winter open house

Aucuba…the overlooked winter shrub

It was great during our recent winter open house to see so many folks noticing the aucubas in the garden. Of course, they are hard to miss with our collection of over 140 different taxa. There are few evergreen plants better for year-round interest in dry shade than aucuba. Here is one of the most

Aucuba…the overlooked winter shrub Read More »

Dainty Dirca

Few people know the fascinating native shrub, Dirca palustris. It’s little wonder it gets overshadowed by showier members of its family, Thymelaeaceae, which includes the likes of Daphne and Edgeworthia. Our 6′ tall plant is flowering alongside a large edgeworthia, and rarely gets noticed by visitors. Dirca palustris, the plant, is actually widespread across Eastern

Dainty Dirca Read More »

Cinnamon in the Garden

Ever since seeing cinnamon trees (Cinnamomum camphora) planted throughout the parking lot at Florida’s Disneyworld in the 1970s, we have been fascinated to see how many species of Cinnamon trees are winter hardy here in Zone 7b. Cinnamomum jensenianum, from Southern/South Central China has been one of the stars in our trials. Here is our

Cinnamon in the Garden Read More »

Rocking and Rolling in the Winter Garden

If you’ve visited JLBG, you know how much we love working with rocks, so we continue to find new areas to plant more. We’ve recently tackled two long overdue projects near the Mt. Michelle waterfall. The first was re-working the Mt. Michelle watercourse we know as Mystic Creek (named after one of our late cats).

Rocking and Rolling in the Winter Garden Read More »

Scroll to Top