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1721 products
1721 products
Daggerpod. Love this plant but honestly, that doesn't narrow the field much. Eastern slope of the Cascades in WA, OR CA, to ID and NV growing in dry shrub-steppe slopes and open pine forests. Softly hairy gray-green to sea green leaves with wallflower-like flowers usually pink but rarely near violet or white. Rock gardens.
The deciduous Photinia beauverdiana is a loose-limbed, sinuous presence in the garden. White flowers are followed by showy clusters of orange-red fruit which hold their position long enough for a slam dunk combination with the autumnal yellow of the leaves. Kelly was standing on a sloped mossy rock stretching to collect a fruit of this for a friend when he fell, holding the fruit safely aloft rather than using his hand to break his fall, and cracked a rib. From that day on, he has trash-talked this graceful species as "That phucking Photinia". A well-loved punchline lost to its taxonomic repositioning into Pourthiaea, well those 'Pour' taxonomists are just gonna have to suck it up cause we give everything for the bit here.
Our collection from a compact population near the summit of Leigongshan in 2010. These were exceptionally handsome rounded evergreen shrubs with clusters of small white flowers in June and umbels of red berries in the fall. This will become a familiar plant in the landscape in years to come. A subsequent collection from the same population has been given the name 'Thunder's Dwarf'
Mountain Toatoa. Middle-earth mind-bender of a conifer in the Podocarpaceae from the mountains of New Zealand. At first glance and even after a period of unhurried contemplation, this defies easy categorization. Small flattened phylloclades take up the photosynthetic reins from the vestigial leaves and the narrow pyramidal shrub has no comparatives in the garden. Sl-o-o-o-w growing.
This is a dwarf form we received from plantsman John Weagle in Nova Scotia. Uncommon in the trade to say the least, this has typical white bell-shaped flowers which are of good size for a dwarf plant. Our plants have not exceeded 20" in height over the last 15 years although it may get a little taller in the ground.
A Wynn-Jones collection of this fantastic climbing hydrangea relative from Northern Taiwan. A plethora of glossy evergreen sickle-shaped leaves hanging down like so many executioner's blades make for a truly stunning wall cover, add to that the airy foam of white flowers in summer and you've got an elegantly understated taste-maker that deserves a pairing of fine brick or stonework. It could also use the radiant heat of said masonry as it is slightly adverse to cold winds, likes its shady and wet but a bit more sun may provide a bit more flower.
On the spectrum of hardy aroids Pinellias fall somewhere between Arum and Arisaema with the attractive heart shaped leaves of the former and the hooded long-tongued flowers of the latter. Take that mix and shrink it all down and you get this lil cutie which reproduces itself by offsets and bulbils held on the leaves while not being as weedy as some other Pinellias. I have some qualms on calling this and the other larger marbled "form" the same thing but whatever the correct name it is still well worth having.
Our collection from Yunnan in 1997 of this cream of the crop higher elevation Piptanthus. Imagine our excitement seeing just 3 plants growing in a rubble outflow at the base of a steep hill after hours of walking across the valley of the Gang Ho Ba. Great silvery silken trifoliate foliage and large yellow pea flowers. This makes a multistemmed rounded shrub to 6' tall in our border. Most folks mistake it for a shrubby Argyrocytisus (Cytisus) battandieri until it blooms with flowers evocative of Laburnum. We've grown and killed several collections of the green-leafed P. nepalensis but this variety (which we have offered in the past as P. aff. tomentosus and much earlier as P. forrestii) is far hardier having withstood early November 14F with strong winds despite not being hardened off as the previous week had been in the 60's. Thanks to Grahame Ware for sharing recent research in the genus and hopefully nailing down the correct name. With botany however, never say never.
A Hinkley collection from Taiwan of this surprisingly tough broad-leafed evergreen shrub. We have planted it out in full exposure here in our heinous windy maritime steppe and it survives far better than it should having taken 10F. We should really be brought up on charges. We can imagine if being glorious in a more sheltered position where it can grow 10'-15' tall with rounded clusters of fragrant small yellow flowers.
Unidentified species of a seriously good Asian Pittosporum. This was an attention-grabber being essentially a small 15' tree with large - for a Pittosporum - evergreen leaves. What really stopped us was the large green seed capsules like small figs. These split open when mature to reveal showy orange seeds. Young seed-grown plants. We are hoping these will have good hardiness growing as they were a stone's throw from Acer griseum. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering. Proceeds from this offering go to support the mission of Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy.
