One of the finest, and most floriferous perennials we grow is the amazing Berlandiera pumila ‘Chocoholic’. The flowering season is just beginning as you can see in the recent image below. For us, it flowers pretty much non-stop until frost. In early morning, and later in the afternoon, the flowers smell exactly like milk chocolate
Euphorbia ‘Ascot Rainbow’ is looking quite dazzling in the garden this week, backed up by the silver foliage of Buddleia marrubifolia. The flowers on the euphorbia emerged for us on March 10, and now, nine weeks later still look amazing. The short-lived Euphorbia x martinii needs very good drainage in the garden. As soon as
An Ascot of Rainbows Read More »
I’m amazed that everyone with a dry sun garden doesn’t grow the amazing native (Wisconsin south to Florida) legume, Tephrosia virginiana, commonly known as Virginia goat’s rue. Here is our clump this week, thriving in the crevice garden. They certainly don’t require a crevice garden as long as the soils dries quickly after a rain.
A Legendary Legume Read More »
The advancements plant-breeders have made in developing garden-worthy Alstroemeria (princess lily or Peruvian lily) is truly amazing. Modern introductions such as ‘Indian Summer’ bloom from mid-spring through fall, perhaps slowing down a bit if summer is exceptionally hot and dry. The planting of ‘Indian Summer’ in the photograph is in a small island bed (the
Indian Summer in Spring, Summer and Fall Read More »
If you don’t grow Magnolia ‘Serendipity’ and live from Zone 7b south, I hope you’ll check this out. This amazing JC Raulston Arboretum introduction is a seedling they named from a cross made by Camellia breeder, Bobby Green of Alabama. The number of fragrant creamy-yellow flowers in late April to early May is truly unimaginable.
Serendipitous Behavior Read More »
Below are a few of our favorite ornamental onions for the early spring season…all flowering now. There’s something about alliums in the garden that elicit smiles when they are in flower, compared to tears when we chop up their kin. Most early spring alliums are more bulbous, while many of the later, summer-flowering alliums grow
Corylopsis, commonly known as winter hazel, is another great genus of winter-flowering shrubs, first cousins to the better-known witch hazels. Most corylopsis, like the Corylopsis pauciflora pictured below, mature around 12-15′ tall x wide. These amazing plants typically begin to flower for us (zone 7b) in late February with pendulous racemes of buttery-yellow flowers. We
Corylopsis – The G.O.A.T Read More »
One of our most spectacular winter-flowering trees is the Chinese sassafras. Sassafras tzumu (pronounced Zoomo). It can eventually reach 100′ tall in the wild, but we rarely see this exceed 35′ in cultivation. The clusters of bright yellow flowers adorn the plant, starting for us in mid-February, providing a welcome feast for honeybees when the
Here are a couple of our favorite winter-flowering mahonias currently in bloom at JLBG. The first is the North American native, Mahonia gracillis, which is virtually unknown in cultivation. Without several collections from the former Yucca Do Nursery, this probably wouldn’t even be known by US gardeners. The 8′ tall, unkempt form is adorned, starting
The rosettes of pale green leaves of Sedum palmeri ‘Mendoza’ are exquisitely beautiful year-round, as beautiful as flowers, especially so in winter when the leaves become tipped with red. The early spring floral display is more like a well-worn piece of jewelry, a bonus of gold stars of five-petaled flowers repeating the form of the
Winter with Mendoza Read More »
