Milan Havlis - gardening

This evergreen pearl among flowering trees is one of the hardiest southern magnolias ever selected. It was named after a lady from New Jersey, USA, who grew magnolias in her garden. One bad winter nearly all of them died. Only this one survived -30°C. So she decided to make cuttings and later on had ...

How strange to combine ‘grandi’ and ‘little’ in one name. Well, in case of this gorgeousness we do not care a bit. This selection is a special variety with reduced size of everything: overall size, leaves and flowers. On the other hand there is much more of everything. The gl ...

Maryland is a unique variety of bull bay magnolia. It has large, about 25 cm wide creamy white flowers with a lovely perfume which spreads wide mainly in the evening. They come out from early until mid-summer. Flower buds are large, at the ends of new shoots. Maryland is extr ...

This cultivar of evergreen magnolia was born in a Canadian province British Columbia in 1930. Since then it has shown extreme frost tolerance and many Czech enthusiasts rate this variety the most reliable as regards the leaves which are seldom burnt by frost. Its name is Victoria

Goliath is bushier than the species. As you can tell by its name, something is going to be extraordinary here. True: the flowers are extremely large, often 30 cm wide, strongly fragrant and appear on the plant continuously from June, throughout the summer, until the last warm and sunny ...

This variety received its name after a French governor in Canada in 18 century, and has been in cultivation in France for more than 150 years. It is very popular in Britain, too, where it is considered fully hardy. And Italy, namely Tuscany, would most definitely lose its most spectacular symbol wit ...

An old-fashioned plant that is so easy to grow can turn into a jewel in your garden if you give it what it needs. We are used to seeing it in country gardens where it does not look its best, often put in the silliest corner, just waiting for the autumn to be sheared like sheep for the attractive eve ...

Leatherleaf mahonia is an attractive, architectural shrub. It has distinctive and coarse, bold foliage. The evergreen leaves are pinnate, mid green to almost blue-green and only partly glossy. They have sharp spines along the margins. This mahonia is hardier for zone 6 as opposed to hybrid ho ...

First time introduced in 1954, this grape holly has been commercially spread at the turn of the century. Its dramatic foliage makes it as successful in continental climates as palm trees in the coastal areas. The leaves are holly-like but gigantic, arranged in spectacular rosettes. These are very co ...

Another selection of grape holly comes from Irish nursery Slieve Donard. Its name “Winter Sun” is perfect as it really starts flowering well before Christmas if the beginning of winter is mild without substantial frosts. If the frosts come early the buds (unless damaged by extremely hars ...