This hybrid Oregano works what it got to da max. This is made to order for heat waves, drought conditions, and hungry bees.  Lean soil with great drainage? Check. Dry summers? Check. Ravening hoards of deer and rabbit? Check. Loads of amethyst-pink flowers from light green bracts in summer.

Fabulous hybrid ornamental Oregano (O. rotundifolium x O. scabrum) which is both heat and drought tolerant and a perfect choice for the sunny rock garden or top edge of rockery wall.  This really does need sharp drainage to perform its best.  In the Midwest, it is used as an annual in window boxes.  Light pink flowers all summer long.

A super hybrid out of the UK from crossing the two related genera, Hypoxis and Rhodohypoxis.  These genera occur in South Africa and are small bulbous members of the Iris family.  While just a few inches tall, these are showy beyond the implied limits of their size and can cover themselves for weeks in large red flowers.  Easy to grow and a fast increaser, this will become a favorite.  Cold climates can be overwintered inside where cool.

Oyster Leaf. The leaves are edible and taste - and feel - exactly like raw oysters. This likes ample nutrition and can be used in containers where the stems will drape down the sides. Perennial and dormant in winter.

White Asphodel.  From Spain to North Africa and over to the Balkans, this has done very well for us in our garden.  Narrow leaves in small clumps with flower stems 2'-3' tall and perhaps with greater maturity, to 4', and which bear showy starry white flowers.  We also enjoy the darker round seed capsules which extends the interest.  This will go summer dormant

Red Birds in a Tree.  Sometimes we like common names and this is one of those time.  New Mexico native where it grows in moist canyons.  Small white-lipped red tubular flowers in clustered congeniality throughout the summer to the delight of the nectar feeders.  Likes to lean on other plants.

These are such good little quasi-bulbous plants from South Africa.  Likes a full sun rock gardens with good drainage.  Nice summer bloomers and good increasers making dense clumps.  Probably deer resistant.

Little bulby plant from the Drakensberg Mts in South Africa.  This is a good rock garden subject in that it likes good drainage in the winter.  When growing, keep it watered reasonably and it will bloom its tail off with loads of small reddish flowers.  Mulch if bitter cold in winter.

Very intriguing perennial with intricate light brown flower buds that appear to be spun glass art depicting the skeletal structure of some microscopic sea creature.  From the center extends the feathered pinkish petals.  While not spectacular compared to a Dahlia, we think it spectacularly interesting but then we are certifiable plant loons.

Presumed hybrid between Rhodohypoxis and Hypoxis from a collection on the Hebron Farm property in South Africa. Great little rock garden plant provided it doesn't get too dry.

Choice little bulb for the rock garden, this increases quickly to make a dense grassy tuffet of leaves with lots of pink flowers in summer.  Likes moisture when it is growing and good drainage in the winter when it is dormant.  You would make some points with it by mulching if quite cold.

Flower power is the smallest of packages, this little but mighty rhizomatous yet bulbous Iris family member from South Africa brings a degree of satisfaction far beyond it's size when its short grassy foliage becomes completely obscured for weeks in late spring by rose red flowers literally cheek to cheek.  Good increaser, hardy in zones 7-8.

A floriferous hybrid with good-sized pink flowers that makes a definite statement en masse - you have to like pink a lot or this is not for you.  Subtly pale stripe on the midrib or keel of the petals is just a sweet bit of sugar frosting on this eye candy.  Quickly makes a dense little clump with lots of late spring-early summer flowers.  Similar and may be the same as 'New Look'.

Originally introduced by Cistus Nursery from a seed collection at 8000' in La Siberica, Mexico. These have been undamaged in brief nighttime drops to 10F and have formed new crowns after flowering so the show will continue. It is mandatory to have a series of parties when these bloom, btw.

Pinecone Thistle.  Pretty cool 6"-12" tall plant from dry pine woods and wastelands in southern Europe and northern Africa.  The spineless gray-green, thistle-like leaves, are felted gray-white underneath and are a perfect accompaniment to the art project flowers.  Tufts of filamentous purplish flowers erupt from hefty cones of overlapping, feathered brown scales.

