This is indeed the king. This beauty can reach 12' tall with subtle hooks on the leaf tips to help it hang onto neighboring plants.  The best thing is the ORANGE flowers in abundance in the leaf axils.  Swoon City.

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?

A superb smaller evergreen Solomon Seal from China which we have grown for many years and have come to regard as an indispensable part of the collection - one of the first plants we would grab when the greenhouse catches on fire, perish the thought!  Milder gardens, glossy leaves, clustered white flowers and bright ted fruit.  Often an epiphyte.

Staggeringly impressive recent introduction of this Solomon Seal species from - wait for it -  Vietnam. Large red flowers snug the whorled leaves on stems which reached 15' tall this year in the garden, and which remain green for us until temps drop below 20F.

A collection of this rare and usually epiphytic evergreen Solomon Seal from Vietnam by Aaron Floden.   A small species less than a foot tall with small rounded white bells under the arching stem as the new shoot elongates and matures. These are flowering size and hardiness is unknown but would think zone 8 for sure especially with mulch during frigid spells.

A rarely encountered species from China as you might have guessed from its specific epithet.  This is from a wild collection by a plant hunting friend of ours and has proven to be a very good grower.  A smaller plant with stems to a foot or less tall with rounded leaves and green-tipped white flowers.  This increases fairly quickly becoming a worthy collectible addition in the garden.

Choice selection from Japan that is necessary.  This small species gets to just 12" tall and has superb soft yellow variegated foliage in spring and early summer which matures to a light green.  If it kept the preponderance of yellow then this would be a skinny and underfed selection but the summer chlorophyll kicks in just in time to give this vigor.

Rare in cultivation, this NW Indian Solomon's Seal is mainly an epiphytic species growing in mossy trees and rocks.  The speckled pale pink flowers hang as small bells as the new growth elongates.  Very charming.  This is an evergreen species in mild areas.   Good drainage.

Solomon's Seal.  Mighty fine selection and surely one of the very best variegated perennials for shade.  Good clean white variegation that illuminates where it is planted.  Stunning enough to stand alone with a simple groundcover at its feet or schmoozes easily  with other garden glitteratti.

Second generation plants from our collection of this Solomon's Seal from the Cangshan in Yunnan. This has narrow leaflets arrayed in tiers with small bell-shaped pale white flowers overlaid in a dusky wash and which are clustered near the leaf bases which later become red-orange fruit bunched like small grapes. Surprisingly sun tolerant given enough water. In our lath house shade garden which is fairly bright, this has become quite impressive in the last few years making a bamboo-like clump of herbaceous stems to 7'-8' which makes us very happy.

Double Flowered Solomon's Seal.  Hard to come by and desireable double form of this excellent garden plant.  The extra petals looks like a little green rose when lift one of the dangling white bells and peer inside.  It is one of those little surprises that makes the garden so fun.

Very rare Solomon's Seal from NW India which has proven to be evergreen at least in our cool greenhouse.  We've not tested it outside but suspect it will be evergreen in mild winters at least.  Creamy bells with darker mottling hang beneath the glossy leaves.  Loose moist organic soil.

Rare Solomon's Seal previously offered as P. geminiflorum from Washfield Nursery.  It's found in northern India and Sikkim and has long been one of our favorites with an inherent elegance that for us is distilled down to the very essence of style in the small maroon coloring in the leaf axil.

Dwarf Solomon's Seal to just 6" but spreading with very nice lavender-pink flowers which go well with the gray-green whorled leaves.  This rare Yunnan Diana Reeck collection differs from the Nepal form which is typically cultivated.    Floden thinks this is closer to pumilum, Wynn-Jones says it's graminifolium.

Rare Chinese Solomon's Seal that is on our admittedly long list of favorites.   Nice little increaser making a loose clump of wiry stems with lavender imbued green leaves and I'm secure enough in my masculinity to say absolutely darling flowers.  A little sun to shade in decent soil.

