Over a 45 year career of botanizing, one odd type of plant I’ve found repeatedly throughout the Southeast US are gold foliage sweetgums. A few were seedlings, while others were mutations that occur when roadside tree saplings are mowed down, causing bud mutations. Some discoveries, we’ve been able to propagate, while we just weren’t there
The Man with the Golden Gum Read More »
We’ve been trialing two very exciting new groundcovers, a spreading, gold-foliaged mondo grass (Ophiopogon), and a gold-foliage monkey grass (Liriope). Both are currently scheduled to be 2026 Plant Delights releases. While both plants will tolerate light shade, they are much more vigorous, and maintain their foliage color better in half day sun. Liriope minor ‘Gotemba
Monkeying Around with Gold Read More »
I first met Juniperus chinensis ‘Aurea’ at the JC Raulston Arboretum in 2018, grown from cuttings taken at Richmond, Virginia’s Maymont Garden. We struggled to find a cultivar name, toying first with naming it Juniperus ‘Maymont Gold’. It wasn’t until horticultural cultivar historian, Larry Hatch, of Cultivar.org, told us that this is the true Juniperus
Several years ago, I fell in love with a new holly on a visit to Garden Treasures Nursery, and two years later, our specimen has lived up to my high expectations. Ilex vomitoria ‘Panhandle Gold’ is a selection of our native (Virginia to Texas) yaupon holly, discovered by Florida nurseryman, John Davy. We don’t know
Holy Golden Moment Read More »
Every year, I fall further in love with the false yew, Cephalotaxus harringtonia ‘Golden Dragon’. These eight year old plants are our oldest, and now measure 30″ tall x 6′ wide. This incredible import from Japan, holds it color year round when planted where it will receive at least full sun for a few hours.
Staring Down a Golden Dragon Read More »
As we prepare for the upcoming NFL season, we thought we’d offer a horticultural football analogy with this native plant combination of two evergreens, Heuchera ‘Grande Amethyst’ and Juniperus horizontalis ‘Copper Harbor’. Here, in this Minnesota Vikings color theme, the coral bell (heuchera) is the quarterback, carrying the color, and first drawing your eye. The
Vikings Quarterback-Receiver Combo Read More »
Fenway Park Golden Ivy is a fabulous, deciduous, Asian native vine for covering buildings, fences, or the belongings of sloppy neighbors. On the way to a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park in 1988, now-retired Arnold Arboretum Research Scientist, Peter Del Tredici, spotted a golden mutation on a Boston Ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), growing on
Fenway Park is a Hit Read More »
Looking so good in the garden is the North American native, Ilex x attenuata ‘Sunny Foster’. This amazing hybrid between two native hollies, Ilex opaca and Ilex cassine, was first discovered in the wild in the 1920s and named Ilex x attenuata ‘Foster #2’. ‘Sunny Foster’ originated in 1964, as a yellow branch sport on
Early April is peak time at JLBG for Ajuga flowering, commonly known as bugleweed. We think these amazing new cultivars are a great solution to reducing the need for mulch in sun to part sun landscaped areas. Some of the new colored leaf cultivars are even more spectacular when in flower…below are a few.
Trumpeting Bugleweed Read More »
We love the winter color forms of the fascinating spikemoss, Selaginella tamariscina. This Asian (China, Japan, Korea, Russia, India, Taiwan, Thailand, and Philipines) native naturally has solid green foliage, but through the centuries, Japanese gardeners have made countless selections with colored foliage. I’m particularly fond of Selaginella ‘Golden Sprite’ (below). In growth, these make very
