We were gifted this from plantsman Ian Barclay of The Desert Northwest Nursery as a potentially cold hardier form from 6000' in Mexico.  We can't attest to that - too much compassion to trial this at our 10F dips some winters.  It is a heckuva container plant rapidly increasing with new rosettes and orange flowers to boot.

One of the class acts of the winter blooming shrub world.  This lemon yellow-flowered selection of the Paper Bush is an affirmation of spring with its late winter flowers on bare stems.  The common name comes from the high quality paper once made from its bark.  Sun to part sun for best bloom.

We have just a handful of young plants of this uncommon cultivar from Japan  Nioi means "scent" in Japanese and while we do appreciate that, it is the larger than usual heads of yellow flowers that we appreciate and is the largest of the clones we grow.

Nifty groundcover introduced from Taiwan by Crug Farm in Wales.  This is a good spreader though easy to keep in bounds and prefers a loose organic rich soil that doesn't get too dry.  Great under shrubs and perennials and forms a feathery dense mat with white starry flowers.  Evergreen unless very cold.

Chilean Fire Tree.   Our classic all-time Desert Island plant where if we were stranded and could only choose one plant etc. we would be sitting beneath an Embothrium munching a Tyler Street Pesto Savory Scone and drinking a Townsend Bay Pinot Gris.  A 4 alarm inferno of flame red flowers.

Snow Poppy. This Chinese Bloodroot relative is a great addition to the large wild garden where its rambling tendencies can be a positive attribute rather than a curse. Neat looking 4" leaves and glistening white 2" flowers for several weeks really light up the shade garden. Deciduous.

Miniature Joint Fir.  Choice species from the bleak areas of the "stans" - Afghan, Uzbek, Kazak, Krygh, Paki and Tajikistan.  This primitive Conifer relative likes it rough - just good drainage and a hot, sunny dry spot are it's simple wants.  This is small enough for a trough planter.

A selection of this California Fuchsia from El Tigre Peak on Santa Cruz Island.  This used to be Zauschneria but is now in Epilobium.  This thrives in poor, dry soil that drains well and will spread to form a patch 4' across with late summer tubular scarlet flowers that are hummingbird crack.  Hardy to at least 15F and likely lower.

A nice silver-foliaged selection of the California Fuchsia.  This loves a well-drained soil in a hot sunny spot where it has lots of tubular bright orange hummingbird magnet flowers in late summer.  Disappears in winter but comes up from the spreading underground rhizomes.  Cut back in spring.

Seed collected by FRBC botanist Dr. Cody Hinchliff in Arizona from a summer rainfall area. Don't panic - this will still be tolerant of dry but will be more amenable to summer water than others. Wider than tall as it spreads by underground stems, the narrowly tubular scarlet flowers are a late summer to fall delight.

This was named for the near black foliage color which occurs with the onset of colder winter temperatures.  Spring and summer foliage is typically green and about 10" tall.  The flowers are held above the leaves in spring and are small stars of yellow with orange veins.  Choice.

Our 2014 introduction  from a cross between Epimedium grandiflorum 'Queen Esta' and E. acuminatum L575 with fine mauve-red flowers and fantastic new foliage vividly splashed in splatters of red.  It is apparent we have watched too much CSI, Criminal Minds, True Blood and the odd, graphic Nature.

Our own hybrid introduction, this is a tasteful presentation of refined restraint.  Small leaves well-speckled and clouded in quiet maroon when young are gently echoed in the sepals of the flowers which back the soft yellow spurs and cup.   A tight grower making mannerly small clumps, this gets 8"-10" tall.

A mouthful we'll grant you, for this Epimedium from Guizhou, China.  Vigorous evergreen species with long leaves in 3's in stems to 18" tall.  This can get to 4' or more wide and will provide a mass of inspired texture.  The mist of up to 150 tiny white and yellow flower motes per stem are curious contrast to the substantial foliage.

