New and Restocked Plants

This gesneriad (African Violet family) is from our collection in Vietnam just miles from the Chinese border.  Small narrow-necked yellow flowers over evergreen rosettes of leaves.  We have not tried this outside here but are quite sure it requires a mild garden or in a pot with overwintering in a cool greenhouse.

This collection by Crug Farm from Fansipan in Vietnam of this very distinctive clumping grass is especially yummy with showy pink flowers in this form. The evergreen leaves are bold, broad and lightly pleated with the flower heads mingling among the upper reaches of the leaves.  Solidly dramatic!

Chilean Guava. Our mama plant is loaded with fruit in the greenhouse right now and it's delicious. One of the perfect evergreen shrubs for mild climates, this has shiny aromatic leaves. Nice white flowers followed by ruby flavorful fruit the size of average Blueberries and all on a broadly columnar plant to 8' tall.

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 the sweetest little groundcovers we have grown.  Aside from the small terminal clusters of deep blue flowers in late spring and early summer, we are taken by its good evergreen foliage and year-round tidy appearance.  It is in one of our troughs and spills over the lip perfectly.  Good for the rock garden.

One of the hardiest Leptospermums, this creeping form is from the alpine areas of Tasmania and has grown for many years at the Arboretum in Seattle. Evergreen leaves with small white flowers, this would be a shame not to have it in the rock garden and a greater shame not to have it spilling over a wall.

Mountain Holly.  This is one of the hardiest of the New Zealand Olearia as it gets well up into the subalpine zone.  This makes a large evergreen shrub with leaves edged in friendly prickles.  This flowers in early summer with corymbs of fragrant white daisy flowers.  Should be deer resistant which is extra bonus points.

This tasteful perennial from Japan bides its time in the shade garden as the floral hoi polloi scrabble for attention during spring and summer.  Once the fracas has died down, this takes centerstage in Sept/Oct with its intricately constructed buds which open to fuzzy light lavender flowers.

Award of Merit form of Korean apricot with flowers of the luscious rich pink that subconsciously appeals at a limbic level, adorning bare branches in February and March. A customer brought us a bottle of homemade Umeshu made from mume fruit and this helped us get through the first months of the pandemic.

We're looking at a houseplant here for everyone except those with that San Francisco microclimate and if you are lucky enough to have such a thing, just for the record - we pretty much hate you.  But we'll set aside the envy and sell you one of these astoundingly lovely ferns with long white ghostly fingered fronds.

The cream of the the New Zealand woody Asters and a star in the rock garden.  This comes from the alpine areas of the mountains near Marlborough up to 1900 meters.  Flowers are a bit of yellow teminal nothings but the whipcord silvery branchlets are exquisite perfection.  Full sun and drier lean soil will suit this.  Took 3 nights of 0F at Hedgerows Nursery in 2009.

Rare little offering from Siberia with very thin creeping rhizomes making a small ferny colony in light shade.  One of the last to bloom of the tuberous species, this usually shows its mauve-pink small tubular flowers in May.  Loves a woodsy soil which would make a Primrose happy.  Very hardy.

Cuttings received from our friend Maurits in Holland who is obsessed with cold hardy Mediterranean style plantings.  This is essentially a low evergreen groundcover - to 8" tall - and hails from a frost pocket in Mount Buffalo National Park in Victoria.  Has profuse creamy flowers with an exuberance of stamens.  Rare, choice, and a first-time offering.

This choice evergreen Tongue Fern is notable for the yellowish variegation on its evergreen 12" long leaves and is likely conspecific with the clone sold as 'Variegata',  Pyrrosia are easy but require great drainage and unless you are planting it in a stumpery, rockery or slope, you will need to seriously amend with gravel, bark or assorted detritus of life.

Hybrid seedling that came up in OSU Grevillea researcher Neil Bell's garden at the base of his Grevillea victoriae so carries a preponderance of the all the good traits of the parent.  What are those good traits, you say?  Hardiness, showy reddish flowers in summer, evergreen, tough, hummingbirds love it, deer hate it.  Grow dryish and lean.

Exceptional selection of this cross between Garrya elliptica and G. fremontii from Glasnevin in Ireland.  What is notable about this is the long late winter catkins have conspicuous wine-colored bands.  We're talking Pinot Noir here not Pinot Grigio.  As a bonus, the stems are dark colored as well.  Winter interest, anyone?

Stunning thin-leafed variant on the typical form of the species which usually sports leathery leaves perhaps 4X wider than this rare selection from the Witch Hazel Family. This does not seem as determinedly upright as the typical species so expect a multi-stemmed textural delight. Small yellowish flowers with reddish anthers in late winter won't stop traffic but are still darned welcome

Here is the answer for those who want to grow a classy groundcover Manzanita that isn't Kinnikinnick.  We planted a 1 gallon plant 5 years ago in our dry garden and it is 1 foot tall and making a 6 foot circle.  Small glossy leaves on reddish stems and white bells in spring. Good things come in small packages.

'James Roof' is a man among boys when you are talking West Coast Silktassels. This male cultivar is gloriously well-hung with flowering catkins that dangle nearly a foot in length resulting in catkin-envy among other Garrya cultivars and the occasional insecure gardener.  Or so we are told. Tough evergreen doing it's thing in early spring.

One of the great Mahonia species or Berberis as they are now known.  We saw this growing on Wawushan in Sichuan where it exhibited it's characteristic waxy white underleaf.  Loose sprays of pinky-orange flowers in the fall followed by nice fruit.  Easy and a connoisseurs foliage plant.

Native to the New Jersey Pine Barrens this is a choice prostrate ornamental Cherry.  This is a creeper kind of hummocking along getting maybe 18" high by 10' long.  Easily kept in bounds by pruning.  Small white flowers followed by small black cherries.  Great red fall color.

Dog Tooth Violet.  Trout Lily.  Avalanche Lily.  The names go on and on but appellation aside all you really need to know is that this is one great bulb for the shade garden.  Perfect companion with Trilliums and Ferns and such a cheery flower.

Dog Tooth Violet.  The European representative of the genus which contains our native Avalanche Lily.  These have great mottled foliage and lovely flowers of an even violet purple highlighted by a throat touched in maroon and yellow.  Frans must have been a bit of a dandy.

Robust California native that has a very limited distribution in the wild.  This seems like the cabbage of Erythroniums as it puts up very large succulent green leaves with pendulous flowers of a rich yellow intensity.  These increase quite nicely by offsets leading to impressive clumps.  Shade.

Nice hardy Hebe for us here in the PNW as this hails from the alpine and subalpine areas of the drier mountains on New Zealand's South Island.  A low creeper to just 8" high, the olive-green leaves are quite good but it really gets its groove on when it blooms as the white flowers contrast with the near-black stems.

Oyster Leaf.  The leaves are edible and taste - and feel - exactly like raw oysters.  If raw oysters are your thing, this is an OMG veg alternative.  The now closed El Bulli in Catalonia, regarded as one of the greatest restaurants ever, ran with Oyster Leaf innovative ways.  Loved to have tried the leaves striped in golden caviar and splashed with Grey Goose.

This really would benefit from the heraldry of trumpets when it blooms since royalty does enjoy the pomp of lavish circumstance.  But the flowers are such a nice fuchsia purplish pink with a red throat that the trumpets and all the trappings are implied.  And with the same good mottled leaves.

No ignoring this Primrose in flower! Some Primula are wee subtle things with no greater effect than the sound of a distant flute teasing the edge of hearing. This Primula is a full triumphant symphony with you sitting in the orchestra pit. Big heads of many nodding orange/yellow fragrant flowers. Rich and moist.

A compact little guy carrying very nice white flowers which benefit from extra petals giving it a little more floral punch.  If you can and no one complains, then why not?  Mulch in winter and decent drainage and feel free to plant it in a very sunny hot spot.

A cracking plant originally collected in the Lydenburg District of Mpumalanga of South Africa and grown for years in the treasure house of Kirstenbosch Botanic Garden. Upright gray-green leaves lead the eye up and up to over 40" where the pale sky blue flower heads with large drooping individual florets are captivating.