New and Restocked Plants

A Steve Hootman collection from China of this quite unique creeping Honeysuckle.  This is a Kinnikinnik or Arctostaphylos uva-ursi alternative making a mat of small rounded green leaves turning rich purple/red/bronze tones in winter.  Small light yellow Honeysuckle flowers are sprinkled throughout.  Very cool.

Fabulous wine-colored (red - not white) vining Monkshood that cannot fail to please with late summer into fall flowers.  Perfect for sun to light shade, this will make annual growth of 10'-15' if it has something to twine onto.  Best part, it's poisonous - take that, deer!

More art than flower and more flower than one's soul can bear.  Almost anyway, as each spring we gasp back to awareness from the horticultural fugue state that these flowers send us to and while we don't know where we've been or what we've done, we do know that it was amazing.  Narrow black-red petals evoke a dark and sinuous eroticism that tests your limits.

These Japanese versions of the European nobilis are ones we have grown from seed and have been hoarding for a few years but since there is no room left in the Hepatica house, we must send a few of our kids out into the world.  Each plant is different from pale blue to purple and we get to pick.

These Japanese versions of the European nobilis are ones we have grown from seed and have been hoarding for a few years but since there is no room left in the Hepatica house, we must send a few of our kids out into the world. Each plant is different from pale pink to pink and we get to pick.

These Japanese versions of the European nobilis are ones we have grown from seed and have been hoarding for a few years but since there is no room left in the Hepatica house, we must send a few of our kids out into the world. Each plant is different from white to pale pink and we get to pick.

Excellent Chinese species which has grown and multiplied in our garden for 15 years.  Broad trifoliate leaves with flowers sporting a swollen yellow spadix held below the foliage. Once pollinated, the stem bearing the fruiting head elongates until the red fruit is held well above the leaves.  In Sichuan, we saw this flowering amidst carpets of Corydalis flexuosa in bloom - no wonder their spadices were dilated!

Bumald Bladdernut.  The species is named for 17th century Italian botanist Ovidio Montalbano who used the pen name Johannus Bumaldus when publishing.  Curious bit of phytoesoterica.  A smaller deciduous shrub with trifoliate leaves and panicles of white fragrant flowers followed by small bladders holding two shiny nut-like seeds which would make lovely beads.  A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy offering.

A southeastern native in one of our favorite families, the Diapensiaceae, this has unapologetic beautiful evergreen foliage and wands of white flowers which evoke our native Vanilla Leaf, Achlys triphylla. This form, we assume from Watnong Nursery in Morris Plains, NJ, is notable for very good vigor and garden adaptability. Spreads not fast enough by runners and appreciates looser forest-type soil.

A rare species from northern Myanmar and adjacent Yunnan, this is even a rarer opportunity to purchase bulbs from seed collected in the wild by Bjornar Olsen. Nomocharis in cultivation live in the Summer of Love and welcome without reservation any pollen from any other Nomocharis nearby resulting in hybridity.

Midwestern native Hepatica whose name has been changed to Anemone acutiloba or some prefer Anemone nobilis var. acuta.  We cling to Hepatica, kicking and screaming.  This has leaves with sharply pointed lopes and white flowers well-displayed on erect stems above the leaves. Good plant for the woodland garden where it plays well with the early Trilliums, Cardamines and various early spring ephemera.

Unbelievable that this incredible lily grows wild in the woodlands of Japan.  Obvious to see who the parent of the oriental lily hybrids is - Lilium auratum!  Huge white flowers the size of a  plate of Fugu with shades of yellowish banding and dark speckling coupled with a heady fragrance.

This unusual Galanthus elwesii is a poculiform type named for British Columbia gardener.   Poculiform comes from the Latin poculus which means "little cup" and in these types, the inner segments have disappeared but reinvented themselves as an extra set of outer petals.  "Don Armstrong" is an excellent selection with large and equal white petals that is simply serenely elegant.

A distinctive hybrid named for the late gardener and galanthophile, Primrose Warburg, this was found in her garden South Hayes after her passing.  This stands out with a yellow ovary above the petals which is further enhanced by yellow markings on the inner segments.  We were just admiring a pot of this brought into the office when Cindy, our staff galanthophile exclaimed "Wow! This has a nice scent!"

Our collection of this good foliage species with pink pipe cleaner flowers which closely resembles B. tricuspis and damned if we can distinguish between the two but a better botanist than we keyed this to spicata. This was growing in a shaded nook at the base of a mossy cliff with Actaea purpurea and across the track, Acer griseum.  Fun shade species which should be deer resistant.

