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. Hosta ‘Summer Snowstorm ..read more

I’m more and more impressed with Hosta ‘Miss America’ each year. Not only is this white-centered hosta amazingly vigorous, but it has one of the finest floral shows we’ve ever seen on a hosta. The steel rod-like upright flower stalks on our plant have reached 4′ tall, but as the plant grows larger, they will eventually top 6′ in height. Not wind, rain, or post office vehicle can knock down these super sturdy stalks, and the great show they provide for weeks. Our plant is 100′ from our back porch, and it shows up like a floral beacon even from that distance. Hosta ‘Miss America’ in flower ..read more

He’re a shot from our garden that we see every morning, featuring a drift of the giant, sun-loving Hosta ‘Sum and Substance‘…and much more. Summer Garden facing South Below is another shot from the same location in the garden, but looking north. Who said summer gardens need to be boring? Summer Garden facing North ..read more

Looking great in the crevice garden this month is the Pacific Northwest native, Dichelostemma ida-maia This odd little bulb is a member of the Asparagus family…so that makes it as cousin to agaves, hostas, and asparagus. In the wild, it is only found in coastal meadows and into forest edges and partial woodland openings in Northern California and Southern Oregon. As a rule, California natives typically aren’t climatically welcomed in the rainy Southeast US, but Dichelostemma ida-maia is an exception ..read more

We often hear and read that hostas won’t grow well in the mid and deep south, so we thought we should share a few garden photos from this week at JLBG (Zone: 7b), to bust yet another garden myth. Starting with some small/miniature hostas, the first is Doug Beilstein’s Hosta ‘Baby Booties’, a superbly vigorous dwarf that has really been exceptional. Hosta ‘ Baby Booties’ Hosta ‘Blue Fingers’ is a PDN/JLBG introduction of one of the very few tiny blue-leaf hostas with excellent vigor and a good multiplication rate. Hosta ‘Blue Fingers’ Hosta ‘Wriggles and Squiggles’ is an exceptionally wavy-leaf ..read more

We’ve been working on upgrading many of the temporary gates throughout the garden, our first few, which went in this year are all designed by NC sculptor Jim Gallucci, from photos we took in the JLBG Gardens. We all need more art in our gardens…Enjoy! Sarracenia leucophylla gateDryopteris fern gateHosta gateIris ensata gateAgave parryi gate ..read more

There’s a reason hostas are the #1 perennial in the US. The incredible diversity of leaf shapes, sizes, and colors are one, combined with the array of climates in which they thrive. It’s long been rumored that hostas don’t grow well here in Zone 7b, but that simply isn’t the case if you prepare your soil properly (lots of compost) and allow for plenty of summer moisture. Below are a few hosta cultivars that are looking particularly nice this week at JLBG. Of course, the proverbial deer-in-the-room is that hosta make quite the tasty buffet for both humans and wood rats. Deer fences and organic ..read more

We just snapped this photo of our 2006 Hosta introduction, H. ‘Swamp Thing’, looking quite divine. Sadly, this was one of those plants that just didn’t sell well, which is a shame, since we think it’s one of our best hosta introductions in terms of both vigor, and visual interest. We named it after the Creature from the Black Lagoon, since the foliage is so shiny, it looks like it just emerged from being under water. Hard to figure out the buying public sometimes ..read more

The Japanese Arisaema sikokianum (Jack-in-the-pulpit) posing with Hosta ‘Kabitan in this glamour shot ..read more

Hostas are incredibly tough plants and will get along fine in almost any garden…but they look their absolute best with just a little extra attention. Here are some tips to grow beautiful hostas in your garden. Despite hostas durable nature, there are many myths circulating about growing hostas, one of which is the term Originator’s Stock. Originator’s stock is simply a superfluous term for saying that the plant in question is the correctly named clone. Click here for more debunking ..read more