Sort by:
1775 products
1775 products
First introduction to cultivation! Our collection of this rare species in a genus of excellent foliage perennials. Sue spotted this on an evening plant reccy while Kelly took to bed nursing a rib fracture incurred earlier while collecting fruit on a Photinia. A Photinia of all things! A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering.
A Hinkley collection from Taiwan of this interesting Composite whose deeply dissected foliage carries the day and is especially effective in half sun. Not a genus that leaps to the fore when thinking of flowers, this is a great foliage plant and intriguing in first growth. Collected as S. intermedia, this is most likely the species subglabrata. We have yet to meet a Syneilesis that we don't think highly of - (well, there are the unstable variegated ones) - and when mature, these tough clumping perennials literally force you to stop and admire.
This is an Olympic Mountain endemic meaning it is found nowhere else. This sweet little alpine is found among the dark shale chips on the gravelly-sandy ridgetops and is one of the first alpines to flower coming into bloom with its fuzzy little pokers of blue-violet flowers as soon as the snow clears the exposed ridges. The dissected or pinnatifid silver-white leaves are felted in dense microscopic hairs giving rise to the varietal epithet of lanuginosa. The reflective color of the leaves helps cool the plant and allows it to cope with the full sun exposure while the plastered hairs trap moisture keeping the foliage from dessicating in the wind, sun and frost. Good in troughs or rock gardens in a gritty mix. This needs a winter and we can only imagine that it would dislike prolonged summer heat as well as warm humid nights. Seems pretty easy here although we might trade being able to grow this for sitting out on an August evening without having to put layers on.
Fringe-petal Kitten-tail. This is an uncommon native found in small areas of the Olympic Mts and in Oregon's Clatsop County. An early spring treat for the collector, this has rounded leaves with toothed margins and impressed veins that emerge a light olive-copper color. Small lilac flowers cluster on short stems and the petal margins are incised. A rare offering. Some treatments place this in the genus Veronica but we prefer Synthyris. Light shade or morning sun is good.
Second generation seedlings from a Hinkley collection in Sichuan of this fine Lilac which can be kept as a large shrub or trained up to be a small tree. Pendulous flowers white to pale pink inside with a lavender-pink reverse. Very attractive and trouble free.
A multi-stemmed large shrub having a small tree appearance as it is quite upright from our Asian collection in an area of extreme ecological devastation. This had fallen from a cliff edge making seed capsules accessible. Narrow flower heads of whitish flowers have a graceful quality that is found in the wild species. Proceeds from this offering go to support the mission of Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy. Previously offered as Syringa aff. yunnanensis.
AKA 'Beth Chatto'. This is going around in this country under the Beth's name when in fact it is simply one of her Desert Island plants - one that she simply can't be without. Finely cut as a feather silvery leaves on a low evergreen plant which thrives on dry and sun. Small yellow flowers.
Japanese Foam Flower. Uncommon evergreen groundcover which thrives in shaded, moist acid conditions and is uncommonly well suited to clothing a fallen mossy log or rock as it spreads by stolons like a restrained strawberry. Late spring/early summer small white sprays of flowers. Gotta love these monotypic Saxifragales genera!
We have just a scant few of this dwarf form of the Tasman Mountain Pepper which we presume to be from an exposed high elevation site on Mt Wellington. This is ideally suited to rock gardens where it will make a slow and low ball of reddish stems bejeweled with white flowers and oh so peppery black fruit. We were given this plant by the late Michael Wickenden of Cally Gardens in Scotland. Possibly the first introduction to the US. Small plants of this small rarity.
Waratah. This evergreen shrub in the Proteaceae hails from Tasmania and is a showstopper. Telopea is from the Greek telopos meaning “seen from afar” which perfectly describes the magnificent clustered red flowers quite unlike anything else we can grow here in the PNW and which are produced at the ends of gently ferruginous and leafy twigs. We were highly reluctant to chance planting out this hard-to-come-by beauty as we were quite sure our winter weather forays into 10F would be a terminal adventure. Were we ever wrong! It has come through the last 6 winters without a whimper and only a few nominal bits of leaf damage from the January 2025 Great Winnowing epic plunge. And deer resistant as if it needs further accolades – we have resolved to never garden without it. Sensitive to higher levels of phosphorous so go low in your NPK ratio. Some shade in hot sun areas.
