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 of this most impressive vining Monkshood.  Sumptuous flowers of a good blue with a white interior  This one is a real cracker and these will easily grow 8'-12' or even 15' tall provided they have something to twine onto.  An immense treat in August and September.

Bugbane.  A dusky, dark-leafed plant that appeared as a seedling in our shade garden a few years ago.  We are windy here and which seed from which black-leafed, named form blew in from our sales tables, we cannot say.  We let it be where it landed until it got too large and now it is divisions in pots.  To 4' with late season wands of whitish fragrant flowers.

Crug Farm collection from Chejudo Island in Korea from a slightly larger form.  This was found growing in a shaded dry streambed as just 8" tall plants.  The amenities of cultivation has fattened them up nicely and expect 18" or so.  Glossy leaves and white bottlebrush flowers.  Very cold tolerant.

Doll's Eyes Baneberry.  Striking woodland plant in fruit - the white puffs of flowers in late spring are ok but the fruit is serious business.  An elongated fruiting spike holds with red stems, round white berries each with a small black pupil.  The common name is immediately obvious and is either clever or creepy depending on how many "Chucky" movies you have watched.  We think it is clever.  All parts poisonous which means deer proof.

A subtle woodlander for most of spring and summer until late summer and fall when it suddenly busts a move and starts strutting its stuff.  Fern-like foliage backs small white puffs of flowers in May which become showy clusters of bright white fruit in late summer & fall.  The white version of our red fruited native.

A fine dwarf Alium from China with small heads of dark blue flowers in this form.  This is good in the rock garden, loves full sun, tidy enough for edging on a small scale and deer proof so excellent for those Asian-inspired, deer-infested gardens on Orcas.

A rare introduction of this small alpine Allium that is scarcely represented in cultivation.  Small flattened leaves arch close to the ground and the short-stemmed blue flowers are quite pleasing.  The leaves distinguish it from the similar but with rounded leaves, Allium cyaneum, which it shares habitat.

From Sichuan where this was growing in an open position in a lightly shaded glade at about 10000' in elevation.  This has small leaves shaped much like a pointed canoe paddle with flower stems to 10"-15" tall bearing small round heads of white flowers sometimes with a diffused pink keel to the outer petals as many in this collection do.

Here is a little Japanese bulbous plant that will add some late summer glitz to the rock garden or special foreground planting niche.  Not shy about blooming, this will strut its stuff with round purplish flowerheads on 10" stems which sends our friends the Butterflies and Bees into quiet delirium.

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.

Fragrant Dwarf False Indigo.  An excellent plant for the xeric garden although not the best in sandy soils since it hails from good prairie soil in  the midwest from central Canada down to Texas.  Nice small woody shrub with erect small spikes of clustered small tubular flowes of violet blue petals and red stamens - whoa!

Bog Rosemary.  A lower growing form with bronzy-green leaves but with rose-pink flowers which is a pleasant surprise.  Got an acidic moist spot with a lot of organic matter in soil?  If you do, here you go.  Basically thrives in blueberry culture.  This should be deer proof as it has some nice toxins that will discourage them.

A necessary part of the woodland garden are the small European Anemones and this is one of the good ones.  Fine foliage and nice white flowers in spring on a slowly spreading rhizomatous little bulbous plant.  As you may have surmised, this is at home in the Apennines in Italy and into Croatia.

Our collection from the summit of a remote and isolated peak near the western Myanmar border where we were the second westerners to climb this peak and the first purely botanical foray.  The first expedition was in 1958 - those birders are tougher than you might think!   This was only 10" tall in seed in the alpine meadow at over 12000' but gets nearly 3 times that here. Broad leaves and multi-flowered heads of white flowers. Rare collection from this very isolated population.

Soft pale blue flowers on this clone which we brought in from the UK a few years ago.  This species seems a necessary part of the spring woodland garden and the twiggy rhizomes will in time form a dense floriferous carpet with flowers backed by deeply segmented green leaves.

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.

Wood Anemone.  This selection has funny heads of flowers where the petals have become dense clusters dissected white leafy bracts or did the bracts become dense bunches of filigreed snowflake petals?  Either way, quite a piece of floral artwork that garners ample attention.  Great for shade.

This is a large white flowered selection of this little creeping European species.  Ours came from the UK via our friends at the former Hedgerows Nursery whose plant offerings set a very high bar for the rest of us.  This was last listed in the UK in 2008, we believe, and may have been deemed insufficiently distinct from other good white selections to carry its own name.

Soft blue flowers on this Wood Anemone play nicely with the lightly bronzed emerging new leaves.  Our plant came from David Mason and Susie Grimm at Hedgerows Nursery who picked this up in the UK.  We always like tracing the lineage of acquisition as it helps fill in those empty hours you have so many of when you have a nursery�

A fine little European woodlander which can tolerate some sun as well.  Spreading by twiggy rhizomes, this will make a good patch in time when happy,  The semi-double white flowers adds extra petals to the mix, giving lie to the "less is more" maxim because don't we all know in our publicly inaccessible heart of hearts that "more is more"?  Hilda, you work it, girl!

This excellent clone of the Wood Anemone has larger than usual white flowers held nicely above the foliage with better than usual substance and poise.  Hard to describe precisely but like some things that are elusive in definition, you know it when you see it.

Wood Anemone.  This is a good blue form with flowers darker than many of the blue selections and even though the individual flowers are a little smaller than typical, we don't care as this is such a lovely thing.  Found in the Estonian woodlands by Mart Veerus and introduced we think by Janis Ruksans.

A nice small flowered light pink form of this necessary Anemone species which followed us home from the UK a few years back.  What is a necessary Anemone, you ask?  One which is indispensable in your shade or woodland garden and whose absence would not only be noted but commented upon and repeated, a gardening gaffe going viral.

This little European Woods Anemone is aptly named as an established patch of this in full flower is indeed purity and chastity personified.  Clean white flowers with a central button of doubleness makes this selection the most oft requested nemorosa in our shade garden.

An intriguing curiosity that combines beauty with novelty.  In this selection, the flower petals have become lacy green petaloid structures that are perfectly arranged to create amusing and intricate green flowers.  A fun addition to the shade garden.

One of the larger flowered varieties of Wood Anemone, this has excellent white flowers which are more than enough to stand alone or perfect in a supporting understory role to larger shrubs and perennials.

A tough little creeper with twiggy rhizomes and habit like Anemone nemorosa, this sets itself apart from that clan with double yellow flowers which lights the spring shade garden with a spill of sunshine.  This has fresh green ferny leaves on 3"-6" stems which makes a small carpet increasing over time and can make a fine underplanting for larger ferns,Hostas, Polygonatum or woody plants.

A Japanese selection of our Eastern US wildflower with larger than normal pink flowers of good color.  This is surprisingly tough given its small size and a lightly shaded spot or morning sun will suit this to a 'T'-airin.  Good drainage is important so if your soil is heavy, add some gravel chips and lift it up a bit.  This is one of those spring delights that seems so critical.

A refined shade plant that would grace any plant connoisseur's garden yet is perfectly happy to hang with us average Joes. Leaves evoking Anemone and pendant flowers combining pastels and lavenders in an understated parasol of exquisite design and dimension. A plant that is not on the radar of a lot of gardeners so let's keep it to ourselves.