Tough as all get out circumpolar herbaceous species of the subarctic which is found in Alaska and the Yukon and skips along the mountain tops as far south as Wyoming. This is a tap-rooted species and will not run but settles for making a nice low clump of soft as a mouse-ear silver haired leaves which are great with the sizable yellow flowers. Our plants are descended from our dear departed friend Steve Doonan of Grande Ridge Nursery.

One of our most favored small trees is this princeling of a cornel.  Late winter flowers of yellow filamentous buttons followed by perfectly clean white variegation in the leaves and are further accented when the flowers turn into edible reddish fruits in late summer.

One of the most distinctly "What is that plant?" deciduous shrubs around is this tough little mutant redstem dogwood.  Intensely columnar and slow with curled leaves held close to the vertical stems. These turn a most satisfying purple in the fall.  As far as flowers go, forget about it.  Slow growing, our 6 footer in the garden is pushing 40 years of age.

Lily of the Valley.  A good selection of this stalwart species with a yellow margin to the leaves and said leaves are larger than average as well.  Typical scented white flowers.  There are numerous spellings of the cultivar name but since this is an American introduction, we can only assume this is correct.  Sad.

Choice and uncommon Japanese native making a many stemmed plant with lots of white bottle-brush flowers in spring. The glossy green and nicely textured leaves are pleasant the rest of the season.

Interesting genus in the Bellflower or Campanula family and we try to grow as many different ones as possible.  Just how long can we last growing unprofitable plants is a question we ponder.  This is one of the better ones for the garden making perennial carrot roots and annual vines to 4' with tubby cream flowers with purple corolla lips.  Z5 at least.

This used to be var. kolenatiana from the Caucasus but this widely distributed circumarboreal species has had the species equivalent of a taxonomic black hole occur with numerous varieties, subspecies and genera all ascribed to this one species being sucked into the vast maw of botany never to be seen again.

This purple-flowered groundcover Skullcap is from our friends at Free Spirit Nursery in British Columbia where they only grow hardy plants - zone 5 or lower. We've come to regard them as brilliant. Low growing to 8" tall and spreading by rhizomes. Looked great in the Free Spirit garden.