Juniper Level Botanic Garden

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United States
Raleigh, NC
Juniper Level Botanic Garden

With 8+ acres of public display gardens, JLBG features over 27K taxa of zone 7b cold hardy plants.
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We are open to the public 8 weekends of the year, rain or shine. Established in 1988, Juniper Level Botanic Garden is a research and educational display garden.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniper_Level_Botanic_Gardens

The mission of the garden is promoting and preserving botanical diversity by bridging the gap between botany and horticulture and exploring the science and philosophy of consciousness, awareness, perception, and nonduality.

06/01/2026

A Lust-worthy Alabama Maiden

Twenty years ago (2006), we were botanizing in Southern Alabama, when I spied a particularly unique clump of…...

https://www.juniperlevelbotanicgarden.org/a-lust-worthy-alabama-maiden/

05/31/2026

Hairy Backside Maple

Looking quite stunning is the garden, is the Eastern Chinese (Anhui, Zhejiang provinces) native, Acer pubipalmatum. Our 13 year old specimen is now 15' tall. Related to the more common Japanese maple, Acer palmatum, the main difference is the pubescent (hairy) leaf backs. If that isn't complicated enough, taxonomists then lumped Acer pubipalmatum with Acer pauciflorum. Now, a splinter group within the Maple Society has decided that this wasn't right, and they actually represent two different species....

https://www.juniperlevelbotanicgarden.org/hairy-backside-maple/

05/30/2026

Ample Hydrangea

Flowering this week at JLBG is the little known, woody, vining Hydrangea ampla. Originally discovered in Sichuan, China, it has recently been discovered and collected in Northern Vietnam, often under the name Hydrangea megalocarpa, which is almost certainly the same plant. Our specimen, from an Ozzie Johnson/Scott McMahon collection, has thrived with no damage since 2010. Before the genus Hydrangea was recently reunited, this belonged to the genus, Schizophragma. Hydrangea ampla

https://www.juniperlevelbotanicgarden.org/ample-hydrangea/

05/29/2026

Pine Mountain Shrub Mint

One of the most exciting rock garden plants we've met in the last several years is the Pine Mountain shrub mint. This recently discovered, but still un-named new species, hails from Pine Mountain, Georgia. In lieu of a formal name, we're going with Clinopodium sp. nov. 'Pine Mountain Pink' for the clone we grow. Once this is published, it will most likely be an Endangered species candidate, due to its rarity....

https://www.juniperlevelbotanicgarden.org/pine-mountain-shrub-mint/

05/28/2026

A Seedy Imposter

A few years ago, we purchased seed of Iberis gibralterica, an African perennial candytuft. What we got instead was a lavender flowered form of the annual candytuft, most likely, Iberis umbellata. Imagine, a mail order nursery sending out a mis-identified plant. In our crevice garden, it puts on an early spring, show, before going dormancy by mid-May, so we haven't found the need to spend time eradicating it....

https://www.juniperlevelbotanicgarden.org/a-seedy-imposter/

05/27/2026

Gold is at an all-time high

Cedrus deodara 'Gold Cascade' provides a lovely backdrop to the brighter gold foliage of Tanacetum vulgare 'Isla Gold'...a golden color echo with a contrast in forms. Cedrus deodara 'Gold Cascades', Tanacetum vulgare

https://www.juniperlevelbotanicgarden.org/gold-is-at-an-all-time-high/

05/26/2026

Ravishing Silverband

The clump of Iris ensata 'Silverband' outside our kitchen window has just outdone itself this week. This striped leaf Japanese iris is naturally an aquatic plant, growing in shallow water, but as long as the garden soil isn't drought stricken long term, it makes a suberb, easy-to-grow garden specimen. Although it grows in a tight clump, it's easily divided either in fall or winter. In winter, it dies back to the ground. Hardiness is Zone 5a-9b. Iris ensata

https://www.juniperlevelbotanicgarden.org/ravishing-silverband/

05/25/2026

Wooly Lip

Looking lovely in the dryland garden is the fascinating Wooly Lip Fern, Myriopteris tomentosa. This evergreen North American native, which can be found naturally growing with cactus, has an odd native distribution from Arizona east to Virginia. The foliage emerges a silvery green, that becomes more silver as the new fronds mature. It grows best when placed a the base of a rock....

https://www.juniperlevelbotanicgarden.org/wooly-lip/

05/24/2026

Fergie’s Breeches

On a 2020 trip to the UK, I purchased a plant labeled Acanthus spinosus 'Ferguson's Form' from our friends at Cotswold Garden Flowers. In the six years since, it's turned out to be one of the most stunning clones of bears breech we've ever seen. Below is a garden photo taken this week. We don't know if Ferguson is the former Duchess of York, or not, but the rest of the name needed a bit of nomenclatural clean-up....

https://www.juniperlevelbotanicgarden.org/fergies-breeches/

05/23/2026

Reunited, and it Feels so Good

If you've studied plant migrations, you no doubt realize that many North American species, also have nearly identical Asian counterparts. One such plant is our native sensitive fern, Onoclea sensibilis. In the US, it can be found throughout most of the Eastern US, but we wanted to compare it to its' Asian sibling, Onoclea sensibilis var. interrupta. Below is our garden specimen from a Japanese population....

https://www.juniperlevelbotanicgarden.org/reunited-and-it-feels-so-good/

Address

9241 Sauls Road
Raleigh, NC
27603

Telephone

+19197724794

Website

http://www.jlbg.org/, https://www.plantdelights.com/

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