Fairy Wings Epimedium or Bishop's Cap.  This is one of the most elegant of the numerous species and cultivars of Epimedium with long blade-like leaflets nicely colored when young and white flowers like drifting parachutes in a Lilliputian fantasy.  Hails from China and a necessary addition to the shade garden.

Second generation seedlings from our collection on the Erlangshan in Sichuan in 2006.  We were thrilled to find this very rare Epimedium - just 5 plants with ripe seed - growing on a shallow layer of moss and humus on a damp rock face.  Yellow flowers from April to frost in our fertile and moist shade garden.

This chance garden seedling is a visual filibuster against tight control and a resounding oration espousing the joys of letting a little Nature have its way. Rich wine colored new growth is eloquent in the language of leaves and the deep rose flowers lit bright white on the interior seem to hold a note of color in the garden that lingers.

Sizable flowers of rich purple are the hallmark of this plant and it more than holds it own against more recent hybrids. All Epimediums can't be painted with the same drought-tolerant brush and this one appreciates more water than the real drought-tolerant species.

Opulently colored new growth which marries perfectly to the large purplish flowers. A deciduous species from Japan and an excellent garden plant that has no faults as far as we can tell.

A very good, not scary, evergreen groundcover.  'Mariko' is a selection from a collection by Mikinori Ogisui, incredible plantsman and plant explorer, who named it for his wife.  Judging by the graceful spidery flowers with showy pink sepals and white spurs and petals plus bronzy new growth, Mariko herself has it all going on.

Despite sounding like sneeze, a great Epimedium with large evergreen foliage beautifully salmon colored in spring.  This pairs incredibly well with the large, long-spurred soft yellow flowers.  This is quite cold tolerant with the foliage holding up quite well into the single digits in winter.

Quite an uncommon evergreen species in cultivation from Shaanxi and Sichuan possessing an impish charm to which few others in the genus can lay claim. A smaller species to 12" with cute rounded leaflets which subtend stems bearing rounded simple spurless flowers which are a soft yellow.  Good drought tolerance on this winsome cutey,

A lucky chance seedling in the late Harold Epstein's garden which distinguishes itself by sporting new growth of deep chocolate purple. This color seems further intensified by the contrast of the large pink-cupped flowers with flaring spurs of pale pink to white. Deciduous species from Japan.

Amazing find by Darrell Probst in China who found this one plant growing under shrubs where it had a 4' flowering stem which he estimated had up to 1500 flowers!  This is unique in the genus in having indeterminate flowering - it just keeps going for months!  Spidery yellow flowers keeps bringing it on sprawling stems.

An Epimedium species of great merit and the Spiny Leaf Form from Darrell Probst puts this into the first rank of the evergreen species.  Gorgeous big leaves richly bronze and captivating when young.  This doesn't need to bloom to make us happy but the soft yellow flowers are welcome.

This is a seedling from one of the best clones of Darrell Probst's Spiny Leaf forms. The mama plant has luscious large bronzed new foliage with nice teeth on the margins and large creamy yellow flowers on low arching stems. The seedlings vary in flower color from light yellow to purplish flowers but all have seriously good foliage. All credit is due to the bees - we are just a conduit.

A Darrell Probst introduction which is superior to the typical x rubrum.  This has dark rose-red flowers held above the foliage as well as below.  The evergreen leaves are larger and more rounded than typical and when young are accented with a thin red rim.  Drought tolerant.

Or Orange Queen in translation from the German.  A tough and showy evergreen Epimedium whose tangerine flowers are among our favorites.  This makes nice dense clumps which are fairly weed suppressive.  Always a good thing.

A vigorous cross between our native stream orchid Epipactis gigantea and the European marsh orchid, E. palustris.  This will make lots of stems to 18" with small flowers whose various parts are colored in orange-red, brownish and yellow and white.  Easy given a rich moist soil and hardy to Z5.

Collected by the late Don Jacobs from an especially robust population at the eastern extension of its range in in the Arbuckle Mountains of Oklahoma. This eastern extension our native Western Stream Orchid will soon form a colony of flowering stems with small orange-yellow-brown flowers. Moist to wet rich soil - it's easy!