winter blooming plants

Urophysa henryi

Urophysa…URO Star

Flowering for the last month is the amazing, winter-flowering Urophysa henryi. Formerly an Isopyrum, this rare Chinese endemic in the Ranunculaceae family, has thrived for over five years in our rock garden. Now that we finally have some spare seedlings, thanks to ours self-pollinating last year, we’ll be trying this around the garden to see

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Helleborus croaticus 'Bellls of the Ball'

Cracking Croaticus

Looking good in the garden this week is our selection of the Croatian native lenten rose, Helleborus croaticus ‘Bells of the Ball’. This is a seedling grown from a Will McLewin wild seed collection, without benefit of breeding. Unlike most Helleborus x hybridus, this is a completely deciduous species. This plant gets full sun for

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Cornus officinalis 'Spring Glow'

Spring Glow – No Mas

Looking great in the garden in early March is Cornus officinalis ‘Spring Glow’. I remember when the late J.C. Raulston first planted this in the 1980s at the arboretum that now bears his name. It elicited so many comments, that he finally named and introduced it to commercial horticulture. As it did over forty years

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Iris reticulata 'Carolina'

The Plants of the JLBG Winter Open Nursery and Garden

We’ve recently wrapped up our Winter Open Nursery and Garden and would love thank everyone who took time out of their busy lives to attend. Despite the snow just a couple of days before we opened, we were blessed with absolutely beautiful winter weather and plenty of sun. Visitors who attended were able to see

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Symplocarpus foetidus

That Cabbage Smells like Skunk

Flowering this week in the garden is one of our more unusual hardy native aroids, Symplocarpus foetidus, aka: skunk cabbage. Although the floral aroma is barely detectable by humans, it does work well enough to draw in flies for pollination. Since skunk cabbage evolved to flower in the winter, often under snow, it learned to

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Camellia 'Miss Sally'

The well-endowed Miss Sally

Flowering today in our specialty cold frame, where plants live before they are planted in the garden, is Camellia ‘Miss Sally’. This insanely huge flowered Camellia reticulata hybrid has blooms that measure a ridiculous 7″ across. This 2004 introduction was selected by Norfolk, Virginia’s Doug Simon, and shared with us by camellia guru, Mike Chelednik.

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Agave nickelsiae in snow

Winter Open Nursery and Garden

If you attended the first weekend of our Winter Open Nursery and Garden, you got a chance to see many garden plants still covered with a layer of white, despite the pleasant air temperatures. For our upcoming second weekend, Feb 28, March 1,2, 2025, all of the snow has melted, and the hellebores continue to

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Ornithogalum chionophyllum

Snowy Onion

Flowering in late February in the rock garden is the tiny bulb, Ornithogalum chionophyllum. This genus of onion relative has both some garden treasures and horrific weeds. This gem is a narrow endemic to the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus between 2,000′ and 6,000′ elevation. If the Troodos Mountain don’t sound familiar, perhaps you’ve heard of

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Helleborus foetidus

Bears Claws

One of the most fascinatingly demure lenten roses is the Bear’s claw, Helleborus foetidus, which is flowering now in the garden. This Western European native is one of the species with an upright stalk, compared to most species which have a horizontal, subterranean stem. The pendent clusters of light green flowers are held atop 18″

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