Frosted Jade Ajuga.  Hard to believe that this is an Ajuga but it is true.  This choice selection has fantastic foliage and very good dark cobalt flowers.  Not a spreader - this makes a clump with 16" tall stems.  Challenges all of your comfy notions about Ajuga but in a good way.  Great in our shade garden.

Oyster Leaf.  The leaves are edible and taste - and feel - exactly like raw oysters.  If raw oysters are your thing, this is an OMG veg alternative.  The now closed El Bulli in Catalonia, regarded as one of the greatest restaurants ever, ran with Oyster Leaf innovative ways.  Loved to have tried the leaves striped in golden caviar and splashed with Grey Goose.

Superb little performer from China that is like some sort of impish Thalictrum with short stems to 6" and open umbels of blue and white flowers.  The main show is in late spring but the flowers keep coming all summer.  Just a sweet bit of conversational perfection along the edge of a path.

These hardy orchids seed around the nursery which is a very good thing as we have never got one to come up from seed we have intentionally planted. This will be pink to purple but sometimes a white one sneaks in. This is basically a bulb that goes summer dormant but appreciates ample moisture when growing.  Likely some species like fuchsii may also be an option here in this Lucky Dip.

Did we mean to infer that this is a PINK Gillenia????  Why yes, we did.  And it is.  Pink, definitely pink.  An exciting offering of a dandy variant on a choice eastern native.  Pink Bowman's Root will get 24"-30" tall with multiple stems sporting an airy array of pink flowers.  Great fall color as well.

Originally introduced by Cistus Nursery from a seed collection at 8000' in La Siberica, Mexico, this very desirable plant has become hard to find of late but our two plants finally flowered with impressive spikes that was one male and one predominately female so we had seed! 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.

These are seed-grown from the impressive yellow hybrid Meadow Rue, Tukker Princess. These will gain some height reaching 6'-8' in flower with a nice display of bee-lovin' scented yellow flowers. These will vary somewhat but all squarely in the very nice range.  For all  who've been to the nursery trying to pick up this from the tables only to find it was poking through from the ground beneath, this is what you wanted.

Rare plant found only in limited areas in central Honshu, Japan where it likes the forest fringes in the subalpine areas and is known as hiiragi-sou or holly tree-leafed weed.  Hiiragi-sou sounds better than the translation.  This selection has dark blue flowers and is a deciduous clumper to 16" tall - very nice!

A proven species for the garden, this Primula from China is in the Cortusoides section of the genus as evidenced by the broad, soft hairy leaves reminiscent of Primula kisoana but without the groundcover proclivities.  A good display of pink to rose-pink flowers on 12"-16" stems in late spring with sumptuous leaves in attendance if given light shade and a moist, organic-rich soil.

We presume this is simply a good form of Dactylorhiza maculata as the leaves are broader and the purple-pink flowers held in fatter heads than many of the forms we see around.  A good plant and one we have slowly increased by division and now have a scant few to offer.  Leaves are nicely spotted.

Great foliage on this Wild Ginger from China which keys most closely to the species caudigerellum. A mist of white spray droplets on the leaves is especially vivid on the young foliage making this very desirable.  Small tan to soft red flowers are a welcome addition. We have seen nice clumps of presumably this species in Vietnam looking fabulous on the forest floor among the bright buff trunks of Camellia trees.

These are seed-grown from our plant of 'Hakure' which is often seen as 'Hakuree'.  The parent plant was bred and selected by Hiroshi Hayakama in Japan in the early 90's who chose this for its floriferous display of white flowers just touched with fleeting lavender and sporting twisted tepals.  Our seed-grown progeny will vary from deep purple to white but all will be good. 18"-30" tall.

We love seeing this False Hellebore when we are hiking up to Marmot Pass or Mt Townsend in the Olympics.  Always growing in dappled light or partly sunny spts where there is ample moisture, the big wide pleated leaves are perfect with the drooping plume-like green flowers.  Deer proof.

Moon Carrot.  Freakishly good plant with gray-blue leaves with an impressive mid to late summer branched inflorescence sporting compound umbels touched in pink then maturing white.  Plant nerdishness meets high-end design with this one.  This is biennial but reseeds so do not fear.  Good drainage.

