Agapetes is an epiphytic Blueberry relative which lives in trees and develops a woody bulbous base called a lignotuber.  This is a cross between A. serpens and A. rugosa which has beautiful pendant light pink flowers with darker pink chevrons.  Tender here, easy inside over winter.

Attractive cousin to blueberries growing in the trees of Thailands northern mountains.  Sometimes seen offered as a hybrid clone 'Red Elf', this is typical hosseana which is a small evergreen shrub with dark red flowers that can take light frost.  The fruit is edible and would be nice sprinkled on Thai Beef Salad, Phla Nuea.

Sadly, this flamboyant Blueberry relative is only hardy in Zone 9 but is an easy and dramatic attention-getter in a pot,  We keep ours in the cool greenhouse over winter but will do fine inside or just bring in during hard freezes.  1" red tubular flowers.

This epiphytic Vaccinium relative - indeed some have merged the two genera - is a stunner. Growing on trees in the cloud forests of the Himalaya, this forms woody lignotubers from which arise the branches clad in evergreen leaves which hold the narrow pendant yellow flowers in late winter and spring. This is an especially good form with red calyces. Tolerant of light frost and needs very good drainage.  Our overwintering hummingbirds love this in our greenhouse.

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.

Leadplant.  A native to the upland plains of the Midwest, this leguminous shrub has  excellent textural foliage of small gray-green pea leaflets and quite nice terminal "antlers" of purplish flower spikes.  The flowers are tiny but are clustered in multitudes.  Good drainage, drought tolerant.

Fragrant Dwarf False Indigo.  An excellent plant for the xeric garden although not the best in sandy soils since it hails from good prairie soil in  the midwest from central Canada down to Texas.  Nice small woody shrub with erect small spikes of clustered small tubular flowes of violet blue petals and red stamens - whoa!

A Mexican species growing in the mountains as far south as Oaxaca and found on rocky cliffs or open woodlands from 7000'-12000' elevation.  This will make a low spreading shrub or an upright plant to 6' or so which matches our parent plant.  Pink to red flowers with red-orange fruit.  Super good drainage in low fertility soil in dry conditions.

One of the best of the bigger Manzanitas for the garden, this is tolerant of more "average" garden conditions than many of its kin. This is also one of the more rapid growers plus one of the hardiest. Nice clusters of white flowers on an open-crowned multi-trunked large shrub to 15', with rich reddish-brown bark.

One of the better selections of Aucuba and very rare in the nursery trade (actually can't find anyone offering this via Google). This was brought to the US by the now defunct Asiatica Nursery and shared with us by Lance Reiners. Narrow leaves consistently freckled in gold presents as major pizzazz with unmistakable elegance.  A tough evergreen tolerant of dry shade once established.  Zones 7-9.

Very uncommon Japanese selection that came out of Asiatica Nursery at the end of its run.  This is a pretty stellar foliage plant whose new growth is richly colored in yellow which greens up as the leaves mature.  It is an unexpected and exciting eruption of color when growth commences and the muted colors of winter are in keeping with the season. Tough evergreen tolerant of dry shade but with water, it will grow faster.

Excellent plant for that impossible situation where you need an evergreen shrub for dry shade.  This is a good narrow leafed version of an otherwise broader leafed plant.  Not much bothers Aucuba and this will chug along slowly - faster with water - to 5' to 7'  and simply looks good all the time.

A collection by Hinkley from Emeishan in Sichuan which some have placed in Aucuba chinensis var. chinensis but generally omeiensis is accepted.  Very distinctive with broad pale green leaves on a vigorous tree-like shrub which can hit 20'-30' at which point one can debate whether this is a tree or a shrub.  This is cutting-grown from a male clone and appreciates a shaded setting.  If you have been needing a conversation piece Aucuba............

This is pretty much our default tree whenever anyone asks about a good small tree. This has zero bad habits that we know about it and is a rapid grower with small evergreen leaves and minute yellow flowers that smell heavenly of marzipan or something similarly decadent.

A grand small-scale evergreen tree for our area.  This is what Boxwood dreams about becoming - much as I dream about being tall and thin, the humble Box envys this Azara with its perfect variegated leaves and tiny yellow flowers packing a big fragrance and all on a small tree frame.

