Gardenmob readers have come to expect a certain amount of love passed from me to coneflowers, especially pale coneflower. There is one notable exception in this lovefest - the Big Sky coneflowers. White coneflower is one of my favorites. Not as robust in growth as purple coneflower, but that’s okay - white is always appreciated in any garden. White coneflower, like most coneflowers, is easy once established.

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Coreopsis verticillata Zagreb, along with Coreopsis verticillata Moonbeam, was one of the first Coreopsis to find its way into my garden.  Whereas Moonbeam Coreopsis (and both Zagreb and Moonbeam are also known properly as Threadleaf Coreopsis or Tickseed) has flowers of buttery cool pale yellow, Zagreb Coreopsis is a warmer golden color with larger flowers.  Other than the color of the flowers, both of these Coreopsis are remarkably similar…including a propensity for some frustrating behavior. Read on…

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Hmmm….I wonder where the perennial blackberry lily gets its name. Perhaps blackberry lily blooms at the same time that blackberries set fruit (which does seem to be true in my neck of the woods). Sounds good, but common wisdom is that blackberry lily gets its moniker because the clusters of black seeds resemble blackberries. Anyways, the photograph at right is Blackberry Lily Yunnan Form, collected in 1998 by Paul Jones of Duke Gardens and now available to you at your friendly neighborhood nursery. Blackberry lily, also known as leopard lily, is a member of the iris family and native to East Asia (although found naturalized in North America). Hardy to Zone 4, blackberry lily grows a foot or three, and has narrow sword-like leaves that while definitely sword-like are much too floppy for actual sword-fighting.

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Hydrangea arborescens Annabelle offers an opportunity for those cold climate gardeners that fancy a hydrangea or three. Hydrangea Annabelle has huge moppy white flowers to ten inches or so, and offers much better winter hardiness than Hydrangea macrophylla (the big blue and pink Hydrangeas). Reliablely hardy in Zones 4/5 and pushing it in Zones 2/3 (although one hears stories…), Hydrangea arborescens Annabelle grows beautifully in the South as well and will flower profusely after fierce winters and impertinent pruning. Some nutcases actually grow Annabelle as a pruned hedge, but please don’t ruin the character of this shrub by ’shaping’ it. This plea goes especially for the Forsythia pruning crowd as well (and you know who you are).

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The most noteworthy feature of rose Paul Neyron is the size of the roses, which are considered to be (perhaps) the largest found on any garden rose; immense blossoms of cerise pink may be as much as seven inches wide. Paul Neyron is sometimes referred to as a cabbage rose by our grandmothers, which is somewhat of a misnomer as cabbage rose is the common name for roses in the Centifolia class. Paul Neyron is a Hybrid Perpetual rose, a historic, yet lanky disease-ridden bunch.

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I wandered past prickly pear cactus for years, somewhat mystified as to why anyone in the humid hot magnolia-laden South would grow a cactus native to the Southwest and Mexico. Wrongly, I abscribed certain oafish qualities to those hillbillies that would grow prickly pear cacti among azaleas…that is until one day I was wandering around the industrial area where I have an abode and came upon a large, mature prickly pear cactus in full bloom. We think we know a thing, and if we keep our eyes open long enough to realize we don’t know as much as we think, then we learn. Indeed, prickly pear cactus are the only cactus native to the Eastern United States…Eastern prickly pear cactus, Opuntia humifosa.

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Any botanical garden worth a nickle handles the standard variety of perennials, roses, and shrubs well, and the Atlanta Botanical Garden is no different. Thus, our visit reportage focuses on those qualities that elevate the Atlanta Botanical Garden. If you’re in Atlanta and manage to survive the interstates, the Atlanta Botanical Garden is nestled downtown, which is a hop, skip, and a jump from the Atlanta High Museum of Art and not too far from the Georgia Aquarium. Compared to the Georgia Botanical Garden and the Chicago Botanic Garden (note: botanic in Chicago, not botanical), the Atlanta Botanical Garden is fairly smallish, but…it packs a punch, and further, the Atlanta Botanical Garden most definitely caters to children. There is a children’s garden, in which all manner of childsplay (splashing in fountains, screaming, running - and that’s the parents) is on display.

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Butterfly Weed, Asclepias tuberosa, is a spectacular and undemanding native plant, and similar to Queen Anne’s Lace, most beautiful along roadsides. Coinciding with the ripening of the blackberries in the mountains, Butterfly Weed is a tremendous plant for those gardeners that value native plants and/or who hope to attract butterflies. Butterfly Weed emerges late in spring, so be patient (and don’t disturb the soil). Butterfly Weed is one of our most drought tolerant plants, thus ideal for xeric gardens. Once established Butterfly Weed can be tough to move, due to the tuberous nature of the root system (ie: Asclepias tuberosa). Hummingbirds will visit Butterfly Weed, presumably while waiting for your Cardinal Flower to come into bloom.

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Welcome guest author Charles Waco Bankston, who writes about Hybrid Tea Rose Chicago Peace: Although my time on this Earth began in 1976, much occurred before and much will occur after—I’m certain of it. The 1960’s were anything but uneventful. As a matter of fact, several important events occurred in 1962. Marilyn Monroe died. Iron City Beer invented the pop top (called zip tops) can; the now infamous and ever-excited Tom Cruise was born, and of course, there was the Cuban Missile Crisis. But even more personally exciting to me was the birth of a rose, not just any rose, but one that has won the world over time and time again—Hybrid Tea rose Chicago Peace. Of the Hybrid Tea rose classification, Chicago Peace has become a favorite rose of many, including yours’ truly.

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Another garden blog to point you to…blog pointing not being my ordinary endeavor, but I calls ‘em like I sees ‘em. Mr. Brown Thumb is a tremendous photographer, on par with the mystically talented Blue Ridge Blogger, of outhouse-lovin’ fame. That’s Mr. Brown’s ladybug at stage right…the only photograph to date to grace Gardenmob that wasn’t taken by the author. If you go to Mr. Brown Thumb’s site, check out his photograph and comments on rose Nearly Wild…comments I cannot take any issue with. A write-up from Gardenmob on Nearly Wild is provided here (with a photograph of Nearly Wild from about ten years ago…highly deficient when compared to Mr. Brown’s efforts with this rose). By the way, Nearly Wild could be considered an alternative to Knockout roses and their cousins the Pink Knockout roses. If one scrolls to May 25, 2007 (or just click the forthcoming link at the end of this sentence) of Mr. Brown Thumb, there is a photograph of an iris that looks like a big beetle about to attack. That Iris is a lovely scary beast, sort of like my Triumph motorcycle.

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