Whipple's Penstemon.  Broadly distributed on both sides of the Rockies down the US, this should be more widely available.  Most commonly with clustered down-turned trumpets of a rich burgundy to purple, different population can also be white or lavender.  Very pleasing in all of its forms, this is a good garden plant taking more moisture than a lot of the rock garden Penstemons.

Rock Soapwort.  This is a lovely and tough rock garden or crevice plant from the Pyrenees where it grows in exposed sheer rock faces.  Dense cushions of close-packed rosettes with narrow short green leaves.  Pink-purple flowers are held on short 2" stems in groups of one to three.  One becomes a group when hanging with the Threes.  Full sun, good drainage, zones 3-8.

Mertens' Saxifrage.  From California up to Alaska, this little Western native favors moist areas in the subalpine and alpine areas. Rounded and toothed leaves with flower stems from 6"-15" that have short branches bearing small starry white flowers.  Sometimes these flowers can be replaced by aerial stem bulbils which makes propagating a snap as witnessed by these from botanist Alex Wright's collection.

Dainty yet durable species collected by Sue on Mt Saramati which straddles the border of Myanmar and Nagaland.  The only lily capsule found on the trip and it proved to be a distinct variant likely to merit subspecific status. Small white flowers.  Sue is now a footnote in botanical history.

A collection by our friend Steve Hootman, the Indiana Jones of plant hunting, of this quite beautiful Asian species from a fairly cold area so this should have good hardiness. Attractive foliage on 10"-15" stems with showy white parasols of flowers in mid spring which brings light to the dark of the shade garden. Gently spreading to just the right extent and rare in cultivation.

Our collection from a plant with particularly good red-purple new growth where it was growing in rich soil moist soil in open woodland with a few plants of the rare Primula ovalifolia as neighbors.  This is groundcover with strawberry-like stolons terminating in a plantlet which will root where it touches.  Lovely thing with pale flowers above the bold foliage in early spring. The species handles the east coast as well growing in the Dronenburg-Weil garden in Maryland.

Three year old bulbs of this grand show-stealer.  From near the eastern edge of this species described range, this was growing above a stream in the bright dappled light that filtered through the leaves of a panoply of deciduous and broadleaf evergreen trees and large shrubs.  This collection has very rounded leaves.  A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering  

A good dark violet- pink version of this widespread Allium from our collection in southern Sichuan.  A very easy plant in the garden getting up to 20" tall and having the added bonus of being edible which might become increasingly critical the longer Trump is in office.

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.

This evergreen Solomon Seal lookalike represents a rare introduction from Taiwan by our friends at Crug Farm.  Originally described as the new species, taiwanensis in 1989, this was sunk into the Chinese species pernyi by Govaerts in 2000.  We could live with that if it was pernyi var. taiwanensis to indicate its unique geographical provenance.  Pretty cool either way.

A jolly plant indeed introduced by Heronswood from Sichuan.  This has evergreen foliage springing from new growth that looks to be a bamboo until it leafs out.  Small creamy white flowers in early summer and blue-black fruit held well into winter.  Cut back old stems in spring.  Feed me.  Water me.

As perennials go, this Mexican Pea Tribe member is staggeringly impressive.  From a woody base, there appears in spring stout stems reaching 8 feet..  On a mature plant, these stems are numerous and it becomes a dominant seasonal shrub. Pinnate leaves with 4 leaflets, large discoidal purple- veined stipules and big yellow flowers in fall.

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.

This is the form most often available here in the Northwest and which may well be a hybrid with Vancouveria planipetala.  The flowers are much paler and a smidge smaller than typical Vancouveria chrysantha from our observations.  Regardless, a first rate evergreen ground cover which is drought tolerant.

Grass Trigger Plant. Gorgeous and fascinating perennial found in Tasmania and Australia.  Tidy perfection of evergreen grassy foliage speaks to a refined distillation of Aloe and Agave and the unexpected flamboyant spike of multitudinous pink flowers is over the top. There are sticky hairs under the flowers which can trap gnats and absorb those tasty insect nutrients. The pollination mechanism is fiendish.

So notoriously promiscuous as to make a rabbit blush, these evergreen bulbous Iris family members are all about the summer of love. Embracing any bee that taps on its window bringing pollen from any nearby floozy flower, this exhibits a Bacchanalian moral turpitude that is either damned or extolled.  These are young seed-grown plants from one of our darkest Dierama so at worst, this will still be pretty good.