This spring, we flowered the highly confused NC native wild ginger, mistakenly known as Asarum memmingeri in the garden. In reality, it’s never been given a proper name, so we refer to it as Asarum sp. nov. Allegheny Wild Ginger. … Continue reading
Carex picta ‘Bama Beauty’ is looking particularly wonderful in the garden today. Native from Indiana south to Mississippi, this little-known sedge has been delighting us in the garden since 2014, when Zac Hill, JLBG’s Taxonomist and Plant Records Specialist, brought … Continue reading
We just discovered that one of our good plant friends, plantsman and former mail order nurseryman, Dick Weaver, 77, passed away early in the days of the pandemic in June 2020. Dick and I had been corresponding regularly, but in … Continue reading
Great new plants for the garden do sometimes just happen. They can occur as a spontaneous sport from an existing planting, as a seed selection that has much better garden traits, but many of our most useful and ecologically important … Continue reading
The cold and raw weather of late autumn and winter provide the perfect opportunity to sit down with the dissecting scope and put our ferns through the identification mill. Often gardens and nurseries receive a plant into their collections from … Continue reading
One of our favorite palms for the garden is the US native Sabal minor var. louisiana. While it can’t outgrow the Himalayan Trachycarpus fortunei (windmill palm) for speed of developing a trunk, Louisiana palmetto is the most winter hardy of … Continue reading
Nurses and plant taxonomists are among the few fields in which you would run into the term, anastomosing veins. Having been in the plant world all my life, I had never even run into the term until trying to key … Continue reading
History is replete with examples of new plant species that are first encountered by intrepid plant explorers, yet described later by taxonomists. Salvia darcyi was discovered and introduced into cultivation by Carl Schoenfeld and John Fairey of Yucca Do Nursery. … Continue reading
Looking lovely in the garden today is the fall-flowering geophyte, Sternbergia sicula. This Mediterranean native is found in the wild growing on alkaline hilly sites. Some taxonomists list it as a subspecies of the more common Sternbergia lutea, but it … Continue reading
Most folks are familiar with the mysterious Howard Hughes, but we have an equally mysterious “Howard” in horticulture. Flowering well now in the gardens at JLBG is the amazing xHowardara ‘Riley Kate’. This fascinating hybrid was created by Texas bulb … Continue reading
One of our favorite hardy garden ferns are the amazing cat’s claw ferns of the genus Onychium. The genus comprises between 9 and 23 species, depending on your choice of taxonomist. The most common species in cultivation is the Japanese … Continue reading
Now that fall has arrived, we’re all enjoying peak plume season for many of our favorite ornamental grasses. Unfortunately, there are a few significant mix-ups in the trade. The top photo is our native Eragrostis spectabilis, known as purple love … Continue reading
We think Juliet would agree that Cuthbertia rosea is one sweet perennial. Looking great now is the southeast native (Maryland south to Florida) spiderwort, Cuthbertia rosea, which for us, begins its flowering season in spring, and continues sporadically through the … Continue reading
The genus rhodophiala is in a state of flux. Some taxonomists believe the genus actually doesn’t exist and should be merged with rain lilies, while others consider it a perfectly valid genus with 27 species. Oh, the joys of taxonomy. … Continue reading
We’ve just enjoyed peak surprise lily week at JLBG. The lycoris season starts for us in early July and continues into early October, but the last two weeks of August is peak bloom. Below are a few samples from the … Continue reading
We love all of our trout lilies, but Erythronium ‘Goldstrike’ is hard to beat. This is our named selection of Erythronium americanum ssp. harperi. Occurring from Tennessee south of Mississippi, this amazing form graces low woodlands in very early spring. … Continue reading
Please join me in welcoming our newest JLBG team member, Dr. Patrick McMillan. I’ve known Patrick for 30 years, going back to his days as a student at UNC-Chapel Hill, and long before he became a legend in the plant … Continue reading
One of many exciting new introductions for 2022 is Phlox divaricata ‘Blue Ribbons’ PPAF. This variegated version of our wonderful native woodland phlox was discovered here as a single sport in our garden by our plant taxonomist, Zac Hill. Instead … Continue reading
Most gardeners in mild winter climates are familiar with Liriope (monkey grass), and Ophiopogon (mondo grass), but almost no one is familiar with the third cousin, reineckea (false lilyturf). Like both better known cousins, reineckea is an evergreen groundcover, but … Continue reading
