This collection is from what we regard as the southern form of this populous Asian species. What makes this special is that this was from the 10000' summit of this virtually unknown mountain and surely must be the highest elevation that this form grows.  That, plus being one of the toughest days we have had in the field. This makes a good show

Dwarf, slow growing and ever so compact version of this late winter to early spring light pink flowering shrub. Pink flowers on bare twigs hold up well even when frozen at 20F and the sight of these valiant harbingers of spring sends the black dog of winter back to its kennel.  Our 28 year old plant is a 4' twiggy triumph of intentional foliar density especially in fall when it turns reddish-purple.

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.