Long have we had a love affair with this most noble of the weed clan Plantago. Hailing from Spain where sun and good drainage and robust olive oils and sturdy red wines are so critical to properly growing and appreciating this gem, this adapts easily to the NW. A delight in the rock garden
Curious and uncommon walnut relative from our Asian seed collection where we found this as part of the rich mixture of trees and shrubs on steep mountain flanks. Pinnate leaves harkening to the family Juglandaceae but instead of nuts in a hard shell, this has nutlets in vertical ornamental cones which persist all winter. Too cool for school! The small cones have very small and insignificant yellowish flowers in June and July but the value comes from the long winter interest.
An unusual Asian hydrangea relative that has quietly won us over by growing larger each year and consistently flowering under a regime which could only be generously described as one of benign neglect. This makes a small broadly rounded twiggy deciduous shrub to 2'-3' in the garden although older specimens in the wild are said to get to 5'. Narrow willow-like green leaves with small teeth along the margins combine well with the late summer-fall small white flowers. The 4-petaled fertile flowers have a prominent yellow button of stamens which the infertile flowers lack. We have seen accounts of this growing well in North Carolina and southern Indiana. This will be happiest in light shade or part eastern sun. Platycrater hails from southeastern China in provinces near to Shanghai and also from Shikoku in Japan. These two geographical populations are separated by some authorities based on hairs on the leaf underside and we are making a note to self to take the hand lens to a leaf as soon as we can. Why not now you ask? How can you leave us hanging in such suspense? It is winter as we type this and there are no leaves but we will get to it asap!
A very graceful conifer from Mexico and Guatemala that is looking like a great candidate for our zone 8-9 gardens. New leaves droop fetchingly giving this a lissome almost weeping appearance. This will eventually get big but not in your lifetime as it is slow. Best in filtered sun or light shade.
A fine conifer showing an enviable muscularity growing from the slopes of a rugged limestone mountain. Eschewing an unimaginative verticality, these old trees favored a more imaginative approach to what constitutes being a tree without sacrificing but rather enhancing, beauty. The evergreen needles are more blunt than similar populations in Vietnam and on female plants, the green, small olive-like seed is borne at the end of larger fleshy aril that as it ripens, turns from red to an evening purple. This dispersal mechanism is well-adapted to animals and especially birds, as they can travel great distances, efficient flocks of Johnny Podocarpusseeds. This appreciates some shade to prevent yellowing and has been hardy here at Far Reaches to 10F.
Red Panda' was an O'Byrne hybrid seed strain of somewhat variable copper-leafed beauties and we sell the best we have seen of this strain as 'Red Panda'. We've duplicated the cross with similar results and are calling the progeny 'Red Panda Group'. These are good plants and approach the 'Red Panda' clone.
This is very close to 'Kaleidoscope' and comes from the same Japanese nursery from which a plant was purchased and patented in this country as 'Kaleidoscope'. One has to wonder how a plant already in the trade on an international basis can be patented but that is a discussion that can run long into the night. 'Galaxy' is nearly indistinguishable from 'Kaleidoscope' and may well be a sister seedling or another selection in Japan. Lightly hairy stems hold the pale green leaves with their radially symmetrical chocolate splotches. Red flowers held beneath the foliage but who cares, really? It's all about the leaves. Moist shade and be prepared to be envied.
Coveted hybrid Mayapple nearly impossible to find. 'Red Panda' is a seed strain from the O'Byrne's with some variability but this form from Nita Jo Rountree is the best that we have seen. Large copper leaves in spring which become infused with green as the summer wears on and very good red flowers in spring. Moist shade in rich soil = Pandamonium.
From our breeding work with Podophyllum, comes a very vigorous hybrid between a good form of pleianthum and a robust delavayi hybrid. These have large, rather olive-green leaves touched in mottled light bronze especially when young and has red flowers that are well-displayed. This is not flamboyant but has a redoubtable solemnity of purpose and inherent courtliness which has earned our respect.
Vigorous plants and our hybrids with mainly delavayi as the parent showing more vigor and variation in shape and color than what we associate with known delavayi of wild origin. Whatever the parentage, (I sometimes wonder about my own) these are arresting shade plants for rich moist soil. Red flowers are amazing surprises under the leaves. Persistence of patterned markings are variable and expect fading to varying degrees as the leaves mature. These are all unique individuals which we would be happy to have in our garden. We have offered these earlier as presumptive hybrids and we presume no longer. We will jump on the Dysosma instead of Podophyllum wagon soon.