This vigorous and large flowered selection came to us from snowdrop collector Carole Jennings who generously shared her collection with us. Love plant folks like her!  This is one of the largest of snowdrops - very aptly named - and very early to flower.  This was found by Lady Elwes in her Colesbourne garden who later personally gave Carole Jennings her bulb from whence these have sprung.

A fine and vigorous form of Galanthus plicatus with inner segments bearing a distinct and delineated green mark.  This older selection was found in a garden in the village of Warham and has proved itself as a durable garden plant.  Thanks to galanthophile Carole Jennings for sharing her collection with us awhile back.

These hardy orchids seed around the nursery which is a very good thing as we have never got one to come up from seed we have intentionally planted. This will be pink to purple but sometimes a white one sneaks in. This is basically a bulb that goes summer dormant but appreciates ample moisture when growing.  Likely some species like fuchsii may also be an option here in this Lucky Dip.

Rare ghostly white flowered variant of the typically dark-flowered Veratrum formosanum . We lusted after this plant since the 90's after seeing it recorded in the Flora of Taiwan and finally secured it from the legendary Jim Sutherland at Scotland's Ardfearn Nursery just a few years ago. So excited we tossed our caber. Is it better than the typical formosanum? No. More collectible? Oh, hell yeah!. Deer resistant.

This vining monkshood is from our seed collection of this herbaceous vine which was growing in a large shrub hanging out over a stream in a cold rain.  The potential for becoming even wetter was pretty good and fortunately, such a risk proved well worth it as this has large blue flowers with a pale white lip.  This has been a star in our shade garden flowering in late August into September.

A pink flowered selection of this cold hardy evergreen vining Jasmine introduced by Ted Stephens from Japan.  Vigorous but well-behaved, this likes a bit of shade and would prefer to not be in hot sun.  The pink flowers are fragrant as well - always a bonus - with the main flush in spring and sporadic flowers during the summer.  Certainly good in zones 8-10 and likely favored spots in warmer 7b.

This climbing evergreen Jasmine vine has foliage richly variegated in creams, whites and yellows in an expressive free-form, I gotta be me style which fits in well with our general philosophy. The leaves take on pink to purple coloration in winter's cold which is something to plan for as siting with that in mind could make you look like the Genius of Nuanced Design. Fragrant white flowers spring to early summer.

Nepal Lily.  One of our favorite Lilies and one we saw in Arunachal Pradesh near Bhutan growing in low scrub on a sunny hillside.  This is a particularly good form with very large pendant yellow-green flowers with a chocolate maroon throat.  Really pretty amazing.  Creeps about underground.

I love white flowers in the shade garden.  The juxtaposition against the dark earth and the interplay and mediation with other colors makes white an excellent choice.  (Don't get me wrong, I'm voting for Obama)  These have pure white flowers with a light chartreuse throat touched faintly in red.

A fine Corydalis collected by Hinkley in Sichuan and there is speculation that it might be a flexuosa x elata hybrid.  Whate we know is that it is an excellent garden plant with loads of light blue flowers which puts on quite the show. Best in light shade or morning sun and moist.

Giant Himalayan Lily.  Outrageous Lily family member which can reach 14' high in flower with huge 10" long Easter Lily white flowers flushed purple in the throat.  This combined with an intoxicating fragrance is an event that demands a party with plenty of sparkling wine.  Plant shallow, rich & moist.

A beautiful selection that we grow in a container as unfortunately we have to go to a friend's much more mild garden if we want to admire it planted out. Narrow habit with thin twigs and evergreen leaves edged in cream and variously tinted in pink. Nice white flowers in late summer makes this a stunner.

Tall Jack in the Pulpit.  These grow into big boys with a big green flower and distinctive vertical spadix held well above the foliage.  This merits that overused word of awesome especially when it gets 5' tall and you are eye-to-eye with that intriguing flower.  Showy seed cluster too!

Seedlings from our Cardiocrinum giganteum var. yunnanense 'Big & Pink' which is one of two pink Cardiocrinums known to exist.  We have the other one as well.  These are hand-pollinated seedlings of this amazing and extremely rare plant  and we expect them to be pink as well.  "It's so big and pink!"

Kind of a rocking plant in that it really requires nothing from you.  We have it in a drier spot in our shade garden and it just trucks along looking good and putting on nice white flowers for months on end.  Horrible winter weather comes and it doesn't care - just stays evergreen.  We've gotten rather attached to it and you will as well.  One of Beth Chatto's 100 favorites.