Catalog Introduction

Let The Games Begin!

Despite this being our 38^th year in business, we’ve still been able to come up with over 50 new plants for the summer/fall catalog. It’s not like there’s a shortage of new plants, but we have very high standards for performance that plants must meet during our garden trials before they reach the catalog. JLBG continues to trial over 1,500 new plants each year in our effort to sort out the true winners from the knock offs and poor performers.

2024 marks a significant year in the life of the nursery and gardens at Juniper Level. Our botanical operations have grown beyond the capacity of the nursery to solely and adequately fund all of our work. The 2024 nationwide retail decline has only exacerbated the issue. With this in mind, we created a new garden membership program. JLBG Garden membership provides a critical support system to preserve, nurture, maintain, label, and expand the garden, preserve endangered plants, and help retain our talented, diverse staff.

While garden membership is first and foremost, a way for you to support the garden, it's not without additional benefits. Depending on your membership level, membership entitles you to special member only plants, rare seed from the garden, special member only tours, advance registration opportunities, discounts on in person and on-line programs, and our quarterly members only newsletter. In a few months, we hope to launch our reciprocal garden program for admission to botanic gardens and arboretum across the country.

Now that Tony is past official retirement age and slowing down both mentally and physically, the full funding of the JLBG Preservation Endowment also becomes more acute. If you would like to see both Plant Delights and JLBG preserved for future generations, please consider a tax-deductible contribution to the NC State Endowment to Preserve Juniper Level Botanic Garden and spread the word to your gardening friends. You can find all the particulars at JLBG.org.

The fall catalog includes three amorphophallus, including a new selection from a cross of Amorphophallus albus x konjac. We’re thrilled to have once again replenished our stock of the amazing Titan arum, Amorphophallus titanum. We are thrilled to have made these rarities available for over 30 years, with over 1,100 being distributed worldwide. Amorphophallus konjac ‘Pinto’ is a fascinating dwarf we first introduced two decades ago with only a few plants available. This makes a dynamite garden specimen.

We’ve added eight new surprise lilies for fall, including four selections of Lycoris x rosea. None of these have ever been commercially available before and have proven both exceptional and distinctive in our decade of trials and data collection.

For those with dryland sun or rock gardens, we’ve added several new hardy cacti, most notably in the genus, Notocactus. These include one new hybrid that’s never been introduced before. Garden visitors have marveled for years at our winter hardy Trichocereus ‘Love Child’, so we’re finally able to make that available in small quantities. We also been trialing several new generation hens and chicks, which we feel are dramatic improvements over some of the older selections. We hope you enjoy those we’ve selected, with more on-line.

We’ve included several special new agaves this fall, including the dazzling Agave desmettiana ‘Galactic Traveler’. This also marks the long-awaited return of Agave ovatifolia ‘Killer’, that was only available once, back in 2018. Agave ‘Azul Monterrey’ is a fascinating plant, most likely from a hybrid swarm of century plants in Northern Mexico.

Due to numerous requests, our earlier introduction Hibiscus ‘Red Flyer’ makes a long-awaited return, and if you like large plants, the new Hibiscus ‘Tioga Party’ is beyond amazing.

We continue to offer the most diverse offering of North American natives in the country with fifteen new introductions for fall. We hope you’ll find some gems you can’t live without, and in the midst of great uncertainty in the world, we hope you all continue to find much needed solace in the garden.

-tony and anita