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Found growing a shady mossy rock (much the situation I would choose if I were a plant) in North Vietnam this creeping semi-woody Gesner has some of the best foliage we've seen from the genus with purple-pink petioles, margins, and abaxial surfaces. No recollection of the flower but you can expect the usual dangling elongated foxglove corollas. For the tropical greenhouse or the coastal climate.

This Central American epiphytic blueberry relative calls the cloud forests home and enjoys cool conditions with no frost. Brilliant red new growth, tubular soft red flowers with red calyces followed by darkly intriguing fruit. Will develop a caudiciform lignotuber in time. This is a visual feast for months on end.

A Cistus-introduced selection of this superb species which is nearly worth drilling into your neighbor's walls or delving into that abandoned meth lab house down the street for, Probably a novel experience for you PNW'ers. Regardless of your Appalachian bonafides the rich burnished look of the leaves and buds of this are definitely worth their weight in semi-precious metal. Adds extra year round value to the exquisite smelling pure white flowers of the species.  

The promise and potential of a fat unripened bud, many times we have fallen prey to the relentless teasing of flowers which appear JUST ABOUT TO OPEN for days or weeks on end. Well, you might just keep waiting on this one, but really that's not too bad a thing when it comes to Magnolia flowers. Personally I find the globe or chalice stage of magnolia flowers to often be the choicest moment. This species takes that to a high art, with large orbs of white brushed with purple, which in the rare instances they do open, reveal luciously white tepals centered by a circle of blood-red stamens. Plus the tree itself is nothing to turn your nose at, attractive large evergreen leaves and suprisingly hardy given it's Northern Vietnamese heritage. Forms a large shrub to small tree but fast growing, and however reticent to flower in full, these are known to flower at a relatively young age. So at least you won't be kept waiting to be kept waiting for too long.

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One of the great Mahonia species or Berberis as they are now sometimes 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 late summer and early fall are followed by nice fruit. Easy and a connoisseurs foliage plant. 

Kelly likes to bang on about Maianthemum oleraceum or even, god forbid Maianthemum fuscum, but this may be the true underappreciated gem of the genus. Pairs of glossy pleated leaves set so close together you'd be forgiven for not seeing the stem from which they spring. Grows big like its impressive relatives but stays low and arrays itself horizontally gently proffering gleaming sprays of flowers in a variety of purple hues with a pleasingly sweet smell which travels. A presence of beauty and charm without stealing the show, simply very likeable.