An evergreen shrub we collected in 1997 on the slopes of the Cangshan Range above the town of Dali in Yunnan. Very attractive species whose glossy leaves are more than adequate ornament but when combined with the clustered small curved creamy flowers, it verges on the sublime. Best for milder gardens. Even though it was 20 years ago, the memory of finding this is like a snapshot. This was growing along the dirt single track road that wound up the mountain where it was mingling in a thicket of Myrica, Rhododendron edgeworthii and R. sulphureum, Hypericum, Tripterygium and Nomocharis pardanthina. The view down to the far plain below revealed the city of Dali to the right of gleaming Lake Erhai and just to the left, the famed Three Pagodas of Dali were scarcely visible as tiny pale scratches set in a triangle within the landscape. Writing this, we are transported back and can feel the breeze on our cheeks as it blows uphill carrying the faint "Pink-Pink-Pink" of hammer on chisel from a stone mason shaping a large marble boulder he had found among the scrub and rocky jumble of the lower slope.
Tough little evergold selection of this Meditteranean species. This will revel in our dry summers and bloom for months with the rosy pink flowers contrasting with the gold foliage. Likes good drainage and lots of sun and is a good plant for the deer proof garden. Slow spreader.
These are seed-grown from the impressive yellow hybrid Meadow Rue, Tukker Princess. These will gain some height reaching 6'-8' in flower with a nice display of bee-lovin' scented yellow flowers. Does not flop in our sunny and windy garden which is a plus. Self-sows which is not a plus so cut off seed head before ripe.
Young plants from our seed collection in Switzerland a couple summers ago while hiking the 120 mile High Pass Route. Nothing like fresh snow in late August on the crazy narrow goat track path above a dizzying drop on the highest pass to make you wail for mama. Kelly wailed, Sue was fine. A few extra plants from planting out. Showy filamentous purplish flowers.
One of the good Meadow Rues (there are bad ones, several of which are playing key roles in our compost pile) with nice small rounded leaflets and attractive pinky lavender flowers in cumulonimbus heads. Great midsummer textural color along with the often undervalued design elements of narrow, vertical and airy.
A fantastic small Thalictrum from a Darrell Probst collection in China - no surprise that it is a great plant coming from Darrell. This will make an impressive ball of fine foliage with too many to count small white flowers whose petals are reflexed to unashamedly or brazenly - your choice - display its plant junk with soft lavender filaments. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering. Eventually to almost 2 feet tall and as much around.
This native Afghani is unrivalled among Thalictrum for textural achievement and presentation of foliage. A diaphanous haze of small gray-green leaflets makes this well worth growing despite the insignificant flowers. Normally we insist on nice flowers but this foliage woos one and all, lasting long after any bloom.
Seriously good small Meadow Rue from Greece that brings it earlier than some more familiar species. Makes a rounded mass of fine leaflets on many stems to 12"-18" tall with a full helping of clean white flowers. You could ask for more from a small plant such as this but it would be bad form.
Very cute dwarf with more floral punch than expected from a plant a mere 8"-12" tall. White powder-puff flowers go on for weeks and are held nicely above maidenhair foliage. This Japanese selection of a Taiwan mountain species correctly suggests growing in the rock garden but is also perfect for that small spot begging for something perfect.
Originally collected as Thymus drucei amidst the limestone barrens of County Clare, Ireland by Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy board member Cody Hinchliff. A hotspot of botanical diversity where unique climate and geology combine to create a pocket of delightful rarities often found in higher elevations. These are limited to far Western Europe more generally and have the usual fragrant rounded leaves of Thyme on creeping red stems. The flowers set them apart however being a good bit larger than the foliage and appearing in such quantities as to almost entirely obscure the latter. Forms a small mat or clambering clump.