With over 60% of retail plants now purchased at the box stores, we wonder if most consumers know you can’t trust much if anything you read on a label at a mass marketer. Our most recent example is this tag … Continue reading
Looking superb this week is our great native fern, Thelypteris kunthii (southern shield fern) So what is a kunth? In fact, this fern gets its name from German taxonomist, Carl Sigismund Kunth (1788 – 1850). Kunth was one of the first … Continue reading
Back in the early 2000s, I printed out every exchange from the International Bulb Society email list that discussed the bulb genus, hymenocallis (spider lilies). Most conversations originated with Victor Lambou, who was obviously an authority on the genus. It’s … Continue reading
This is one of the rare summers we actually got flowers on Amaryllis belladonna in the gardens at JLBG. The only problem is that they aren’t really Amaryllis belladonna. This poor South African native has suffered a series of nomenclatural … Continue reading
Just like the Broadway play, we love the plant, Boesenbergia hamiltonii. We acquired this gem from India in 2005 before it actually existed as a species. Back in the day, taxonomists who dealt only with dead, smashed plants, had created … Continue reading
Flowering now in the garden is the little-known Hedychium deceptum, which translates to deceived ginger. Discovered in 1922 by UK plantsman HJ Elwes of galanthus fame, it was initially identified as Hedychium greenii, until taxonomists realized that it was not … Continue reading
We have finally closed the book on a tumultuous 2020, as we turn the calendar page to 2021. Over the past twelve months, it suddenly became not only legal, but required to wear masks in public. So, we quickly learned … Continue reading
One of the rewards of making it through the dog days of summer, as well as renewed hope for fall’s arrival, are the numerous late summer and fall blooming bulbs that offer pop-up-blooms in the garden. These late summer/fall blooming … Continue reading
We are continually on the hunt for new cold hardy palms. When we find an individual clone of hardy palm tree growing in a particularly cold climate, we do what all good plant nurseries do, we propagate it for our … Continue reading
Even though we’re in the garden virtually everyday, there’s so much to see that we often miss things that are right in front of us. Case in point…a few weeks ago, our taxonomist, Zac Hill was walking though the woodland … Continue reading
We now have so many aspidistra (cast iron plants), that there is at least one species flowering virtually every month of the year. Winter still has the most flowering species, and here are a few that are currently blooming in … Continue reading
Yes, it’s our first flowering of Amorphophallus titanum…the Titan Arum. The scheduled release date is July 6, 2018, so tell all your friends and come join us. We will continue to update the progress in case the date of the … Continue reading
Sixty is the new Thirty It doesn’t seem possible, but both Anita and I hit the big 60 this year. During my youth, I entertained occasional thoughts about what old age would be like, and wondering if I’d actually make … Continue reading
I will admit I originally purchased this from We-Du Nursery co-founder, Dick Weaver for the name, after he shared the story of tromping through the woods near his home in Polly Spout, NC, and spotted what appeared to be a … Continue reading
Dear PDN’ers! Greetings and Happy Spring! The Perfect Storm As we mentioned in an earlier email, we experienced the perfect storm of events which impacted our order processing and shipping operations this spring. The combination of delayed ordering due to … Continue reading
Dear PDN’ers Thanks to everyone who took the time to visit during our recent Spring Open House. In contrast to our Winter Open House, the weather was excellent and the threat of rain never materialized. We were delighted to meet … Continue reading
Our 2011 shipping season is winding down and officially ends next Monday, December 5th. If you’ve been putting off ordering those last plants for fall planting, please don’t delay. Any orders received after December 5th will be shipped when we … Continue reading
Fall has nearly come and gone before many of us had time to blink. As always, we have enjoyed the wonderful fall season, watching plants that didn’t appreciate the summer re-emerge and put on a new crop of foliage and … Continue reading
Dear PDN’ers: So far, it’s been a great spring in Raleigh as we just missed a late spring frost when the temperature dropped to 33 degrees F on March 27, after 3+ weeks of above freezing temperatures. We’ve got a … Continue reading