Helleborus niger 'HGC Josef Lemper'

This is a plant that I'm very excited about! My last few posts seemed to be laments for fall color, and I woke this morning feeling winter's gray hand for sure with temps below 20 F. But I just found out we got a ton of these wonderful, winter blooming perennials just in time for some weekend planting. I'm stoked!

The Josef Lemper cultivar of Helleborus Niger, or Lenten Rose, is an exceedingly long bloomer. It is new to cultivation in the United States, but in Germany it begins blooming in mid fall and continues until late winter. It is perfect for a shadier spot, which is awesome because I am in the process of planning my woodland, shade garden behind my cactus greenhouse. A few of these are sure to find their way into my garden. I'll post some pics when I get them planted!

Ginkgo biloba 'Autumn Gold'

Another one of my favorites for fall color is the 'autumn gold' cultivar of Ginkgo biloba. It is a handsome tree (more fitting than the term "beautiful" as it is a male cultivar) with brilliant yellow fall color.

Ginkgo trees are fascinating from a botanical perspective, in the sense that it is the sole species not just in the genus, but has its own division as well. The plants are separately male or female, or dioecious in nerd speak, which is good because the seed coatings that the female plants drop are rather stinky and can cause a rash not-unlike from poison ivy. The 'autumn gold' cultivar is conveniently enough a male. Click here to check out more info about Ginkgos and their fascinating history in traditional medicine, culinary use and more.

Acer palmatum 'viridis'

Welcome to the Plant Dude blog. While it is currently feeling more like winter in the mountains of western North Carolina than late fall, I thought it would be fun to show off a few of my favorite deciduous trees with great fall color.

The 'viridis' form of Acer palmatum 'dissectum' is nice enough during the majority of the growing season. Nice soft texture, and cascading branches of light green leaves make this an attractive feature plant for rock gardens or small landscape areas. When fall arrives, however, this plant blazes with an orange tinged yellow hue that lights up the area where it grows.

The plant above is one of the more attractive specimen of 'viridis' that we had this year at B.B. Barns. We should get some nice specimen size plants like the one above in the spring, along with a number of smaller size plants as well.