New and Restocked Plants

Pretty fantastic species which garners lots of buzz when in flower at the Bellevue Botanic Garden.  Intriguingly gorgeous scarlet-ornage flowers lack the cup which has morphed into the most regal crown of glorious spurs.  The rocket plume of downward stamens sre punctuated flight.  Can get 5' tall - oooooooohhhh!

Foetid Adders Tongue.  How can you not love a plant with a name like this?  Trillium relative native to the coastal Redwoods of California, this ranks as one of our most favorite plants.  Sure the intricate early spring flowers smell of gym locker wet dog but how cool!  And what foliage!

Exceptional selection of the European Butcher's Broom which is an indispensable evergreen deer-proof shrub for shade.  The ornamental feature on this are the large red berries which sit squarely on the middle of the "leaves".  This is a self-fertile form so it will always bear fruit and it will get to 4' in 10 years.

This is indeed the king.  One of our most coveted plants, this is an especially fine form from our friend Philip MacDougall.  This beauty can reach 12' tall with subtle hooks on the leaf tips to help it hang onto neighboring plants.  The best thing is the ORANGE flowers in abundance in the leaf axils.  Swoon City.

Rare Chinese Solomon's Seal that is on our admittedly long list of favorites.   Nice little increaser making a loose clump of wiry stems with lavender imbued green leaves and I'm secure enough in my masculinity to say absolutely darling flowers.  A little sun to shade in decent soil.

Fantastic little drought tolerant succulent that can eventually flow among stones like the deep waters of blue-green tropical seas.  Cooling to the eye and a foliage color that is a harmonious counterpoint to other garden happenings.  The white flowers on short stems are just right.

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!

This is one sweet Pea.  Native to the Caucasus Mts, this takes a backseat to its more floriferous and showy cousins for it has simple pairs of pink flowers borne with restraint.  Don't be misled - it is the backseat of a Bentley.  Perfection of leaf and flower in exquisite refinement.

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.

One of those captivating Chinese species.  This has a neat stoloniferous habit sending out runners and making new bulbs so you soon have a grove of Lilies.  Flowers white with dark spots with recurved petals in the classic "Turk's Cap" style.  We love it.

These were shared with us by Kelly's mentor and fair to say, hero, Steve Doonan of Grand Ridge Nursery.  A superb selection with petaloid stamens giving this a robust doubled appearance.  Always hard to come by and much sought after, this will in time make a nice carpet of ostentation.

Choice species (as seen in our shade garden) collected by NW Plant Wunderkind Riz Reyes on Mt Emei in Sichuan.  This species is often confused with Corydalis elata in the trade.  This selection is quite vigorous with red highlighted new growth and spires of icy blue flowers.  Moist.

aka Schizostylis.  A nice selection from the legendary Gossler Farms Nursery in Oregon.  Long noted for offering discerning plants, this introduction of theirs offers excellent flowers of a glowing coral-red on sturdy stems.  This bloom like mad in the fall and will spread into a showy clump,

This is from our seed collection on the Chongqing-Guangxi-Guizhou expedition in 2010.  We found this on the summit of the previously unbotanized highest peak in the Wumingshan where it was clambering about on the top of the short scrub.  We were struck by the large seed pods.  Light blue flowers on this vining Monkshood.

Ok - 10 times real fast and win a free plant of our choice!  What a moniker!  And what a Buttercup of Distinction.  Slow clumper with sumptuous big vibrant seriously double rich golden yellow flowers that causes our endocrine system to release something really good.  Rare and choice.

If you have the spot for this plant then there is no reason to not to grow this unless you simply don't do red because this is a smoldering fountain of saturated pigmentation celebrating the red spectrum.  Red foliage and bright red flowers on 3'-4' stems in late summer.  Moist and rich.

Very cool Candelabra type Primrose with whorls of rich black cherry flowers.  Very distinctive and definitely eue-catching.  Loves a moist rich soil where it will gently self sow and frankly boogie until dawn.

Himalayan Maidenhair Fern.  Evergreen to semi-evergreen creeping fern making the the most textural groundcover imaginable.   Salmon pink new growth goes to light olive and finally green leaflets on black wiry stems just 8"-12" high.  Likes a loose moist soil but will tolerate dry when established.

Very rare collectible and delectable Iris from China introduced by Darrell Probst.  This Iris is seldom available and is one of the stars in our shade garden.  This particular clone has slightly larger flowers that are white without any blue shading.  Makes an evergreen fine grassy mound.  Best i light shade or part sun.  Slow growing and totally rules when mature.

Marvelous little Thrift  that is the lazy gardener's cushion plant.  The English alpine gardeners in particular pride themselves in growing these difficult plants that forms cushions or 'buns'.  Well this makes a perfect tight round dome on its own with pink flowers right in the foliage.  Easy.

A super xeric introduction by the Plant Select program which is a joint venture by Denver Botanic Garden and Colorado State University trying to find great plants for the Rocky Mountain states.  This takes serious cold, heat and dry. has long lasting yellow flowers fading orange and is deer proof.

Our introduction from 2012 of this new to cultivation species.  This was found on a scramble up a shaded and damp ravine which would have a small stream during rainstorms.  Fortunately it was sunny.  A tight groundcover with normally green leaves but this sport has frosty flecks in the leaves.  Green flowers.

Scabweed.  Don't you love common names?  Unless of course you are trying to sell them.  This alpine New Zealander is a very easy and very cool plant for a trough or rock garden.  We saw this beautifully grownin the rock garden at the Denver Botanic Gardens.  Hard flat white-silver mats with tiny cream dots of flowers in July.

One of the finest False Solomon Seal's around and rarely obtainable. These are spirit-breakingly slow to grow from seed and the time required to grow plants to flowering size which these should be calls into question our business acumen. However, these are of such perfection when mature with stout 24"-30" stems arching gracefully and each bearing a terminal plume of flashy white flowers.

Sea Kale.  A prized vegetable of olden times, this still would be widely eaten if the leaves didn't bruise easily in transport.  However, that is just a gastronomic aside because the ornamental qualities outweigh its tastiness.  A seashore plant of Europe, this has ruffled blue-green leaves and white flowers.

Fabulous hybrid ornamental Origano (O. rotundifolium x O. scabrum) which is both heat and drought tolerant and a perfect choice for the sunny rock garden or top edge of rockery wall.  This really does need sharp drainage to perform its best.  In the Midwest, it is used as an annual in window boxes.  Light pink flowers all summer long.

One of our most favored small trees is this princeling of a cornel.  Late winter flowers of yellow filamentous buttons followed by perfectly clean white variegation in the leaves and are further accented when the flowers turn into edible reddish fruits in late summer.

This was one of those "Holy shit - lookit that fern!" moments when we first spotted this species growing at the base of soaring pinnacles of vertical peaks in Guizhou, China where it was not intimidated in the least and perfectly in scale.  Massive 4'-6' wide fronds 6'-8' tall in the wild and clumping.  Likely smaller in cultivation but still BIG!  Zone 7b-9.

An easy plant for the rock garden or well-drained front of the border.  This doesn't require much beyond the basics and yet on this meager fare of occasional watering it will bloom most of the summer and well into fall.  To ask for more would be simply bad form.  Mat forming with gray-green lightly hirsute rosettes with umbells of white flowers with small green turning pink eyes.

A name given to this with assuredly the kindest of intentions.  This selection of the former Schizostylis has sumptiously provocative buxom pink flowers which if you like that sort of thing - and we do - will be just the ticket for your garden.  Feed her some nice meals, give her plenty to drink and let her lounge in a warm, sunny spot and she will be happy.