One of the most interesting discoveries over the last few years, is the realization that our rohdeas are mating with other rohdea species in the garden. Below is our first documented hybrid between the commonly grown Rohdea japonica and the little-known Taiwan native, Rohdea chinensis var. watanabei. We use the name Rohdea x japensis for
I was lucky enough to catch the winter fruit show on our clump of Iris foetidissima last weekend. This little-known, evergreen, woodland iris from southern Europe, suffers because of its specific epithet “foetidissima”, which means stinking. That’s probably a bit much coming from someone with hundreds of amorphophallus clones. The name reportedly was given because
Starting off the new year is our flowering clump of the Taiwanese endemic wild ginger, Asarum hypogynum. The huge, glossy, evergreen patterned foliage is enough reason to grow this gem, but through most of the winter, the incredible floral display silently sits virtually unnoticed by most human visitors. JLBG currently houses one of the largest
Coming in second place to the Helleborus niger we posted earlier is Helleborus x ballardiae ‘Mahogany Snow’. This is a cross of the Christmas rose, Helleborus niger and Helleborus lividus. The flowers emerge white, then age to a lovely salmon pink. We find this hellebore hybrid much easier to grow than either parent.
The Christmas Rose Bowl Read More »
Hemiboea subacaulis var. jiangxiensis ‘Jiangxi Bells’ is looking great in the garden over the last month. This gem is an amazing new, hardy gesneriad from a joint collection by Scott McMahon (Atlanta Botanic Garden), and Mark Weathington (JCRA). Discovered in Jinggangshan, China, this seems to be a new species to cultivation. The 1′ wide, fuzzy-leaf
Bells from Jiangxii Read More »
The coolest plant feature in the garden this week are the seed pods on the woodland ginger, Zingiber mioga ‘Lushan Gold’. We’ve grown many different forms of Zingiber mioga, but none like ‘Lushan Gold’. First, this exceptional Chinese collection from Atlanta Botanic Gardens’ Scott McMahon clumps instead of runs like all the commercial forms. Secondly,
Here’s Looking at You, Ginger Read More »
Looking lovely in the garden now is the evergreen Chinese hand fern/ribbon fern, Lepisorus palmatopedatus (formerly Neocheiropteris). We’re very excited to try this 1′ tall dwarf in our woodland garden, and would be surprised if this isn’t one of the only in-ground specimens in the US. If not, we’d love to hear who else has
Athyrium shearei is a fascinating fern, given to us many years ago by fern guru, Dr. John Mickel. We’ve yet to offer it because we’re not sure if anyone would purchase it since some folks may think the dark central veining may look like something is wrong with the plant…which it is not. This deciduous
Looking great in the garden in late summer is the little known love lily, Amorphophallus kachinensis. This southeast Asian species has now reached 7′ tall in the garden. Our earlier collections from Thailand were not winter hardy here, but this Peter Zale collection from Myanmar has thrived.
Our 8 year-old clump of Amorphophallus bulbifer ‘Old Warty’ is looking lovely in the garden this week. We love the palm-like form in the summer garden, but selected this clone because it produces more leaf bulbils than any other clone we’ve ever seen. The bulbils, which resemble giant warts, form in late summer in the
