Pyrrosia polydactyla ‘Middle Finger’ is an excellent clone of the Taiwanese native five-fingered tongue fern with an exceptionally long middle pinnae. Quite a few nurseries, especially in the Pacific Northwest, offer this as another clumping, but uniquely different species, Pyrrosia hastata. In the garden, it’s quite at home in dry shade, especially happy growing on
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In flower now at JLBG is the fascinating tree, Firmiana simplex. This odd Chinese/Taiwan/Japan native, with smooth green-striped bark, produces these fascinating flowers that mature to seed receptacles which resemble three-part umbrellas with lots of heads (seed) underneath. This odd tree is currently a member of the Malvaceae family, making it a cousin to hibiscus,
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Looking divine in the garden is the giant Taiwan table fern, Pteris wallichiana ‘Hualien Giant’. This originated from our 2008 expedition in Hualien County at 7,900′ elevation, and has performed amazingly well in moist, compost amended soil, in light shade. In the wild, it reached almost 8′ tall, but our plant so far has only
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My first encounter with the Taiwan tree viburnum, Viburnum arboricola, was on our 2008 expedition to Taiwan. Below is our garden specimen, grown from seed from that trip. Some taxonomists consider it a subspecies of Viburnum odoratissima, but we feel it is distinctive enough to warrant species status. While our plant has now topped 20′
Starting off the new year is our flowering clump of the Taiwanese endemic wild ginger, Asarum hypogynum. The huge, glossy, evergreen patterned foliage is enough reason to grow this gem, but through most of the winter, the incredible floral display silently sits virtually unnoticed by most human visitors. JLBG currently houses one of the largest
The Taiwan endemic, Lilium formosanum is just wrapping up its summer floral show in the garden. I’d be hard pressed to imagine a garden without this garden showstopper. The cluster of huge fragrant flowers top the 6-7′ tall, sturdy stalks, starting in early August. We allow a few seed to drop each year, which results
During the holidays, house plants often get relegated to dark, unattended corners, but some house plants make great holiday decorations without any special seasonal input. One of those is the Taiwan native cast iron plant, Aspidistra attenuata. Here are 3 clones in our collection, all photographed this year on Christmas day. In order, they are
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We’ve published blogs about a number of carex from our rather large collection (108 species) several times this year, but here are a few more that look great here in early December. We have been fortunate to be able to collect members of this amazing genus from around the world, all of which now reside
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One of our most amazing dwarf ferns is our 2008 Taiwanese spore collection of Microsorum brachylepis ‘Datun’. Our garden patch pictured below, which is looking great this month, was planted outdoors in 2017, and is now 4″ tall x 3′ wide. We offered this personal favorite a few years through Plant Delights, but the sales
Soaring Microsorum Read More »
Raise your hand if you grow Debregeasia orientalis? This fascinating plant, which looks great now at JLBG in late October is an Adam Black, collection of a male form from Taiwan that we named Debregeasia orientalis ‘Hot Tai-male’. While we realize the mature 7′ tall x 14′ wide size of debregeasia is a bit large
