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Our China collection of this most remarkable species. Favoring rich, moist areas which is required to pump up the nearly 6' in length frond volume. These fronds extend out laxly horizontally which assists in their asexual reproduction from plantlets developing from the little furry balls - careful! - at frond's end. Mulch crown in cold winters.

From Guizhou Province comes this collection of Chain Fern where it grew in association with Rhododendron irroratum and Viburnum cylindricum among other goodies. An awesome fern in the garden with fronds that can be 4'-7' long which arch low over the ground and which are salmon colored as they are just unfurling. This is a rare wild collection and one we propagate quite slowly by the 1-3 bulbils that accompany each imposing frond and so have a very limited number each year. Semi-evergreen in zone 7 where mulching the crown well in winter is advised to evergreen in warmer zones. Likes it moist. Best one we ever saw was at Linda Cochran's famed old garden on Bainbridge Island where she had a huge specimen luxuriating in her rich moist compost at the foot of an imposing bamboo clump.

Our China collection of this most remarkable species. Favoring rich, moist areas which is required to pump up the nearly 6' in length frond volume. These fronds extend out laxly horizontally which assists in their asexual reproduction from plantlets developing from the little furry balls - careful! - at frond's end. Mulch crown in cold winters.

A must-have if you're Wulfenia obsessed. Endemic to the Carnic Alps, this has a limited range in the wild. Dense clusters of tubular, violet-blue flowers appear in mid-summer above glossy evergreen rosettes with scalloped-edged leaves. Needs a fertile, well-drained moisture-retentive soil but really, don't we all?

It is not enough to just collect the Wulfenia species but one must have the hybrid as well. And this natural progression of the collector disorder is a very good thing indeed as this is both intriguing and lovely. In part to light shade, this will tweak expectations of spring bloom with 10'' spikes of blue flowers that carry the graceful effect of a Penstemon gone astray in the best possible way in the woodland.

A hybrid Gesneriad between Briggsia (now Oreocharis) aurantiaca and Opithandra primuloides which we succumbed to at Aberconwy Nursery in Wales. White, bilaterally symmetric flowers touched in faint pink with throats patterned in pink lines. Easy in cool greenhouse but can tolerate some frost, so mild gardens are maybe okay.

This accidental bee cross between Phyllodoce breweri and Kalmiopsis leachiana arose in Mike and Polly Stone's Scottish garden, Askival. Evergreen small leaves on a low rounded shrublet to 16" and a bit wider. Copious bright mauve-pink flowers can cover the foliage in early summer making this a star in our rock garden.

A super hybrid out of the UK from crossing the two related genera, Hypoxis and Rhodohypoxis. These genera occur in South Africa and are small bulbous members of the Iris family. While just a few inches tall, these are showy beyond the implied limits of their size and can cover themselves for weeks in large red flowers. Easy to grow and a fast increaser, this will become a favorite. Cold climates can be overwintered inside where cool.

Woody member of the Ranunculaceae (Clematis, Anemones) form the East Coast woodlands. Known as Yellow Root, this spreads by underground rhizomes to make a suckering colony of stems which are topped by small purple flowers like a puff of smoke. Good fall color.

Poor Knight's Lily. Crazy good plant endemic to 3 islands off of New Zealand's North Island where it grows in rocky outcrops. Evergreen sword leaves to 3' with stunning red bottlebrush flowers that are like nothing else. It is frost-sensitive and can take 15 years to flower but if potbound, you can shave some years off. The wait will be completely worth it.

Our collection where this was growing on a shaded and mossy rock face above a stream. The spider web covered in venomous painful neurotoxin droplets necessitated a frantic wash in the stream. White flowers sporting blue-violet anthers. Great shade plant and unexpectedly lovely in early to mid spring.

A collection by Hinkley from Vietnam of this smaller form of Ypsilandra with narrow leaves in a rosette and smaller compared to Y. thibetica. Ypsilandra are great woodland perennials and we have most often seen them in the wild growing on shaded moist rocks. The usual short magic wand of white flowers in spring. Recent molecular work has moved the Asian genera of Ypsilandra and Heloniopsis to Helonias but we think since these genera diverged from the single line 20 million years ago and have been evolving and speciating ever since, with the only Helonias being in eastern North America, the case for retaining the three genera is pretty good. They will have to pry Ypsilandra from my cold dead fingers.

Fairly recent introduction from China of this superb evergreen perennial. This makes a tidy rosette of evergreen leaves with very attractive scented white flowers in early spring which adds another layer of interest to the shade garden. Makes a nice clump. We say yip-sil-landra by the way. Doesn't mean it's right but we do it so authoritatively that no one questions us. Related to other little treasures like Helonias and Heloniopsis. We saw this on Dayaoshan fall of 2010 where it was growing on little mossy ledges on a shaded cliff face. It is always so exciting to see a plant in habitat when you have gardened with it especially when it is a fairly recent arrival to cultivation.

A very slow-growing tree-form yucca from an Ian Barclay collection near Rodeo, NM. Doesn't need great age and trunk development to produce tall stalks of creamy white flowers which is good because if you are like us, you're buying ripe bananas. Ian is a font of knowledge on cold-hardy, drought tolerant plants.

Great little Scroph (Scrophulariaceae) from the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa. This is rated to zone 6 and grows in rocky areas. A cushion-forming perennial with loads of beautifully detailed scented flowers which open at dusk or on cloudy days. Good drainage.

Mioga Ginger. A treasured food crop in Japan where the new shoots are prized as a vegetable and the flower buds are considered a delicacy when diced and added to soup. This is a true ginger although it lacks the big rhizome of the culinary variety. What it does have over the gingerbread ginger is hardiness. This is the hardiest of the Zingibers and our friend Aaron Floden tells us he grew this in Kansas without any special protection and temperatures regularly got to -15F and it did not suffer. This clumps up quickly in rich moist soil in shade with 3' green leafy stems and produces exotic small orchid-like creamy yellow flowers at ground level in late summer and fall. It's a no-brainer for fall cleanup because the leaf stalks turn yellow and fall over breaking off cleanly from the crown so all you have to do is pick them up. Or not if you are into self-mulching plants.

A collection by the Wynn-Jones from Crug Farm of this prized Asian culinary species from the Korean island of Jejudo, formerly Cheju island. This is a culinary ginger but it is the deep yellow flower buds that are eaten which open to lilac-pink flowers held at ground level. The deciduous corn-like leaves get about 3' tall and this is hardy to zone 6 and even zone 5. The other clone of Zingiber mioga we offer has been grown successfully in Kansas.

From Asia, where in the autumn, the 30" pseudostems with their broad sword-like leaves had fallen to the ground exposing the bright red starfish fruiting capsules nested in the dark earth. The late summer flowers sit right at ground level like little yellow orchids with a tinge of pink to the labellum and flowers weeks later than our MD10-77 collection.This looks close to mioga but there are 43 Zingiber species in China alone. True Zingiber mioga is hardy in Kansas which blows our minds.

Our collection from Asia of what we presume to be the super-hardy Zingiber mioga but there are a lot of species to choose from! Corn foliage and cute ground-level soft yellow orchid flowers at ground level which are a worthy reward for a deep bend at the waist. These flower weeks earlier than our CDHM 14723 collection and have a wider labellum with the whole flower evenly colored. A worthy reward for a deep bend at the waist.