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.

This is one of those plants worth the greenhouse space if you can't grow it outside which we can't.  An evergreen vine from Chile where it is the national flower. Big waxy pendant flowers of typically rose red. These normally flower in late summer and fall. and we were entranced by beautiful specimens in bloom when we visited the west of Scotland in the fall of 2013.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Maidenhair Spleenwort.  I love common names.  I must dig out our 15th century Herbal and read up on how to properly decoct this sweet little fern for afflicting humors of the spleen.  Or I can just grow it in a gritty well-drained shaded rock garden and enjoy its evergreen delicacy.

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.

A most impressive fern and one we've been privileged to see in its native haunts in China.  This makes magnificent large long fronds, coppery when young and when mature, terminating in a single fuzzy small ball or gemma, which will become a new fern.

Himalayan Bush Mint.  Surprisingly hardy species - the gestalt at first glance is gotta be tender - that will be valuable late summer-fall color.  Soft felty leaves on a plant that can hit ten feet tall, you grow this not for the aromatic and pettable foliage but for the tubular orange-red flowers in September-October mainly.  Cut to the ground by hard frost but will regrow and would totally groove on a wall in its colder zones.  Pronounced ko-hoo-nia.

Japanese Tassel Fern.  One of the really excellent evergreen ferns providing a delicately classic lacy fern texture in a well-mannered clumping habit.  New growth is softly fuzzy.  This is a no fuss no muss woodlander which asks for little except a good drink now and then.

We were completely blown away by the plant we saw in full fruit in the exceptional garden at Dancing Oaks and sad to say, we did doth covet our neighbors plant with lust in our hearts.  Leonard and Fred thought it prudent to sell us one.  To 6'-8' with soft yellow flowers and dripping with clusters of salmon fruit.

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.

A rare offering of this impressive species which will merit pride of place in your garden.  This will make a fine rosette of hairy, divided evergreen leaves for the first 2-3 years after which a stout flowering stem will arise decked out with plenty of crepe-paper purplish flowers.  After this exuberance, the plant expires but leaves you with plenty of seed.

Devil's Elder. This is a hardy large evergreen shrub to 15'-20' tree from Chile and Argentina where it grows in shaded situations along streams or bogs. It does well in our shade garden without being a tippler where it has handled nicely brief dips to 10F. The flowers are loose panicles of interesting wee green things which give way to purplish brown fruit.

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.

F2 plants from the original wild collection of this rare species. This is a very handsome thing with superb glossy textured leaves and showy displays of red fruit. Just looking at it, we thought - bummer, can't possibly be hardy but heard from one of the collectors that it handled zero Fahrenheit so woohoo!  We later saw for ourselves the reason why as we climbed on Mt Fansipan, "The Roof of Indochina' and saw this growing near the summit.  A portion of the proceeds goes to support the mission of Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy.

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.

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.

An extremely dwarf Ivy found in 2005 by Dutch nurseryman Cees van Ostaayen who noticed a miniature sport on Hedera helix 'Needle Point'. This one came to our attention in John Massey's private garden at Ashwood Nursery where it called to us from among the abundance of rarities and perfection.  Should this little gem throw a shoot that is unnecessarily more vigorous in an attempt to revert, just nip it off.

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.