New and Restocked Plants

A very uncommon plant in North America - we have not seen it listed elsewhere - and one we brought across the pond from the lamentably late Michael Wickenden of Cally Gardens in Scotland.  This is a much smaller version of this cold hardy species with dense low foliage of nicely deeply lobed leaves.  The leaves take on fall color before dormancy and the early spring white flowers are welcome indeed if they escape being frosted.

Oyster Leaf. The leaves are edible and taste - and feel - exactly like raw oysters. This likes ample nutrition and can be used in containers where the stems will drape down the sides. Perennial and dormant in winter.

This is a gleaming bit of sunshine carried into your shadowed shade garden and released.  The cupped leaves to just 5" high bring more light to their bit of turf than their size would suggest.  The small light lilac flowers are nice but incidental because with this Hosta it is all about the glow.

Serious business here on the Ligularia front. This makes a dense ground cover of weed-suppressive, overlapping large leaves and tall spikes of yellow flowers. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering.

One gold leafed seedling among thousands from seed sown of our Blue Poppies. Fortunately fertile, we are at last able to offer a few of this first gold-leafed form of this type of Meconopsis. The leaves are most intense in spring and the flowers are a lovely amethyst. Like most, some are perennial and some are not.  Save seed!

This Chinese woodland Peony is one of the few species blooming and thriving in full shade although part sun suits it as well.  Nicely dissected ferny foliage and slightly nodding single pink flowers 2-3 per stem makes this distinctively beautiful.  Decent drainage.  Easy.

One of the jewels in the tiara of shade garden royalty which is supposed to sound aristocratic and appealing and I believe it does. Put this little Chinese gem in a special spot where you can enjoy the white flowers over the patterned foliage. This would likely thrive in a moist rotting stump. Found up to 12000' in alpine meadows, we've also seen a tiny form in forests in Chongqing.

One of the better selections of Aucuba and very rare in the nursery trade. This was brought to the US by the now defunct Asiatica Nursery and shared with us by Lance Reiners. Narrow leaves consistently freckled in gold presents as major pizzazz with unmistakable elegance.  A tough evergreen tolerant of dry shade once established.  Zones 7-9.

Lily of the Valley.  A good selection of this stalwart species with a yellow margin to the leaves and said leaves are larger than average as well.  Typical scented white flowers.  There are numerous spellings of the cultivar name but since this is an American introduction, we can only assume this is correct.  Sad.

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.

Redwood ivy.  Vigorous carpeter in optimal conditions with evergreen foliage  which bronzes up in winter.  The tiny white flower motes benefit from profusion and the fact that they are the smallest in the genus is offset by this species having the best foliage which is what you have 95% of the year.  Our collection from California

It is not enough to just collect the Wulfenia species but one must have the hybrid as well. And this natural progression of the collector disorder is a very good thing indeed as this is both intriguing and lovely. In part to light shade, this will tweak expectations of spring bloom with 10'' spikes of blue flowers that carry the graceful effect of a Penstemon gone astray in the best possible way in the woodland.

Pink flowers with a hint of violet that elevates this on the societal color palette preventing it from slipping down to the campy plastic flamingo. The broad petals have a small, white distant star for an eye and are nearly imperceptibly dusted with what could be airborne suspended particles of confectioners sugar lightly settling to rest. In our house, it would be a delicate white tracery as if from floating dog hair.

Broad petals with an intricate dendritic margin that provides a bit of wonderment.  The backs of the petals are a gentle amethyst which bleeds through to the white face of the petals infusing them with the color of sun-tinted old glass.  This is easy to accommodate in the garden as it is not coldly distant with a petulant haughtiness but it does like to be admired which will come easily.

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.

A great Dianthus which was like pulling teeth to get Sue to part with a couple.  Makes a fine blue mat of foliage which is covered in eyes-a-popping single magenta pink flowers which have an intoxicating fragrance.  First class rockery plant - killer with that black quarry rock.

Our selection from near the extirpated location of a dwarf population above Carbonado relayed to us by NW plant legend Edith Dusek.  This has proved to be very atypical in that it produces a zillion crowns in a single plant,  A one gallon pot plant had 50 divisions, a large garden clump over a thousand.  Smaller than lowland clones.

Tight clumps with blue flowers with a yellow button in June-July.  Very hardy.  First introduction to the US. Fantastic little plant from South Africa which used to be Aster natalensis but is now in the genus Felicia.

Got lots of sun and sandy or well-drained soil with average to low fertility in a dryish garden beset by rabbits and deer but still want lots of flowers for the bees and other pollinators? Look no further as this will nicely fill the bill. Mature plant has hundreds of pink papery bracted flowers in midsummer on drooping stems. Best displayed in a raised bed.

Red Birds in a Tree.  Sometimes we like common names and this is one of those time.  New Mexico native where it grows in moist canyons.  Small white-lipped red tubular flowers in clustered congeniality throughout the summer to the delight of the nectar feeders.  Likes to lean on other plants.

This hybrid Oregano works what it got to da max. This is made to order for heat waves, drought conditions, and hungry bees.  Lean soil with great drainage? Check. Dry summers? Check. Ravening hoards of deer and rabbit? Check. Loads of amethyst-pink flowers from light green bracts in summer.

Good full heads of large white flowers whose petals align flatly in a single plane.  An excellent selection of this Japanese species.

A very choice plant from the Applachian Mts and closely allied to Podophyllum as they are both herbaceous members of the Berberidaceae.  Broad leaves to a foot or more across with small white flowers which are easy to miss but screaming blue berries holler "Look at me!".  Shade.

The pure white flowers are shaped like Amazon took its frightening AI algorithm capabilities and looked into everyone's hearts and minds to find the universal constant of snowflake conceptualization and then went to its secret biological modification lab and 3-D printed the snowflake gene and went all CRISPR gene splicing happy to make the perfect primrose for the snowflake market. Putting on my tinfoil hat now.

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.

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.

Excellent little Asian Allium that is very nice with small heads of white flowers. Perfect for the rock garden or does great in regular garden beds as it does appreciate some moisture during the summer. Sun and decent drainage and thrives in one customers garden in Michigan. Tidy and of good disposition and certainly not a garden thug.

Robust Japenese selection of this revered Primrose species with nearly blowsy pink flowers on sturdy stems.  This presents some serious flower power for the species and always puts on a good show.  The species as a rule can take more dry than most Primula opting for dormancy.

Our collection of this Asian herbaceous perennial vining member of the Bellflower or Campanula family, this is very distinctive in having narrow and elegant tubular green flowers on a vine to 8'.  This will die down each fall but pop back in the spring.  This prefers bright shade to part shade and we found this growing in shrubbery in open forest.

One can collect hundreds of named cultivars of this Japanese primrose and not have two that are identical. This is an ideal plant for the OCD plant collector who wants to take a long deep dive - just make sure when trying to have them all that money remains to buy groceries and keep the lights on. White flowers flushed fuchsia with a reverse that is solidly soft fuchsia.  This will bring felicity to your garden.