Most gardeners are so focused on the flowers of surprise lilies (Lycoris), they forget about the amazing foliage. There are two groups of surprise lilies: those which produce leaves in fall, and those which produce leaves in spring. The fall-leaf species and hybrids have foliage that emerges anywhere between September and November. With the hybrids,
Don’t forget the leaves Read More »
Last week, we were chatting on-line with one of our lycoris experts from China about the different forms of Lycoris aurea, when they mentioned the different foliage types that could be found in each region of China where the plant occurs. I should mention that the yellow-flowering Lycoris aurea has the widest native range of
The fall-flowering Cyclamen cilicium has put on a lovely floral display in the garden this year. The honey-scented flowers will be wrapping up their show before too long. This native of the Taurus mountains of southern Turkey, grows in sandy soils above limestone rocks. Our plants have thrived in a deciduous woodland with our amended
One of the stars of the fall garden at JLBG is the little-known Peshman’s Snowdrop, Galanthus peshmanii. This amazing Greek and Turkish species, named after the late Turkish botanist, Hasan Peşmen (1939-1980), was only officially recognized in 1994. It’s closely related to the better-known Galanthus reginae-olgae. Our nine year-old clump has been an absolutely wonderful
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Another of our favorite fall alliums is the lovely Allium kiiense, which hails from the Honshu Japan penisula by the same name. Last year, we had so many plants that went unpurchased, we planted a mass instead of throwing them out. Below is that mass in full flower this week. Hardiness Zone 5a-9b.
From Kii with Love Read More »
Looking great in the garden in November are our collection of x Amarines. These are a fascinating man-made group of hybrids between two South African genera of bulbs, Amaryllis belladonna and Nerine, first described in 1961. These grow their foliage in winter, which is a problem in climates as cold as ours. If the foliage
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Flowering in the crevice garden in early November is the little-known South African bulb, Strumaria discifera ssp. bulbifera. These hail from the winter wet/dry summer region of the Western Cape, and have been right at home in the ground here since 2018. Okay, so it’s not as flashy as a tulip of daffodil, but to
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Colchicum autumnale ‘The Giant’ is in full flower in our alpine rock garden this week. This widespread Central European species bursts out of the ground for us in mid-late October with a stunning show. The cultivar, ‘The Giant’ has abnormally Y-U-G-E flowers. Hardiness Zone 5a-8b.
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Flowering this week is the lovely fall-flowering Allium thunbergii. This specimen is a 1993 Dan Hinkley collection from the Heuksan Islands, well off the coast of South Korea. Many of the plants on the Heuksan Islands have been isolated so long, that they have speciated (evolved into a new species). In this case, this plant
Looking lovely this week in the garden is Crinum politifolium, which hails from Tanzania. Not many people think of East Africa as a source of Zone 7b hardy plants, but areas such as the Southern Highland hold a wealth of horticultural potential, especially for geophytes, that hasn’t been well explored.
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