New and Restocked Plants

Our collection from Asia of what we presume to be the super-hardy Zingiber mioga but there are a lot of species to choose from! Corn foliage and cute ground-level soft yellow orchid flowers at ground level which are a worthy reward for a deep bend at the waist. These flower weeks earlier than our CDHM 14723 collection and have a wider labellum with the whole flower evenly colored. A worthy reward for a deep bend at the waist.

From southern China, where in the autumn, the 30" pseudostems with their broad sword-like leaves had fallen to the ground exposing the bright red starfish fruiting capsules nested in the dark earth. The late summer flowers sit right at ground level like little yellow orchids with a tinge of pink to the labellum and flowers weeks later than our MD10-77 collection.This looks close to mioga but there are 43 Zingiber species in China alone.

This is a hardier and somewhat smaller-leaved form of the Chilean Guava that was recently introduced by Paul Barney from Pucon, Chile and which Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy brought into the US from the UK.  An excellent evergreen ornamental small shrub to 5' or 6' with scented white flowers and deep burnished red fruit in the fall which were said to be Queen Victoria's favorite fruit.  We expect this to handle at least a half zone colder.

These are from seed from the good hardy form at the UW Arboretum.  This makes an impressive multistemmed shrub to 10 or 12 feet fine textured in foliage but what a knockout in bloom.  Loads of heavy textured hanging yellow flowers like Kirengeshoma followed by ornate knobbly long bean pods.

Frosted Jade Ajuga.  Hard to believe that this is an Ajuga but it is true.  This choice selection has fantastic foliage and very good dark cobalt flowers.  Not a spreader - this makes a clump with 16" tall stems.  Challenges all of your comfy notions about Ajuga but in a good way.  Great in our shade garden.

Our collection as cuttings from the Cangshan in Yunnan of an especially small leafed form of this evergreen species.  Steve Hootman of the Rhododendron Species Botanical garden now and again mutters about giving it a clonal name.  Probably best in a mild garden.

Steve Hootman saw this growing and established in a Pennsylvania garden and with a puzzled "What the hell?", immediately took cuttings.  This evergreen groundcover Ficus is most often grown as a houseplant but this Pennsylvania selection should do well in the PNW.  Will cling to walls or rocks.

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.

In the Himalayas Agapetes would be found as an epiphyte on the mossy trunks and branch crotches.  In this unusual variant, the flowers are creamy white followed by edible pale lavender fruit and its alliance with Vaccinium (blueberries) is easy to see. . Very easy to grow and will tolerate short exposure to light frost but best no colder than zone 9. The hummingbirds loved it.

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.

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.

Very cute little epiphyte with small rounded cupped leaves and green-tipped red flowers. This is going to be a source of no small pleasure in zone 9 where it will be happy growing in a container, rotting log or mossy rock in part shade. We grow ours in a cool greenhouse kept just at or above freezing and has been easy as pie.

Found growing along coastal Maine and up the eastern Canadian seaboard,
this was known as the dwarf form of I. setosa but is now regarded as a
distinct species.  Favoring moist places but adapting very well to
average garden conditions, this is best described in the most rigorous
of botanical terms as "Cute".  Very hardy.

Rare plant found only in limited areas in central Honshu, Japan where it likes the forest fringes in the subalpine areas and is known as hiiragi-sou or holly tree-leafed weed.  Hiiragi-sou sounds better than the translation.  This selection has dark blue flowers and is a deciduous clumper to 16" tall - very nice!

Hardy dwarf Jasmine from Himal Pradesh in India.  This is an ideal little rock garden candidate or if you are looking for a small shrub for that special nook, look no further.  Small yellow flowers lightly scented are scattered among the evergreen leaves all summer.  Tolerant of dry, deer aren't interested, no maintenance needed.

A dwarf Foxglove from Spain and North Africa and a Plant Select introduction for those hot and cold Rocky Moutain gardeners.  Bewitching spires of dark Baltic amber flowers in early summer, this perennial will form nice clumps with multiple flower stems.  Evergreen narrow leaves in less harsh winters, this is hardy to zone 4b.  Not too wet, don't overfeed.