Adorable dwarf Chinese Solomon's Seal .  This has lovely light purple flowers which often causes the Polygonatumphiles to swoon which then positions them on the ground and they awaken to smell the delightful vanilla fragrance which induces further swooning.  So buyer beware!

From wild-collected seed in the Russian Far East, this is a lovely form of a widespread species with fairly compact habit and attractive leaves.  Very good bloomer with lots of white flowers held beneath the leaves and followed by a good display of blue-black round fruit.  Hardy.

Really good selection by Tony Avent from a collection on Korea's Jeju Island.  This has closely set somewhat rounded leaves on stems that are slightly twisted giving the effect of a spiral staircase.  The degree that this is apparent is directly correlated to how misspent and experimental your youth was.  White flowers.  Rock hardy.

A Tony Avent collection from Korea's Jeju (Cheju) island of this Solomon Seal species.  Large green-tipped white bells walk down the aisle underneath the 2' arching stems.   Polygonatums are an integral part of the mix in the shade garden.

This is a fun species with green bracts napping the greenish-white flowers and these bracts are quite prominent in this selection by Tony Avent from his 2008 collection in Korea.  A shorter species getting a foot or so tall and spreading but not scarily so.

A fine Chinese species which we have seen on several plant hunting trips to China from Guizhou Province to Hubei.  So often we have seen the 24"-30" arching out provocatively from a slope alongside the trail with the yellow fall leaves scarcely sheltering the clusters of black fruit held beneath. Has green-tipped white flowers in the spring.

Familiar arching stems to 3' with narrow white bells tipped in green hanging underneath.  These flowers are scented with lemon and is most noticeable as you stroll the garden with your morning coffee.

AKA 'Silver Stripe', 'Silver Lining'.  This Japanese selection is totally Japanese.  Presented in exquisite understatement are the elements of design, function and harmony plus all of those other mysterious criteria which our video-deadened occidental minds cannot begin to grasp but can still appreciate the inclusion.  Silver stripes on the leaves.

Our collection of this interesting Solomon's Seal from the Cangshan in Yunnan way back in 1997 when we were with Kunming Botanic Garden. This has bamboo-like new growth which is quite striking and tiers of verticillate lanceolate leaves on stems to 6' gives great texture. The leaf axils are crowded with small pale flowers followed by orange-red fruit in the Fall. Tolerant of our cool full sun and part sun is ideal.

A collection from northern Vietnam of this evergreen epiphytic species which is hardier than supposed as the similar subspecies tonkinensis has been fine in our garden.  Chubby white bells cluster like piglets in the leaf axils and are followed by reddish fruit.  Very, very rare and adds a bit of cocky plantsmanship to the garden.

Rare selection of this Japanese woodlander of delicate stature notable for its smoky cast to the foliage particularly in the early part of the season. Named for Mt Hakkoda in Aomori Prefecture (best skiing in Japan) where we presume this was found. This is a little shorty with small pale bells and will clump up nicely.

A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering.  One of the tall verticillate species in China, this was growing among the branches of a striking shrubby Symplocos just below the mountain summit.  The leaves on this species are arranged in whorls like the spokes of a tire.  At the leaf base are clustered white and green flowers which turn into red fruit.  We like it.

A simply stunning sport found in a patch of Polygonatum odoratum 'Variegatum' by plantsman and all-around good guy Roy Herold.  Wide margins of cream and white on the green leaves bring some serious chutzpah to the shade garden and carry the show on long after the white flowers in late spring are but a memory.

Tall form of Polygonatum prattii from our collection in Asia. This has pink tinged stems especially when young and nice small rounded leaves with pettily delicate yet tubby pink urn-shaped flowers. We like all the prattii quite a lot and the sweet vanilla scented flowers contribute to the allure.

Impish little species to a foot or so which looked unremarkable in the wild but blossomed - literally and figuratively - in the easy livin' at the nursery.  Clusters of small white bells heavily marked in magenta dangle from long pedicels at the base of each leaf which is likewise fetchingly daubed in a small spot of bright maroon. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering.