New and Restocked Plants

Rollicking twining Monkshood from China that delights in scrambling up into shrubs or onto thin trellage.  Although a fine and aristocratic perennial, it remains devoid of snobbery embracing chainlink as if it were ornate wrought iron at an Antebellum mansion.  Dusky lavender flowers.

It is difficult not to like this plant and if you don't,then you may well have to wonder if you are a difficult person.  I mean look at this!  Tubular crimson flowers flaring to a yellow starry smile?  Midwest to Southeastern native enticing hummingbirds and butterflies throughout it's range.

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.

A plant of refinement to be sure.  One that is appreciated and admired by the higher echelons of gardening.  A collector's plant.  Different ways of saying that this is not a flamboyant show-stopper but a tasteful blend of delicate texture and airy soft pink flowers that helps make it all work.

Large lavender blue flowers with a darker reverse grants this little slowly creeping Wood Anemone its own small fiefdom in the shade garden while it is in bloom.  Very pretty indeed.  Of course by mid summer the peasants and serfs rise up with scythes and cudgels to reclaim their land but next year the glorious cycle of rule and revolution is repeated.

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.

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.

Named by plant guru John Flintoff who found this as an interesting seedling growing in plantswoman Loie Benedict's garden. Light green leaves with a spreading habit and flowers of a soft muted lavender which happily goes with most everything. As long as the soil is reasonably moist, this will be good in sun to light shade and is resistant to deer and rabbits.

This is the evergreen European Wild Ginger which is such a performer in the shade garden.  I recall a particularly memorable patch at the Chase Estate outside of Boston many years ago which fueled my desire to grow this.  Really easy and hardy and not as high on the slug gnosh list as the Asian species.  Check it out in our younger shade garden.

Choice selection of the Wood Anemone with flowers densely packed with numerous small white petals which appear all white at first but as the flowers mature or awaken, a central blue eye is revealed which is quite delightful.  I go through a similar slow process every morning and tell myself that it is the same delightful end result.

This is perhaps the first of the hybrids to be introduced between Corydalis flexuosa and Corydalis elata and remains one of the best.  Scented blue flowers aging to purplish from mid spring to early summer in moist shade to part sun down to zone 6.

One of the very good blue flowered hybrids combining the best traits of Corydalis flexuosa with those of C. elata.  We were in China in 2006 and saw both species in a single day in the Wolong Panda area and these hybrids hold a special appeal to us.  In the Poppy family, this requires light to bright shade and moist soil where it will make a nice patch.  Z5-8.

Showy Milkweed.  Feed the Monarch butterflies!  This is the preferred species of Milkweed for the colorful caterpillars to feed on and having these flamboyant critters with their white-black-yellow rings crawling about the gray-green foliage is over-the-top ornamentation plus you get to chalk one up for the environment.

Pretty much an awesome plant for the rock garden or hell strip as this relishes good drainage and hot sun.  We saw this at Lakewood Gardens in Denver summer of 2014 and had to have!  A small subshrub covered in blazing red tubular flowers and allows no other plant to have any attention whatsoever.  On the moderate to dryish side and lean.

Light pink starry flowers grace this covetous form of this wee Japanese species.  A gentle peregrinator spreading by short stolons and making a fine little clump which manages to evoke a lwarm fuzzy feeling in both the jaded collector as well as your average "dirt" gardener.  We live in both worlds and we like it.  A lot.

Dwarf Scandanavian selection of Chives which is way more ornamental than usefully edible.  Lots of pinkish lavender flowers on a very compact plant.  Quite useful in the rock garden or detailed planting site such as edge of a stepping stone or against a rock.

This is one of the stars in the understory of the towering coastal redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens.  Wide fleshy green leaves would not look out of place in the subtropics and that impression is only enhanced by the umbels of red flowers which become visually luscious blue-purple fruit.

Hamilton Dwarf Cranberry. This is one of our desert island dwarf shrublets. Granted, we would be bundled up on the beach as this would be a cool northern island for this to be happy but that is a small concession for 12 months of beauty.   Perfection in a small package with very slow growth, evergreen leaves turning burgundy in winter, tiny pink flowers and red fruit - yea, verily!

Evergreen Solomon's Seal.  This is a darn good plant from Sichuan China that really performs here in the Northwest.  This makes dense clumps of upright stems clad in glossy evergreen leaves below which dangle white bells in spring.   We typically cut back last years growth in spring.   Easy.

Excellent selection from the former Heronswood nursery of this robust woodlander noted for the dark hued stems especially in the new growth.  This is an exhuberant grower sending up big asparagus spears in late spring which branch out at 3'-4' with creamy bells followed by showy fruit.

While typically grown in pots and overwintered in a cool frost free spot, we've grown these in rotted cedar logs or on mossy boulders and simply protected them during cold snaps and have had excellent success with these outdoors.  Excellent drainage is key.  These will increase nicely through small offsets and who doesn't love orchids in the garden?

This is a very attractive and not often available variegated form with yellow imbued leaves which greens up as they mature.  We'll have to take the time to key this out when it blooms as it may be a different species but we love it for whatever the epithet.  White flowers.

A very fine form both in habit and flowers which was collected at 2000m on Emeishan in Sichuan China.

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.

An uncommon little jewel from the mountains of Taiwan, these are 2nd generation plants from the wild collection.  Unlike our native steroidal colossal Veratrums, this is relatively demure with neat tussocks of low grassy foliage but kicks the compost out of them with its maroon flowers.

An introduction of this hardy zone 7 rhizomatous  species by Bjornar Olsen from Sichuan.  Small flowers generously produced are a nice taupe infused with the palest pink blush and further accentuated by vivid pink specks and lines on the exterior.  The yellow and orange throat carries these same specks and lines.

Collected by the Wynn-Jones in Guatemala at higher elevation where it was growing as an epiphyte. Our mama plant is in a container and is one of the showiest Maianthemum or False Solomon Seal we grow. And we grow a lot btw!  Lovely light salmon stems of 24"-30" seem to bow under the weight of the large inflorescence with a galaxy of white stars opening from cream buds.

Impressive hardy begonia collected by Ozzie Johnson on Emei Shan in Sichuan.  This rhizomatous species looks tender as all get out but has overwintered in a number of Zone 7b gardens - admittedly not 7b for weeks at a time but still - heck yeah!  Brilliant red undersides and a burnished upper surface to the leaves are meant to go with the white flowers.

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.

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.