There ain't nuthin' like this.  Early spring yellow stars followed by leathery lobed green leaves in a dense low mound.  It is the early yellow flowers that steal the show in part because they have so little competition and in part because they are so unique.

I have always been attracted to aureolas and this Aureola is one of the finest.  One of the 10 best ornamental grasses and perhaps the best for light shade, this deciduous species from Japan forms a beautiful undulating surf of foliage when planted in drifts.  It is a great plant.

We adore the Halimiums as they have proved to be amply hardy here at Far Reaches, the nearest thing to a Russian Steppe that western Washington offers.  Low growing evergreen shrub clad in grayish foliage and not shy at all yellow flowers with precise carmine pyramids at the base of each petal.  Good drainage.

Caterpillar Grass.  This is a cool evergreen grass (semi-evergreen in our winters) from South Africa.  The low grassy 15" mounds of leaves won't turn your head but the flowers will.  Wiry stems bear seedheads looking like a Caterpillar on a stick.  Seriously.   It's seriously fun.

Small scale evergreen Hebe and one of the hardier ones for the PNW.  This is attractive in flower or out as it has very tidy foliage and a pleasing mounding habit. The flowers are small and white and sometimes with a bit of a mauve tinge but anyone would say white.

This has been a fantastic Hebe in our garden handling our worst winters with aplomb.  A low 20" x30" evergreen shrub with narrow gray-blue leaves and lots of small white flowers for at least 2 months June-August.  Ours looks great planted with Mertensia maritima and it is perfectly ok to steal this planting combination.

This a good form of the species from our collection in Yunnan in 2006 and one that we could be easily persuaded is actually H. yunnanense or H. forrestii as they look pretty similar but the showy red fruitingdisplay is so spicatum.  A fine and hardy garden plant with 30 white flowers per spike with coral highlights.

An exceptional collection by Steve Hootman and Ken Cox of one of the finest Hedychium species for the PNW.  This is an early and consistent bloomer with rich tangerine-orange dense flower spikes in late summer and early fall.  Rich moist soil and mulch if winter is severe.

A distinct Hardy Ginger with leaves and flowers evoking Canna more so than any other in the genus.  Gorgeous foliage and the flowers although few are quite large and a striking reddish orange.  Likes a moist spot in the garden and can take full sun to part shade.  Winter mulch.

A 2011 collection by Floden-Mitchell-Wynn-Jones from 1700 m at Lao Cai, Dragon's Tooth, Vietnam as aff. tengchongense and offered by us as such but upon flowering for Floden, proved to be spicatum which Wynn-Jones disputes.  Plant Fight!  H. spicatum from other areas has proved quite hardy for us,  White and salmon flowers.

This fine form of this hardy Ginger has been oft admired in our garden but until now, we have not made the mental merchandising leap of actually dividing and potting up this plant for sale.  One of the few Hedychium we can reliably flower in our cool summers.  Spidery white flowers with apricot-pink accessories, leaves a good red-purple underneath takes this one to the next level.  Mulch if winter turns uncharitable.

These are robust plants from seed collected by Chris Chadwell in northern India in 2012.  This hardy true ginger relative is good down to zone 7b with enough mulch for short durations to single digits and happy in bright shade to mostly sun.  This species blooms reliably every year with white crane fly flowers highlighted by salmon-pink working parts.

A hardy Ginger relative from our seed collection near eastern Bhutan.  This is a rare offering of this collection.  Narrow petals of white and peach are floral whimsy and always amuse us.  Unscented flowers which compensate by having the showiest seed display in the genus.  Mulch in winter.

Small winter-flowering species collected by Kettle and Wynn-Jones on Mt Fansipan in northern Vietnam. This is nice little ginger given varietal status due to its larger flowers and much larger sagittate anthers. Sagittate anther envy - it happens even in the plant world. Stems to 28" with very nice spidery white lightly scented flowers

An exciting introduction of this evergreen species from Gaolingongshan of NW Yunnan.    Why is this so good? Bright yellow flowers on 5'-6' stems on a 6"-8" floral cone.  Each bract on the floral cone contains 3-5 flowers as opposed to one typically, so each flowering spike can last a good 5 weeks. And a pleasant light scent to boot. It's best kept in a container and overwintered inside.