This a plant in our shade garden that always attracts the attention of the woody plant collector. Collected in Sikkim by Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones from Cr�g Farm, this could be hardier. It has frozen back considerably but it has always regrown and been a feature each year. Mild winters here it does great and two years of growth can have stems to 4' or even 5'.

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.

FMWJ13290.  Collected at Lao Cai, Phansi Pan, Vietnam 2930 meters.  Quite a new plant to cultivation and early indications are is that it will have quite handsome foliage.  Many plants from this area are proving to have surprising hardiness in the PNW so we have hopes this will be the case with this Berberis.

Fantastic Barberry from extraordinary plantsman Michael Wickenden of Cally Gardens in Scotland.  Elegant in habit and presentation whose narrow leaves and thin stems lend this a poise seldom associated with the genus.  Truly pink flowers with whitish inner parts puts this over the top.  A Far Reaches North America introduction.  Zone 7, likely lower.

A rare grand foliage plant from lower elevation in the eastern Sino-Himalaya.  Allied to Schefflera, this differs in its armor of spiny prickles and whose terminal inflorescense produces black fruit.  We offer this with some trepidation in fear of sparking a feeding frenzy among the Araliaceae collectors who are a particular subset of plant nerds that walk the knife edge of obsession that separates reason from Poe's " A Descent into a Maelstrom".  Before you knee-jerk and click add to cart, take your meds and wait an hour.  Of course this may well be sold out by then..........  A portion of the proceeds goes to support the mission of Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy.

This Beauty Berry is from the extensive Callicarpa collection at Stephen F. Austin Arboretum in Texas which they graciously shared with us.  Softly hairy leaves somewhat dark tinged and the usual flamboyant display of purplish fruit in late summer and fall.  Good heat tolerant species.

Bottlebrush.  Perhaps the hardiest clone enduring single digits with scarcely a whimper.  (It may be whimpering but my own wails of despair drown all else out).  Evergreen picking up russet tones in winter.  Summer fuzzy red flowers on the stems.  Deer Proof/drought tolerant.

From the venerable plant at the UW Arboretum comes this promising bottle brush.  The plant at the UW has weathered every fluke weather event in the last 20 years and emerged unscathed.  Narrowly yet densely upright with pale yellow-white bottle brush flowers and evergreen needley leaves.

Bottlebrush.  This is a selected form of the cold hardy species and differs by having 5" bottlebrushes of PURPLE flowers.  This would thrive against a hot south wall and will tolerate a range of soils as long as they drain well.  Evergreen and so far not munched by deer.

A goody from Ian Barclay, this bottlebrush incorporates the showy attributes of the big, flashy red flowers of the tender species into a big shrub that is pretty darned hardy for a lot of our milder PNW gardens. This handles our short dips to the mid teens and perhaps a little colder with age and careful siting. Give it some room - this gets 10x10' or more. Way cool.

This clone of an already hardy bottlebrush species has been hardier than
the typical offering by a few degrees and personally, our most grievous
losses have been by a few degrees.  This is likely from a higher and
more exposed location in Tasmania as it is also more compact than
typical and has handled one winter where it went into single digits.

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 very hardy Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit Ceanothus.  If you are going to name something the Glory of Versailles then it had better be good!  A deciduous shrub to 6' or 7' high or more and 5' or so wide with soft powder blue panicles of scented flowers mid summer into fall.   C. americanus and the Mexican C. coeruleus are it's parents.

An old French hybrid, this is far less twitchy than some others in the genus and of a size far more suited to the home garden.  Sizable semi-deciduous ovate leaves are held on burgundy stems which terminate in fluffy plumes of pink flowers.  The flowers peak in early summer but continue to appear until early fall.  Tolerates more water than most Ceanothus and is hardier.

Northwest late great plantman Roy Davidson found this growing wild on the shoulders of Mt Fuji in Japan and brought cuttings home.  This Japanese Flowering Quince has deep red flowers which smolder with the same intensity as that long evening of urgent abandon with that Spaniard in Barcelona where anything was fair game again and again and again...........