Sweet little groundcover whose double white flowers resemble fluffy bits of white popcorn strewn on the leaves. Perfect underplanting for other shade plants to pop up through and great between stepping stones. Gently spreading and not hard to keep in bounds. Darnn near perfect.

The cream of the the New Zealand woody Asters and a star in the rock garden.  This comes from the alpine areas of the mountains near Marlborough up to 1900 meters.  Flowers are a bit of yellow teminal nothings but the whipcord silvery branchlets are exquisite perfection.  Full sun and drier lean soil will suit this.  Took 3 nights of 0F at Hedgerows Nursery in 2009.

Evergreen or in this case everorange stiff blades which complement the starry white flowers in late spring makes this New Zealander an invaluble addition to the garden.

Beautiful variegated form of this new Zealand Griselinia.  As the species name suggests, this favors coastal conditions and can take the wind.  We saw the typical form growing happily at Robin's Hood Bay in England as we finished the Coast to Coast walk.  Think a much more refined laurel and you are in the ballpark.  Easy to prune, gets to 12', zones 8b-9 or warm 8a.

This is thought to be an intergeneric hybrid between 2 of New Zealand's shrubby daisies.  This gives a fabulous textural addition to the Mediterranean garden like some happy marriage of heather and rosemary.  Small white flowers cluster at the tops of the stems.  Good drainage, tolerant of some dry.

A superb compact and very floriferous plant we got from the sadly late Michael Wickenden at Cally Gardens in Scotland.  This is just about the perfect little container plant with low, dense tuffets of deep green narrow blades of leaves and a profusion of small white flowers on short stems which retain interest long after flowering with their seed heads.

We just love plants that keep us guessing. At first glance, is this one dead? Would we care if it was? It looks freakin' cool. A New Zealand prostrate groundcover with wiry stems that from gravelly/sandy soils from coastal to subalpine areas. Our plant is from John Massey's private garden at Ashwood Nurseries.

Newer hybrid selection of this New Zealand Iris relative.  Evergreen (except for hard winters) olive green foliage provides a grand setting for the numerous stems of small bright white flowers.  This makes a clump pretty quickly and is great texture in the garden.  This is a performer.

These are from seed from the good hardy form at the UW Arboretum.  This makes an impressive multistemmed shrub to 10 or 12 feet fine textured in foliage but what a knockout in bloom.  Loads of heavy textured hanging yellow flowers like Kirengeshoma followed by ornate knobbly long bean pods.

Odd Fuchsia hybrid which we got as cuttings from an old Heronswood employee.  It appears to be a procumbens x excorticata cross with small red leaves on a low mounding plant.  The narrow flowers are a metallic dull purple and while not showy, gets credit for being interesting.

Very rare groundcover species from Southland and Stewart Island, New Zealand where this is restricted to just 4 small coastal populations comprised of just 6 individual plants.  The plants form flattened brown-gray rosettes - and spread by stolons in moist dune hollows.  Our plants have green leaves which may refer to our soils or geography.

Funky evergreen alpine groundcover from New Zealand we call the 'Slug Egg Plant'  but for purposes of marketing with an eye to sales, let's call it 'Strewn Pearls'.  Unheralded but stealing the show with translucent round pale white fruit scattered on it's surface.  Needs a male plant to make it happen.

Ok, this is delightful!  A small evergreen subshrub which has these shiny little leaves on mahogany stems with sprays of lavender-blue with a distinctive magenta ring enclosing a white eye.  This happily flowers from June until frost and shearing off the spent flowers encourages continued bloom. This makes a 10"x24" billow of foliage and flower in sun to part sun.

A mat-forming, creeping bit of amusement from New Zealand where it grows from Auckland south.  This is related to the monster Gunnera of cast concrete leaf fame but is just a tad more manageable.  Great at pond's edge in the shaded woodland and small pipecleaners of reddish flowers are a pleasant surprise.

Poor Knight's Lily. Crazy good plant endemic to 3 islands off of New Zealand's North Island where it grows in rocky outcrops. Evergreen sword leaves to 3' with stunning red bottlebrush flowers that are like nothing else. It is frost-sensitive and can take 15 years to flower but if potbound, you can shave some years off.The wait will be completely worth it.

Silver Spears. Very nice sculptural plant with inimitable form and color. This will get 3' tall or larger if supremely happy and the color is best in bright, light shade or at least not in hot afternoon sun. This is from the Chatham Islands in New Zealand and is hardy here in mild gardens and good against a wall. Below 25F you might think about tossing a sleeping bag over it. A great plant for all you folks sheltered gardens or who like to overwinter containers inside. `

This sweet little New Zealand groundcover is perhaps best known by its former name of Parahebe olsenii.  Soft lavender flowers with a yellow eye rimmed in cerise feathering are held just above the small rounded evergreen leaves that have tones of green olive.  Tidy is a word that comes to mind.

A gem of shrub if you happen to have that very mild garden which we do not.  This New Zealander is known as the Scented Broom as the white to pink-lilac pea-like flowers are very fragrant.  Flattened green stems share the chlorophyll load with the small leaves.  In colder zone 8b gardens, best against a wall.

Scabweed.  Don't you love common names? Reminds me of some of the nicknames my mom had for me growing up. This alpine New Zealander is a very easy and very cool plant for a trough or rock garden. Hard flat white-silver mats with tiny cream dots of flowers in July.