We were recently checking some surprising winter damage on one of our Schefflera delavayi specimens in the garden, and when we sliced open a stem, we found a lovely example of a chambered pith arrangement. Pith is a lightweight polystyrene like material, composed of parenchyma cells, and found in the center of stems of dicot
We never know who will show up at our Open Nursery days, but it was great to chat with Jim and Stephany Putnam of HortTube at our recent open weekend. This local couple do so much to promote gardening and share good plant information all over the country…we salute your amazing work! Here is a
I’ve recently returned from a speaking tour in the Pacific Northwest, that included talks at the Bellevue Botanical Garden and the Northwest Flower and Garden Festival, both in the Seattle area. This is my second opportunity to speak at the show, which I’d rate as one of the top in the county. I was also
One of the program features of the Perennial Plant Association’s annual meetings are a series of industry awards. One of those is the highly competitive Landscape Design Awards, where the countries top landscape architects and designers whose work prominently featured perennials, learn if their designs won. There are several design categories: 1) residential designs under
Walmart may have official greeters, but we have check out Jasper. The twelve year-old Jasper Avent serves both as our official greeter, checkout guardian, and official tour guide. We’re sure many of you have had the chance to meet, chat, and walk the gardens with Jasper when you visited.
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
Just over three years ago, we blogged about our new laser engraver that we purchased for labeling plants in the garden at JLBG. Since we were completely new to the experience at the time, and now have three years in our rear view mirror, we thought it was time for an update. We had no
Labeling with a Laser Focus Read More »
We had a delightful morning this week, welcoming the staff of Montrose Gardens to JLBG. Plantswoman Nancy Goodwin, Magnolia breeder and plantsman, Tom Krenitsky, and Nancy’s staff all joined us, as we spent the morning walking through the garden collections. Although the Montrose mailorder nursery (1984 -1993) has been closed for a while, the amazing
A Montrosian Morning Read More »
For those who have joined us as a Founding member of JLBG, our quarterly members only newsletter is now available for your reading pleasure. Below is a teaser from our Founder’s message to members. Summer 2024 has been an interesting one from a weather perspective. As of August 5, we had recorded 48 days above
Summer Member Newsletter now on-line Read More »
We have long been fascinated with tissue culture, and it’s ability to produce a large number of difficult to propagate plants in a short time. Without tissue culture, many of the plants we grow in our gardens today, simply wouldn’t be available. New hostas, that we all enjoy, would still be priced north of $200
The Great Lab Experiment Read More »