Seedlings from this very good form of the very variable Anemone obtusiloba which ranges at higher altitudes across the Himalaya into western China.  Our mama plant came home with us from Scotland and is notable for larger blue flowers with 3-4 extra petals beyond the usual 5.  We expect these youngsters to carry on the family tradition.

Chameleon Vine.  Crazy evergreen vine from the temperate forests of Chile and Argentina which only very recently was found to mimic the plants upon which it grows.  The leaves increase or decrease in size, get darker or lighter, broader or narrower depending on its host or nearby plant.  Flowers are insignificant on this science project.

A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering.  Our collection from Asia of what is likely the first introduction of this exceptional form of this equally exceptionally rare variety. Attractive leaves that are terminally cleft into bilateral lobes. The white flowers are the finest in the genus holding their own among the best of flowering trees. So much better than the straight species.

One of the showiest in this genus of  vining Bellflowers.  Large purple-blue flowers with a dark ring - sometimes pure white - quickens our pulses in either expression. Recently reduced from species status, grey-wilsonii has been retained as a geographic race of the species convolvulacea based on larger leaves and flowers.

One of the hardiest of the Leptospermums which, in time and left alone, will achieve the appearance of a ruggedly handsome small tree. We say this in case you have control issues and mistake shearing for pruning in which case this will be a nice dense ball.  Or square.  Or blob.  Evergreen, nice white flowers, deer-proof, drought tolerant. Thanks to Leptophiliac Ian Barclay for sharing this..

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!

Our collection from Asia from a mountain range little explored by westerners. One of the rhizomatous types allied to palmata which we expect will have hardiness down into zone 8 especially if mulched. Flowers are either pink or white - memory has failed but can say definitively they are not blue.

Very cool biennial Thistle relative that is flat out gorgeous in foliage and further piles it on with midsummer lavender-pink Thistle flowers. Pretty fun with some of the dark-leaved Dahlias. Stunning first year rosettes that ramp up to purplish thistleacious flowers the next year. This will self-sow a bit, thank goodness.

Pewter Moon Evening Primrose. A fine very large flowered form with green to gray leaves and reddish stems. Big rounded golden yellow flowers open at dusk and carry on well into the next day.  A good hardy and drought tolerant plant that works it in the rock garden or Garden of Neglect.  Worth growing just to watch the Sphinx Moths go delirious in the gloaming. Good drainage.

A rare relative of our local Salal (Gaultheria shallon) collected by Jeanette Kunnen in the mountains above Oaxaca in Mexico. We were given cuttings by the late Ericaceous collector Art Dome who grew this to perfection at his Seward Park garden in Seattle. Scrumptious new growth and lots of pink bells followed by blue-black berries. Art grew his against a terraced wall on a slope where it got morning sun and it was a happy camper.

Woolly Tea Tree. This Tasmanian is one of the best silver-leafed evergreens for our area. A great cold hardy form which has sparkling 1" white flowers in early summer and aromatic foliage when bruised. Not that you are going to bruise it unless you are simply overcome by delight down the line and you find yourself giving it a bear hug which is perfectly socially acceptable.  Good drainage and not overly rich soils.  Deer find it distasteful.

An uncommon New World subtropical blueberry relative native to the Andes. Can be epiphytic and has hanging thin branches up to 5' long but usually shorter with rounded pale green leaves. Just looks like it wants to be on a dipping cliff by a waterfall.  Egg-shaped flowers that are white-pink with darker tips followed by translucent violet-tinged edible berries much like Agapetes. No frost. Way nifty.

A subtle sport of the Black Mondo Grass 'Nigrescens' with the thinnest edge of white along one side of the leaf. This was introduced by Collector's Nursery and named by the late clever wordsmith Bill Jansen who was one of the owners.  Bill had a gift for naming plants as many of you conifer collectors well know.