From the Tian Shan Mts comes this tough little subshrub that is among the finest expressions of silver foliage to be found.  Eversilver aromatic leaves on an 18" rounded plant with yellow button flowers in late summer.  I bet the deer find it repugnant.  Good drainage, some to little water.

Rare and elusive denizen of the New Jersey Pine Barrens which when in flower,  always strikes me as looking more extra-terrestrial than a product of our own earthly evolution.  Bizarre pink cones studded with blue anthers are just a giggle.  Rich moist soil in some shade.

A rare offering of a rare species of this choice little bit of botanical collectable necessity.  Found by Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones in Taipingshan, Taiwan, this is a beautiful representative of one of our favorite obscure genera.  Evergreen rosettes and slowly forming companion rosettes, this has enchanting white flowers on 4"-7" stems.  Moist and shade.

Interesting and showy Japanese species that makes tidy little evergreen clumps.  Our original plant came from the Portland iconic Bovees Nursery.  Unusual lavender-pink flowers held well above the foliage.  Makes nice patches by rooting at leaf tips.  Good moist soil.

Easy there, steady yourself - remember to breathe……..you are reading this right - this is a double flowered Heloniopsis of the dark flowered persuasion. Dense heads of tightly packed double flowers of dark pink-lavender makes this very collectible for those who love rare aberrations and isn't that true of most of us?

Heloniopsis is a genus we would be loathe to garden without and we are always ln acquisition mode for new ones.  This is a Japanese selection which has flowers of a deeper pink-lavender versus the typical lavender-pink - a distinction apparent when grown side by side.  We notice as well in our cool greenhouse, the foliage coloring in red tones in winter.

Collected by the Wynn-Jones of Crug Farm from, as they describe it, "steep sides of the Aso Crater on Kyushu, Japan" We have not yet flowered this but it will be good, we assure you. Their description suggests the tip of the flowering stem or scape is dark purple which then holds lavender-pink flowers with dark ovaries. For moist soil in light shade to part shade.

A Wynn-Jones collection from the Aso area of Honshu in Japan where there is a range of color variation in the species.  We are wild about this genus and it combines beauty, rarity and growability in its appeal.  Evergreen rosettes of flattened broadly lance-shaped leaves with spring whitish flowers accented by purple stamens.  Zone 6.

A very robust selection in one of our favorite genera, this is one we brought in from Japan some while back and at last have some to offer. Wider and longer leaves than other Heloniopsis, making larger evergreen rosettes. Early spring  sees the elongation of the flowering stem to 10" and  a full head of creamy flowers aging to a clear white.

Fantastic collection by arguably the preeminent plant hunter of our times, Bleddyn Wynn-Jones of Crug Farm in Wales.  This is from a 1993 collection in the Odaesan Mts in cold NE Korea and departs from the norm of this little known genus by having blue flowers.  We nearly wept when it flowered.  Moist and shade.

Ok, here is a weird one.  In the family Helwingiaceae there is but one genus, Helwingia which has 3 species.  Helwingia has epiphyllus flowers which means they  bloom from the midrib of the leaves.  This male plant was collected by Hinkley in Sichuan and will be evergreen.  Small light pink flowers.

Surprisingly hardy gesneriad (Gesneriaceae is the same family as african violets) hailing from a broad sweep across SW China where it grows in shaded moist situations. This has glossy almost succulent leaves on stems a foot or so tall with foxglove-like white flowers flecked in red in late September.

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.

This is just a good clean form we have bulked over the years by patient, ever so patient, year after year, division.  Clear white flowers with the subtle pop of red anthers and a marbled leaf to boot.  This all combines in a presentation of exquisite subtlety that propels you back via state-induced memory to past intersections with grace and beauty.

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.