Merry Bells.  One of our favorite of the eastern woodland wildflowers.  Rich gold pendant flowers dangling like earrings on a woman of some serious substance.  Combines beautifully with upper crust plants such as Cardiocrinums and Arisaemas yet hangs comfortably with Hostas.

A nice find in the woods of North Carolina, this variegated Perfoliate Bellwort is a choice addition to the shade garden.  Creamy, feathered markings adorn the margins of the perfoliate leaves which pair nicely with the creamy white flowers.  Perfoliate means the leaf surrounds the stem so it looks like the stem runs through the leaf.  Slow to increase, we don't have many.

Perfoliate Bellwort.  So named for the perfoliate leaves in which the stem seems to pierce the leaf and bellwort for the pendant pale yellow (in this form) to greenish flowers.  This is a collection from Hamblen County Tennessee shared with us by botanist Aaron Floden.  A delight in the shade garden contrasting well with dark Podophyllums and ferns.

Little creeping woodlander from the East Coast newly placed in the Colchicaceae which alters our world view.  Socially inept biochemists will soon lump all life into a single family derived from a virus, blue-green algae or a bacteria.  Bah!  Delicate creamy bells in spring.  Quite tough.

One of the little gems of the woodland is this scarcely encountered selection which we have planted under our Disporum 'Night Heron' in our shade garden.  A gentle infiltrator wending amongst plants of stouter stature, this carries a joyous light in its white edged leaves and pale bell flowers.

A wunderbar find by plantsman Darrell Probst. This delicate woodlander creeps about sporting a hanging creamy bell-shaped flower in spring. The glory of this selection is the yellow margined foliage putting this way high up on the plant collector's "gotta have" list.