One of the best of the Blue Poppies and certainly one of the most reliably perennial.  This large flowers of good medium blue.  This appreciates a partly sunny to bright dappled shaded position with good loose organic soil that drains yet doesn't dry out.  A percentage does die after blooming so save seed to be safe!

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.

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.

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.

A fine evergreen Maidenhair Fern from a naturally occurring hybrid between Adiantum aleuticum and A. jordanii.  These are a different clone than the "original clone" and no less desireable with the same fine and wholesome attributes.  Maidenhairs have always been one of the quintessential ferns in our estimation and this is a choice one.

Fricking taxonomists - we were so happy with Scilla scillioides.  Choice and seldom ofered Chines/Japan/Korean bulb that flowers in late summer with 10"-15" stems of Scilla-like pinkish-lavender flowers without the distraction of its grassy leaves.  Pretty cool and easy naturalizer that we can finally offer.

A perennial (usually anyway) thistle relative from South Africa which makes a multicrowned clump of softly spiny leaves which by themselves merit nothing more than a good hosing of Roundup but the large purplish flowers are the swan emerging from the ugly duckling.

We got this from Maggie at Western Hills some years ago as an Alstroemeria x Bomarea hybrid called 'Fred Meyer'.   Thanks to Martin Grantham at UC Davis, we finally have the correct name.   This is a rare and surprisingly hardy species from Brazil which does great outside for us.  Pink corolla tube with green petals and yellow throat.  Not aggressive.

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!

To find fault with this bit of botanical jewelry would be to put on display character defects so profound that your friends would desert you in droves while making plans for your involuntary institutional incarceration.  Perfect marbled leaves subtend appleblossom pink-white flowers of larger size than typical.  Shade garden pizzazz.

Great little frothy mound of silver foliage that deserves a place in the plant petting zoo.   The yellow button-like flowers dance on wiry stems in late spring and early summer.  Too cute. On the dry side.  Thanks to David Mason and Susie Grimm of Hedgerows Nursery for sharing it with us.

A favorite of ours from South Africa.  We have this growing in front of our greenhouse and the first winter I mulched it and covered with a a tarp.  No damage. 2nd winter just tarped it - no damage.  Last winter I didn't protect at all and no damage at 17F.  Yellow daisy flowers - good drainage.

We've sold this before as the pink form of baileyi but now have the correct name.  These are lovely 4-petaled flowers of a distinctive mauve pink and has proved to be a good perennial form.  While it is in the Poppy family, it hates the sun and dry.  Give this a moist well-drained rich soil in bright shade to morning sun.

A good dark violet- pink version of this widespread Allium from our collection in southern Sichuan.  A very easy plant in the garden getting up to 20" tall and having the added bonus of being edible which might become increasingly critical the longer Trump is in office.

Fantastic little gem from the high mountains of Taiwan collected by our friend Philip MacDougall.  Our mama plant is several years old and is a compact dome just 9" high and maybe 12" across.  Early summer has this adorned in small dense heads of dark pink flowers edged in pale pink to white.

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.

Excellent dwarf grass forming dense tussocks with dark seedheads bobbing on wiry stems.  Choice little plant for the rock garden or trough and suitable for the open garden in that special little niche.

The darkest foliage on any Angelica.  I googled it and got an interesting hit on an escort in London with ebony skin named Angelica.  The plant may actually be darker, costs quite a lot less and I'm sure easier to keep happy.  Biennial so plant the seeds that form after the lovely pink flowers.

Dog Tooth Violet.  Trout Lily.  Avalanche Lily.  The names go on and on but appellation aside all you really need to know is that this is one great bulb for the shade garden.  Perfect companion with Trilliums and Ferns and such a cheery flower.

A jolly plant indeed introduced by Heronswood from Sichuan.  This has evergreen foliage springing from new growth that looks to be a bamboo until it leafs out.  Small creamy white flowers in early summer and blue-black fruit held well into winter.  Cut back old stems in spring.  Feed me.  Water me.

A rare Myrtle fromTierra del Fuego which is quite hardy here and just the sweetest thing with evergreen aromatic leaves and small white flowers in summer which are followed by pink/white pearly edible berries.  A perfect little plant.  Good moist soil in some shade.

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 Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering.  Unidentified species of a seriously good Asian Pittosporum.  This was an attention-grabber being essentially a small 15' tree with large - for a Pittosporum - evergreen leaves.  What really stopped us was the large green seed capsules like small figs.  These split open when mature to reveal showy orange seeds.  Young seed-grown plants.

Our collection of this Chinese mayapple from Yunnan China.  Pink flowers in spring followed by large red roma tomato fruit in Fall.  Rich moist soil.  Great foliage.

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.

Choice selection with ruffled heavily marbled leaves and light pink flowers.  You normally grow Hepatica for the early spring flowers and any foliar enhancement is pure gravy but with Cremar, flowers bow their heads to the majesty of the leaves. Quite a choice plant and does well in light shade with decent drainage.

It is always a real treat to see this come into flower in late spring and early summer with bright white buttons of double flowers held on thin wires of stems above the narrow green foliage.  This comes from the mountains of Europe and may likely be the closely related species pusilla based on its narrow leaves.  Great rock garden plant and zone 5 hardy.

From Hubei comes this smaller form of Saxifraga stolonifera which before taxonomic lumping might have been called S. veitchiana.  Found growing in moss on a shaded cliff face in Abies fargesii forest.  This will spread by strawberry-like stolons and makes a sweet little evergreen groundcover with small airy white flowers.

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.

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.