Looking lovely in the mid-January winter garden is the fern, Neolepisorus fortunei ‘Green Ribbons’. This fascinating evergreen fern looks nothing like what most gardeners are familiar with, when they think ferns. Neolepisorus is one of several genera of ferns, known as ribbon ferns. These ferns grow epiphytically (on trees) and lithophytically (on rocks), mostly in
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Cryptomeria japonica ‘Elegans Nana’ is a dwarf form of Japanese cedar and is looking quite lovely in the winter garden. Dwarf conifers are a great addition to the garden for winter interest. The evergreen foliage takes on a bronze tint during the winter. It is also adorned with a great crop of decorative male cones,
Looking lovely in the garden during the Christmas holiday season is a plant that hails from around the world, most notably Iran, and into the surrounding Caucuses. Despite this disparate climatic origin, Danae racemosa has thrived in much of the country as a pass-along plant for over a century. Danae is one of many plants,
A Laurel and Hardy Garden Addition Read More »
We just love Rohdea, Japanese sacred lilies, and our collection is a showstopper in the winter garden. The winter fruit display adds yet another attractive element to these evergreen perennials. Here’s a clump of Rohdea japonica ‘Taiyoden’ in late December.
Looking great well into December is the North American native, Salvia chamaedryoides, known as Blue Oak sage. This evergreen, dryland native hails form 7,000′ to 9,000′ elevation in the Chihuahuan Desert of northern Mexico. For us, it flowers heaviest in spring and fall, with dark, cobalt blue flowers. It’s one of the few silver leaf
Smart as a Blue Oak Read More »
It’s time for the start of Christmas rose/snow rose season to begin. We were delighted to find our clump of the Balkan native, Helleborus niger ‘Jesko’ in full flower. These are always exceptional honeybee favorites, as well as being great evergreen perennials for the winter season. We find that light shade to a couple of
It’s time for snow….roses Read More »
Looking lovely in the garden now is Cryptomeria japonica ‘Sekkan’. This amazing, full-size selection of Japanese cedar has long been a personal favorite. It has solid green foliage all year until cool nights arrive, at which time, the yellow tips brighten to create a truly amazing sight in the garden. Commercially, it is often sold
Just beginning to open outside our nursery office is the lovely Magnolia platypetala. Our specimen of this amazing Chinese native is now 24 years old. The fuzzy brown buds, which are beautiful in their own right, open to large, fragrant white flowers. When night temperatures drop below freezing, the petals melt, but are replaced the
Looking exceptional in the garden is the selection of the North American native Yucca flaccida ‘Hairy’. Yucca ‘Hairy’ is a Tom Foley selection that we feel is probably the finest clone of Yucca flaccida that we’ve ever seen. It’s truly puzzling why this isn’t an industry staple. Below is a photo of our 20 year
Winter is a good time to be Hairy Read More »
Here’s a winter-flowering shrub that few people have grown. Flowering now in the garden is the evergreen Chimonanthus zhejiangensis, a little-known relative to the more popular, deciduous Chimonanthus praecox. This is a small genus of only six species in the Calycanthaceae family, all native to China. Our plants originated from seed from the Shanghai Botanical
Zhejiang Wintersweet Read More »
