Cunninghamia lanceolata goes by a few names: blue China fir, China-fir, Chinafir, and the name by which I’ve always known it, Cunningham fir. A timber tree in its native (you guessed it) China, Cunninghamia is an out of vogue evergreen you’ll find planted mostly in the Southern U.S. A shaggy giant grew on the corner [...]

When I was in the first grade, whenever I stood outside waiting to be picked up from school, I watched a rice paper plant at a house across the street grow. At first, in spring, it was barely there, but by summer it was something big. I wasn’t sure I liked it, but it wasn’t [...]

Cardoon! What better a name for a plant, I say? What better name for anything? It’s a word, for me, that conjures up Ye Olden Days of Olde English Gardening, that golden era of gardening when a plant so spiky, so silvery, so deserving of appreciation truly must’ve gotten its due. Well, times have changed, [...]

Pronunciation for this entry provided by Christina Salwitz of Personal Garden Coach. Christina and I are pals on Twitter, and wouldn’t you know our first conversation there was about this plant. Pronunciation // Cast iron plant, as Aspidistra elatior is commonly known, was EVERYWHERE when I was growing up in the South. My mother and [...]