A few years ago, we introduced one of our Japanese painted fern sporlings of particularly giant proportions as Athyrium ‘Godzilla’. Recently, we found ourselves in search of another giant monster name for our new hybrid of Osmunda regalis (US) and Osmunda japonica (Japan). We settled on Osmunda x japalis ‘King Kong’ for this 7′ tall giant that we hope to one day share with gardeners around the world. For now, however, it remains a single, rather impressive clump in the gardens here at JLBG.
If you’re only familiar with the smaller flowered asarum (wild ginger), check out the well-endowed Asarum nobilissimum flowering now. This is a selection of the different clones we grow in the gardens at JLBG. Most of the flowers are around 4″ wide.
Asarum nobilissimum; top l-r, ‘Crown Jewel’, ‘King Kong’, #14…mid ‘Netscape’, ‘Deep Throat’, ‘Super Shield’ (young flower)…bottom ‘Iron Butterfly’, ‘Super Shield’, ‘National Treasure. (delavayi).
We find Asarum nobilissimum (1985) is indistinguishable from Asarum delavayi (1895), so most likely the name will revert once the experts agree with our assessment.
