Flowering in the garden now are the amazing and very rare white-flowered Dracunculus vulgaris. This wild and crazy aroid, which typically has a red/purple inflorescence, hails from the Mediterranean region, centered around Greece and Turkey. The late aroid guru Alan Galloway worked extensively to breed these, and since we now hold his collections, we wanted
Dazzling vulgarities Read More »
Oh my goodness, how terrible these wonderful plants are treated by the hedge-clipper wielding masochistic masses! These amazing plants are large shrubs/small trees…not foundation shrubs…geez! We currently grow 27 cultivars, and need to replace three that we managed to kill. Purportedly some of these newer selections actually stay more compact, but that remains to be
Loropetalums…not Low Petalums Read More »
Hymen flowers (aka Hymenocallis) are still going, as the Northern Mexican species now perfume the garden. The genus begins flowering in spring, and if you grow a wide range of species, you can have flowers until late summer/early fall. Here’s a photo we recently took of Hymenocallis pimana in the garden. While many hymenocallis prefer
I was looking at our patch of Bletilla ‘Brigantes’…a hardy orchid hybrid between Bletilla striata and Bletilla ochracea and wondering what its offspring would look like. I recalled that the late plantsman Don Jacobs grew bletillas from seed in his window sill, so I figured we’d give it a try. If you’ve never handled orchid
Hardy Orchids from seed Read More »
Here are photos of our lovely specimen of Magnolia (Parakmeria) lotungensis that flowered extremely well this year. This evergreen magnolia is one of our favorites and has never shown a sign of winter damage here. Fingers crossed for good seed set.
Magnolia lotungensis flowering at JLBG Read More »
The dwarf native woodland iris, Iris cristata are in flower here today. Iris ‘Montrose White’ was introduced by Montrose Gardens in NC. Iris cristata is native in shade, but flowers much better when given a couple of hours of sun. Iris cristata ‘Powder Blue Giant’ is incredibly floriferous in the garden today. These spring flowering
Iris cristata in flower Read More »
