Flowering this week in our part shade rock garden, is the amazing, fall-flowered gesneriad, Titanotrichium oldhamii. This is simply an amazing plant that we grown for more than two decades. Several years ago, we were lucky enough to see in the wilds of Taiwan, where it grew from vertical rock walls. Light, but open shade,
Falling for False Gloxinia Read More »
We’ve just finished the flowering season for the amazing, Taiwan native, Lilium formosanum. This amazing lily comes true from seed, and for us, flowers the first year from seed. After three years, it reaches 6′ tall in our climate, Zone 8a, Raleigh, NC. The deliciously sweet flowers make such an amazing show in August, at
Giant Formosa Lily Read More »
We are just wrapping up the early spring lily season in the garden, and here are few we captured images of this year. Lilium formosanum var. pricei ‘Hehuan’ is a dwarf form of the Taiwan lily, from our 2008 expedition, collected at 9,300′. It blooms two months before the much taller, lowland form Lilium formosanum
Here’s a new one for most gardeners, Carex metallica ‘Fade to Green’, in full flower in our woodland garden this week. We’re not aware of anyone who has grown this evergreen sedge ornamentally. This is our 2008 collection from Taiwan’s Alishan Mountain. We haven’t offered it yet, since we don’t expect the demand would be
It was on a 2008 expedition to Taiwan, where I met the Taiwan native spruce, Picea morrisonicola. This amazing plant was named in honor of its native habitat on Mt. Morrison, which was, as was the colonialistic habit at the time, named for English missionary, Robert Morrison (1782-1834) . Today, the mountain is known as
After peak hydrangea season is long in the rear view mirror, the Japanese/Taiwanese Hydrangea involucrata erupts in flower. For us, that means August and September in NC. The main clone on the market (pictured below) is Hydrangea involucrata ‘Wim Rutten’, from Dutch plant breeder, Catherine Rutten. Our garden specimen is now just over six years
High on Late-summer Hydrangeas Read More »
One of the dazzling conifers at JLBG that always leaves visitors guessing and admiring is the monotypic genus, Taiwaniana cryptomeroides. While there are many specific epithet names that commemorate countries, this Taiwan endemic is one of the only plant genera named after a country. Taiwaniana ‘Independence’ is a superb, glaucous leaf clone that hails from
Taiwania, from, wait…you guessed it, Taiwan Read More »
We have long had a fascination for evergreen oaks, and one we absolutely love is the Asian, Lithocarpus hancei var. ternaticupula. I have never seen this in another botanical collection, although a few certainly must exist. We tried two seedlings from different Taiwanese collections, and the lowland collection quickly succumbed to our cold winters. The
One of our favorite evergreen trees is the little-known, Trochodendron aralioides. I first met the wheel tree at the JC Raulston Arboretum back in the 1980s, quickly falling in love with the fascinating foliage, which is arranged at the branch tips, like spokes on a wheel. As the curator of the Arboretum’s Lath House, I
Driving the Wheel Tree Renaissance Read More »
We just snapped this photo of one of our more amazing fern introductions, Microsorum buergerianum ‘Datun’. This six year-old clump is from our 2008 spore collection of this fabulous mat forming, epiphytic fern from north of Taipei, Taiwan. Although the foliage burnt back at 11 degrees F, it re-flushed quickly the following spring. Hardiness Zone
Evergreen Fern Mat Read More »