We've seen this wee gem in both Bhutan and Sichuan at high elevations at 12000' where it mingles in alpine meadows.  Open-faced lavender pink flowers at ground level followed closely by foliage just a few inches high.  Easy in the garden.  Who would suspect it's a Solomon's Seal?

Grassy little clumping rhizomatous bulb from South Africa which is easily grown here provided it has good drainage and moisture while in growth and a bit of mulch in winter. Dawn is a broad-petaled fairly large flowered selection in which the white flowers are just touched with pink.

A favorite from the Himalaya, this thistle mimic is pretty outrageous in the garden. Robust clumps of gently spiny leaves and taller stems bejeweled in rank upon rank of long-tubed, white flowers which turn pink when pollinated. Nice to see we aren't the only ones who get a sexual flush during pollination.

Very good selection that does it up right with well-displayed apricot-yellow flowers.  The flowers arise from calyces that are more deeply colored and the individual tepals or petals have rounded tips giving it a pleasantly full appearance.  If you haven't discovered Columbus yet, this might be just the right time.

Got lots of sun and sandy or well-drained soil with average to low fertility in a dryish garden beset by rabbits and deer but still want lots of flowers for the bees and other pollinators? Look no further as this will nicely fill the bill. Mature plant has hundreds of pink papery bracted flowers in midsummer on drooping stems. Best displayed in a raised bed.

Seed collected at 3200 meters in Sichuan in an open grazed small meadow area adjoining low scrub. Tightly clumping, deciduous and allied to Iris japonica but is something totally new. Small blue flowers are laddered down the stems in the leaf axils.  This has baffled some of the top authorities on Chinese Iris both here in the US and in the UK

This is one sweet Pea.  Native to the Caucasus Mts, this takes a backseat to its more floriferous and showy cousins for it has simple pairs of pink flowers borne with restraint.  Don't be misled - it is the backseat of a Bentley.  Perfection of leaf and flower in exquisite refinement.

Small but rapidly clumping bulb from South Africa with dense grassy leaves and small white flowers produced with some say reckless abandon during summer.

Dwarf Scandanavian selection of Chives which is way more ornamental than usefully edible.  Lots of pinkish lavender flowers on a very compact plant.  Quite useful in the rock garden or detailed planting site such as edge of a stepping stone or against a rock.

This collection is from nearly 6000' in San Miguel Co., New Mexico and hardy down to Zone 5.  This yucca relative makes dense clumps of thin grassy leaves to 3' tall and holds the dense plumes of creamy flowers nestled in the uppermost leaves.  The brown seed heads evoke fat cigars.

We collected this in 1997 on the Tibetan Plateau near Zhongdian in an area of Tibetan open range. The early October withered, deciduous leaves and dried seed pods shrieked Iris!  Eventual flowers confirmed the species, first described in 1995.  Thin leaves and basal gorgeous flowers. Young plants.

This has good, white megaphone-shaped flowers which are liberally, if subtly, spritzed with pale blue spots.  Makes a dense small mat of green needle leaves which dies back in winter.  Moist, acidic and sunny.

Chunky seed-grown plants from the fair and white-flowered 'Guinevere'.  We presume that some at least will resemble the desirable parent (Guinevere 2.0?) while the rest will explore floral realms yet unknown.  A 1 in 36 roll of the Fairy Wandflower dice that could come up boxcars, or at worst, a solid garden performer.

We originally received seed of this back in the 90's from a Chris Chadwell collection in Nepal.  An exceptional foliage plant with long silken silvery leaves and tall loosely arrayed yellow flowers in early summer.  This is one of our favorite herbaceous Potentillas which Chris just ID'd for us this summer of 2013.

We love the Asiatic Gentians and want them all as they are easy, hardy and put on such a show in late summer/early fall.  We were thrilled toget this one from our friend Urs of Edelweiss Nursery who brought this in from a German gentian specialist.  Not your typical blue, this has white flowers with pale yellowish stripes.  Moist and sun.