1316 plants in this collection
A Wodlanders introduction collected by Frank Bell in Yunnan, China, this sweet box appears much like Sarcococca hookerana and may be S. hookeriana digyna. We are giving you an opportunity to test and evaluate it along with us. Related to Boxwood, glossy leafed, shade-demanding evergreens.
Among the winter-flowering shade shrubs, few reward a cold-season garden as generously as Sarcococca wallichii, the Himalayan sweet box. The genus name joins the Greek sarco, flesh, with kokkos, berry, a nod to the fleshy fruits that follow the flowers, while the species honors Nathaniel Wallich, the Danish surgeon-botanist who superintended the Calcutta botanic garden in the early nineteenth century and sent so many Himalayan plants west. Sarcococca belongs to the box family, Buxaceae, and shares that clan's patience: dense, slow, and evergreen, with the quiet good manners of a plant built for the long haul.
Pitcher Plants are unusual carnivirous plants in which the leaves are modified into tall, usually upright hooded cylinders. Small insects are attracted to and are trapped in liquid that is in the base of these tubes. These plants grow in damp to wet acid, nutrient poor soils in sunny to slightly shady locations. They derive nutrients from the trapped and digested insects Sweet Pitcher Plant is one of a number of species that occur in the southeastern U.S. Dark red umbrella like flowers on tall stems are followed by rounded seed pods. These plants are widely propagated, grown, and hybridized by carnivirous plant enthusiasts but they do require special cultural conditions. Growing Pitcher Plants is covered in detail on many websites. Most Pitcher Plants are becomming rare and some are endangered through loss of habitat.
Few native trees announce themselves as cheerfully as Sassafras albidum, whose leaves come in three shapes on the same branch: an unlobed oval, a two-lobed mitten, and a three-lobed silhouette like a splayed hand. A member of the laurel family, Lauraceae, and kin to bay, cinnamon, and spicebush, sassafras carries aromatic oils in every part, so that a snapped twig or crushed leaf releases a warm, root-beer sweetness. The common name traces back through Spanish to the colonial Southeast, where the tree was among the first American plants shipped to Europe as a marketable medicine.
A number of trees in the genus Schima are native to the Far East and their taxonomy is confused. A number of different ones have been introduced in recent years but they are still little-known in the U.S. These evergreen trees are in the Tea family and have white flowers suggestive of the related Stewartia, Gordonia, Polyspora, etc. Schima argentea has relatively thin simple leaves which are rather long pointed. The leaf undersides are quite glaucous with a gray to white color. These we offer are propagated from a specimen we have in the Aiken Citywide Arboretum which has proven hardy here through recent winters. Dr. Ranney at NC State University Horticultural Experiment Station has produced hybrids between this plant and Franklinia which are called "Schimlinia" Plant in good soil that is moist but well-drained in a semi shady site.
If you already grow a camellia, a stewartia, or a Franklinia, you know most of what a Schima is trying to be. The genus sits in the tea family, evergreen where the American members are deciduous, and carries the family flower in the purest form the family manages: five white petals cupped around a dense boss of gold stamens, two inches or so across, fragrant, and scattered through the crown in summer rather than delivered all at once. Schima remotiserrata is a southeast Chinese species, native to Fujian, Guangdong, eastern Guangxi, southern Hunan, and Jiangxi, and almost unknown in American gardens; the epithet refers to the leaf margin, toothed at intervals rather than continuously, which is the field character that separates this species from a shelf full of near relatives.
Schima superba is a beautiful evergreen Asian tree with no English common name. It is in the Tea family so related to Camellia, Gordonia, Stewartia, etc. It has lanceolate leaves 5-6 inches long. The new growth is red-bronze. Flowers are white and several inches in diameter. Our trees were grown from seed collected in Taiwan by our freind Mark Krautmann of Heritage Seedlings. We have seen several thriving specimens of this tree in the southeastern U.S. and expect it to become much more well-known and widely grown here.
×Schimlinia floribunda is one of the rarest woody plants a gardener can grow: a deliberate intergeneric hybrid between two members of the tea family, Theaceae, uniting the fabled Franklinia alatamaha with the Asian evergreen Schima argentea. The cross marries the ornamental drama and hardiness of Franklinia with the vigor, adaptability, and evergreen constitution of Schima, and the result carries large, camellia-like white flowers, glossy foliage, and an upright, well-furnished frame. The hybrid formula name honors both parents at once, Schima and Franklinia folded into a single word.
Medium sized tree with persistent compound leaves and winged seeds very much like a maple. May be a good candidate for dry rocky slopes in mild areas which resemble collection site in Sierra de Cordoba, Argentina.
Evergreen shrub with long willowly branches and simple, toothed, glossy leaves. A very attractive shrub from higher elevation area in Tucuman Province, Argentina. Flowers probably small yellow. Fruit are small purple berries on female plants. It has overwintered here with no damage. A Woodlanders introduction.
Dense shrub with small holly-like evergreen leaves. Collected in Sierra de la Ventana, Argentina.
Little Bluestem is a relatively tall perennial bunch grass native to most of the U.S and southern Canada. It thrives in hot dry areas and is relatively common as a prairie grass. This selection called 'Prairie Blues' is described by North Creek Nurseries as: " Consistant grey-blue, ribbon-like foliage takes on hues of orange and red as the season transitions to autumn. Sturdy, narrow stems and an upright habit." Plant in a sunny site with well-drained soil and keep free of competing vegetation.
'The Blues' is a nice blue foliaged selection of this native bunch grass. Thrives in heat and humidity. Good for mass plantings. Blue foliage intensifies in fall, with deep burgandy red mingling throughout the clump as it goes to tan winter color which remains an attractive garden feature. A sunny well-drained site is needed for good growth.
Little known species rather recently introduced by the U.S. National Arboretum. A vigorous climber with ornmental potential. From Anhi Province, China.
Silvery leaves. Creamy white flowers. From the U.S. Arboretum. (See DIR)
Vigorous self-clinging deciduous vine with large leaves and large flat heads of Hydrangea-like white fertile and sterile flowers. Seems better than Hydrangea petiolaris for South. Woodlanders introduced this after obtaining it from China via University of British Columbia, Canada. Needs space and strong support to climb on. Will climb high into a tree but may then flower up high out of sight.
This scilla is a fall flowering bulb that blooms from late August through September in either full shade or full sun. Pink lolipop flowers adorn blue-green stems. They are exceptionally hardy and suitable for most soils. Will multiply in the garden.
Mounding herbaceous perennial probably evergreen in zone 10. Leaves about 1" long and dark green. Tubular flowers on erect 3-4" spikes held just above foliage. Vivid purple. We are indebted to JoAnn Breland of Charleston, SC Parks Dept. for introducing us to this attractive plant. We have listed it as a subtropical but do not know how hardy it may be.
Showy skullcap earns the flattering half of the common name honestly: of the eastern woodland skullcaps, Scutellaria serrata carries some of the largest and most richly colored flowers. The genus name comes from the Latin scutella, a little dish or tray, for the small pouch on the upper side of the seed capsule that gives every skullcap its family resemblance. A member of the mint family, Lamiaceae, showy skullcap keeps the square stems and paired leaves of that clan, here with bright green, boldly toothed foliage often edged in wine-red.
Some plants arrive with a pedigree, and some arrive with a person. This one came to us from Ken Wurdack, a botanist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and his work centers on the systematics and evolution of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. He's the sort of botanist who describes entirely new genera in the tribe Hippomaneae, which happens to be the exact tribe Sebastiania sits in. So this is a spurge handed over by a man who names spurges for a living, which is about the best reference a euphorb could ask for.
