miserable sales. It’s always fascinating what sells, and what doesn’t. Below is a photo of our garden specimen this week. This robust grower forms a tight mass of rosettes that give rise in early spring
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Trillium Time – Round 1
Our world renown trillium collection has now topped 1,800 different, selected taxa. Below are a few photos from the earliest round of flowering. For us, peak trillium season is typically late March, but due to our cool daytime high temperatures this winter, we are about 2.5 weeks behind normal. Our focus in the genus Trillium, are
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Ravishing Ravenel
If you’re tired of failing with those short-lived European eryngiums that look so good in gardening magazines, look no further. Looking absolutely dazzling for the last few weeks is the extraordinary Southeast (SC to Florida) native perennial, Eryngium ravenelii. This amazing plant, which is still virtually unknown in gardens, is found naturally in flooded ditches
American Jointweed – Smoke this Over
We were recently visited by a well-known landscape designer, who specializes in Southeastern US native plants. As we walked through the crevice garden, and I pointed out a clump of Polygonella americana, he was shocked at how nice it looked. His comment was that American jointweed always looked scraggly in the wild, so he hadn’t
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The Missing Shrub Mint
Looking great recently is a new, still undescribed dryland, shrub mint from south-central Georgia. This amazing dwarf Clinopodium sp. nov. Upson County, matures at only 6″ tall x 18″ wide with a stunning show of pink flowers for us, in early June. We’ve long treasured the shrubby wood mints, but this is truly exceptional. Hopefully,
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Bog Buttons
A couple of years ago, we installed a new bog garden in front of our nursery office with a rock stepping stone path through the center. Looking for a plant to fill in between the stepping stones without taking over, I thought it would be interesting to try the Southeastern US native Lachnocaulon anceps, a
Trillium – Round 2
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
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