I remember watching the first Planet of the Apes movie in 1968, and being struck by the depiction of Earth’s landscape after a nuclear war in which humans were wiped out. Unquestionably, humans manipulate landscapes for our own use, and have done so since we evolved into two legged creatures some 4-5 million years ago.
I have seen the Garden’s Future Read More »
We’ve written before about our plant collection rescue efforts, and last week, we were fortunate to conduct yet another of those important missions. This was the rescue of the Flory/Flagg/Smith rain lily collection. Walter Flory and Ray Flagg are two of the biggest names in the rain lily world over the last 70 years, while
You would think with 220 new Aspidistra (cast iron plant) species discovered since 1980 that botanists would have found them all, but that seems to be far from the case. This oddity just flowered in our collection this month, and is obviously yet another new species. This is one of the final collections (2018) made
Cast-ing a Wider Net Read More »
One of the poster horticultural children for fall flowering is the Chinese native, Hibiscus mutabilis. Because this plant has been shared so widely as a pass-along in deep south gardens, it picked up the common name, confederate mallow. The specific epithet name “mutabilis” was selected because many of the clones have flowers that emerge white,
The Mutable Mallow Read More »
For those of us in the mail order nursery, the closure of any of our compatriots seems like a death in the family. As I’ve mentioned earlier this year, the decline in retail sales across many sectors has devastated the mail order garden industry. So many of the nurseries we value so highly are those
Here is a photo of one our many superb rain lily selections, Zephyranthes ‘Summer Snow’. This is Not an exceptional display but a perfectly typical display that follows most every rain event in the summer. The rain lilies do not flower continuously but burst forth periodically over the many frost-free months of the year. One
Room for One More? No way! Read More »
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
After finally getting some long overdue rain, the crinum lilies have put on quite a show. The crinum flower season at JLBG runs from March thru October. Here are a few of the July flowering cultivars to enjoy. These amaryllid family members form huge underground bulbs, making them difficult for most nurseries to offer in
The Crinums of Summer Read More »
It’s that time of year, where the parade of lycoris (surprise lilies) kicks into high gear. For us, flowering season begins in late June, and continues into October with a steady parade of cultivars. Lycoris flowering is trigged by the natural timing window, but increases after rain showers, and can be consequently be delayed during
Surprise time begins Read More »
We are in mourning this week, for our friend, Lycoris guru, Phillip Adams of California, who passed away in early July at the age of 82. Phil struggled to recover from a fall a couple of months earlier. Phil grew up in on the Mississippi delta, before moving to the Memphis, Tennessee region, where he
The Surprise Lily King has left the Garden Read More »
