Published by Daniel Mosquin on October 4, 2018
Bluebeard is named for the shape and colour of the flowers rather than the grisly French folktale. This visually-charming and bee-friendly shrub has found its way into many xeriscape gardens, including one at the site of today’s photograph, the Summerland Ornamental Gardens.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on August 1, 2018
The low-growing Thompson’s beardtongue is native to Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California, associated with pinyon-juniper and subalpine habitats. It grows in a relatively narrow elevational band (1500m to 1900m (5000 ft. to 6700 ft.)) and is associated with calcareous soils.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on July 20, 2018
Ethiopian acanthus is native to the highlands of Ethiopia, where it grows in a Mediterranean-type climate with free-draining soil. Apparently used for fencing around vegetable gardens in Ethiopia, it has been introduced into ornamental cultivation in Europe and the USA in recent years.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on June 1, 2018
One of the showier species of ash in terms of floral display, Fraxinus sieboldiana is native to southeastern China, Korea, and Japan. The plant in today’s photograph was grown from seed collected in Japan two decades ago.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on May 24, 2018
Right before the flowers of empress tree open, the ends resemble Kermit the Frog’s scrunch face, at least to my overactive imagination. Other common names for this species include royal paulownia and princess tree.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on May 23, 2018
Wild thyme or creeping thyme is a subshrub or short-statured shrub native to Europe and perhaps western Asian and northern Africa; the range information on the IUCN Red List for Thymus serpyllum is contradictory. This species is not typically a culinary thyme (which is most often Thymus vulgaris).
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on April 23, 2018
One of the oldest-known living plants in the New World tropics is featured today: a 3800 year old underground tree from Brazil. Intrigued?
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