I’ve always loved the North American native Indian grass, Sorghastrun nutans, but found the commercially available clones and seed strains to be poor performers in our heat and humidity. For years, I kept my eyes open for a better selection, and finally on a 2018 visit to the SC Botanic Garden, I spotted an amazing,
Flowering now in a shaded part of the crevice garden is the lovely Cunila origanoides (American Dittany). Of the 20 species in the genus of shrub mints, all from the Americas, this is the only one with a US distribution, being found from in a wide band from New York west to Texas. These are
Three years ago, we wrote about a new, winter hardy selection of bushy muhly grass, Muhlenbergia dumosa, collected by Patrick McMillan in the Patagonia mountains of Arizona, that should be much more winter hardy than the Zone 9 genetics that have been in the trade since the 1980s. From our initial planting in 2020, our
From Patagonia with Love Read More »
Have you met Anna yet? This charmer is a member of the Gesneriad clan, first cousin to the better known African violets, sinningias, and gloxinias. Anna ophiorrhizoides has only been with us for a year and a half, but we’re certainly hoping to make this a long term relationship. Before she moved to North America,
An introduction to Anna Read More »
Hypericum lloydii has looked great in the garden for the last few years. This little-known, imperiled (G4 rank) Southeastern US native, has shown excellent potential as a garden plant. In the wild, it’s found in dry open woodlands and woodland edges in well-drained soils in a narrow band from Virginia south to Alabama. In the
Lloyds St. John’s Wort Read More »
We really love the bamboo genus, Borinda, to the point that everytime I hear O.C. Smith’s 1987 beach music classic, Brenda, I think he’s singing about our bamboo. Our 18 year old clump of Borinda boliana is one of our absolute favorite non-invasive bamboos. Despite the fact that it doesn’t gallop, it’s still a large
We’ve long been fans of the tropical crepe ginger, Costus speciosus. We’ve trialed it several times, however, with no long term winter hardiness here in Zone 7b…until…a group of friends were botanizing in far Northern Vietnam, near the Chinese border, when plantsman Ozzie Johnson spotted it growing there at 3,900′ elevation. Returning home with a
Costumed in the Garden Read More »
Two of our favorite elephant ears from John Cho’s breeding program in Hawaii are looking great in the garden now. The top is Colocasia ‘Maui Sunrise’, while the bottom is the more compact, Colocasia ‘Waikiki’. View JLBG’s Colocasia specialty collection gallery.
Hawaiian Happiness Read More »
Flowering in the garden today is the little-known Southeast US native, Rudbeckia mohrii. This odd coneflower can only be found naturally from nine counties on the border of Florida and Georgia, where it thrives with pitcher plants in flooded ditches. The plant is named for German born pharmacist, turned Alabama botanist, Charles Theodore Mohr. Mohr
Mohr, Mohr, Mohr…How do you like this Coneflower Read More »
Looking great in the garden this week is Eucomis comosa ‘Sparkling Burgundy’, seen here with a couple of North American natives, Thuja occidentalis ‘Concessarini, and Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Summer Wine’. Eucomis ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ was one of our first Plant Delights/JLBG introductions in 1997 and since that time we have introduced over 1,440 new plant species, cultivars
A Toast with Sparkling Burgundy in the Garden Read More »
