Woodland Garden

Trillium underwoodii 'Black Silver'

Black Silver Toadshade

Getting ready to open in late January at JLBG is the very rare, silver-foliaged form of the Southeast US native toadshade, Trillium underwoodii. This species is known for its highly mottled foliage, but if you look long enough, you’ll eventually find one of these odd silver-foliage variants within each species. Trillium underwoodii ‘Black Silver’ is

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Helleborus x lemperii 'Liara'

Lemping Liara!

The latest new group of lenten roses are the Helleborus x lemperii hybrids. These are crosses, long thought to be impossible, between Helleborus niger and Helleborus x hybridus. The first variety, H. ‘Walberton’s Rosemary’ was introduced in 2012 as Helleborus x lemonnierae, but the name was too confusing with the cultivar, Helleborus ‘Madame Lemonnier’, so

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Aucuba japonica 'Petite Jade'

Petite Jade

Standing out in the garden this month is Aucuba ‘Petite Jade’, a lovely selection of the Asian native evergreen shrub, Aucuba japonica. This release comes from the U.S. National Arboretum, from cuttings originally collected in 1984 at South Korea’s Chollipo Arboretum. This selection is not only slow-growing and dense, but has excellent resistance to foliar

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Neolepisorus fortunei 'Green Ribbons'

Decorate the Woodland with Green Ribbons

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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Iris foetidissima in fruit

Fruity Pebbles

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

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Asarum hypogynum in flower

Is Ginger Cold?

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

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Helleborus x ballardiae 'Mahogany Snow'

The Christmas Rose Bowl

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.

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Danae racemosa in fruit

A Laurel and Hardy Garden Addition

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,

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Iron Clad Hybrids

Up until a couple of years ago, we could find no literature detailing any hybrids in the cast iron plant genus, Aspidistra. With our extensive in-ground collection, we had begun noticing seedlings that were obvious hybrids, so we began first by confirming that both the flowers and foliage showed signs of being intermediate between both

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