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
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 »
We’re preparing for the release of a new cast of characters for 2024, through our current funding arm, Plant Delights Nursery. One of the “cast” that we’ve been trialing for six years is a new cast iron plant hybrid from Japan, Aspidistra ‘Hanado Raku’ PPAF. This is one of those plants that elicits all kind
A New Cast of Characters Read More »
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 »
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 »
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
We’re always disappointed when great plants don’t sell well enough to continue offering them, and one of our best examples is Microlepia ‘MacFaddeniae’. Below is our clump in the garden this week. This California selection of the Japanese native rigid lace fern forms a lovely, unique clump that stays evergreen until Christmas. Oh well, we
Microlepia…one of our favorite ferners Read More »
Looking and smelling wonderful in the garden this week is our 2022 introduction, Hosta ‘Summer Snowstorm’. We love late-flowering hostas with large fragrant flowers, and this one doesn’t disappoint, with foliage that still looks great in late summer.
Another Summer Snowstorm Read More »
Begonia ‘Caribbean Star’ is looking excellent in our begonia garden trials, despite our 11 degree F. winter. This fascinating Tim Anderson (Palm Hammock Orchid Estate) hybrid was made widely available thanks to begoniaphile, John Boggan. Our 2′ tall x 2′ wide ‘plants have been in the ground since 2019, although earlier trials failed to survive
