B

Robust can often go without saying when it comes to mint relatives but this one really hits that sweet spot of pow and wham without the "I work alone" bullheadedness of thuggy culinary relatives and superheroes with poor social marks from their supergroups. A Hinkley collection from turkey which forms a nicely mounded clump of pleated arrowhead leaves topped off by bright pinky-purple flowerheads on foot tall stems. Happy in the sun and amidst both the probing antennae and the roving chompers of your local fauna. Easy and likeable, be a Superman not a Punisher.

A fine foliage plant in the family Urticaceae and it is easy to see the family resemblance in it's cousin the nettle. But no worries, this is a venomless pussycat making a clump of tall stems with dangling panicles of tan flowers. Great texture for the moist shade garden. From China/Korea.

We received this labeled as Begonia sp. Guizhou 2011 but which we strongly suspect is a Mark Weathington Taiwan collection in 2010. We have the latter from Mark and the two are identical. A compact species to be sure, with small pale green, angel's wing leaves held aloft by short stems. Pink flowers. Hardy in our area mulched during winter.

A Hinkley collection of this rhizomatous Begonia from 9500' in the far eastern Himalaya. Attractive foliage with red hues and veins underleaf and we presume, pink flowers. Hardiness is unknown but we would mulch it well in zone 8 gardens. Ideally, overwinter frost-free until large enough to divide off a piece for trial outside in your garden. This would be a trial lamb.

A Mexican species and rhizomatous type with leaves that while not as large as the namesake Heracleum do rival in it in incised shape, and far outdo it in leaf patterning with a edge spattered in a dark reddish black. Could prove hardy in mild Zone 8 climates!

The only plant we grow in the Berberidopsidaceae and after typing this, thank god. One of the choicest woodland plants and a connoisseur climber for mild sheltered gardens. A well-grown Berberidopsis in your garden makes you a Garden Queen (regardless of gender). Evergreen, late summer deep coral flowers.

This is an overachieving Type A taking care of No. 1 first let me tell you some more about myself hardy Orchid but while we find these qualities wearisome in people, we are all over it when it comes to Orchids! Gotta love the attitude of a 40" flowering stem holding as many as 35 pale pink flowers, Nothing like a nice shot of mongrel hybrid vigor for excelling in the garden! Good drainage with moisture.

A Chadwell collection from the Himalaya which we've grown for over two decades. This species is found at higher elevations than B. pacumbis which shares the same range. The green leaves are not uncomfortably large but pleasantly average. (I've said this before - seems familiar somehow....) White flowers.

Rhizomatous species from southern China with excellent foliage colored light red on the underside and olive-buff green on top with a ring of silver-white spots just in from the margin. This makes a fine clump to 20" tall in a container, more than holding its own with just foliage but the late season white flowers are welcome frosting on this particular Begonia cake. This has been hardy here in the zone 8 Puget Sound with winter mulch. One of our better collections for sure.

A perennial mainstay in Europe and a key player in the Dutch and German Waves of garden design is this nearly perfect Fleece Flower and for darn good reason. This behaves itself and doesn't run or seed, just clumps and blooms all summer until frost. The white flowers provide critical contrast and a cooling point for the hot colors of the summer border - a visual iceberg for your fevered eye to stretch out belly flat like your hiking dog buddy does on that lingering snowbank high in the mountains in late summer. Very hardy, very easy, this works with nearly everything and will make you look like you have realized your potential.

Very collectible selection of this hardy terrestrial orchid which boasts - yes, boasts, of its unique, light chartreuse foliage. if your ears, like ours, are tuned to that high frequency in which plants converse, you can just make out this orchid sounding like an NBA player after throwing down a one-handed jam from an alley-oop "Yeah! Lookit me! Me! I'm a bad-ass orchid! You ask yo mama how bad I am! An yo sister - she loves how my leaves shine when the lights go down." I've given up on the NBA because such displays are wearisome but somehow, with this orchid, it is an endearing cheekiness. Light yellow foliage looks it best in bright shade to part sun and not the part during the hot part of the day. Leaves 18"-24" with pinkish-purple flowers a few inches taller in June and hardy to zone 6 especially with winter mulch.

Evening Glow'. Sturdy German hybrid which excels in all areas of foliage, flower and garden worthiness. Good rich glossy green foliage colors up very well in winter especially given exposure to sun. The March and April flowers are a strong pink with an infusion of magenta which glam rocks Spring's murmuring pastels.

Friends who bring you seeds are good friends, friends who bring you seeds from legendary South African seed supplier Silverhill are even better, luckily FRBC board member Cody Hinchliff falls into the latter. Very cool African butterfly bush with evergreen, glaucous silver-grey-green leaves and globules of purple flowers that are more rounded and bunched than their more commonly grown relatives. Rare in US cultivation but some have claimed suprising hardiness when given some protection to establish. An approachable way to check off another continent in your garden of the far reaches.

First US offering of this mind-melting mega must-have plant zombie drenched sheets fever lying about the price without a second thought to husband-wife-partner-mother forget to feed the dog dream Araliad. BIG leaves and sprays of snowball flowers. Go ahead, google it but don't say we didn't warn you. Young plants but will grow quickly. Tender but when has that stopped you?

Rock Knotweed. A choice mounding groundcover we got at one of the best alpine plant nurseries on the planet, Aberconwy Nursery in Wales. Dense trailing and mounding red stems lavishly adorned with Aug-Sept spires of pink flowers and glossily petite deciduous leaves. Lovely spiller in containers. Probably hardier than the zone 7b we know to be true.

Nice hairy-leafed species from the Himalaya ranging from Nepal to Pakistan. This is semi-deciduous in our area and will go totally deciduous in colder zones. Like most Bergenia, this can take full sun, but late spring frosts can ding the new leaves and pink flowers. Rounded hairy mid-green leaves with reddish petioles. This clone a gift from a serious collector's garden.

Named for the stringently impeccable plantswoman and designer, this large-leafed deciduous Bergenia with pink-white flowers is a worthy namesake. She had a deserved reputation of not brooking fools gladly but strangely was always pleased to see us - perhaps a case of the exception proving the rule. Light green leaves with crenulate dentation on the scalloped leaves.

How does that old saying go something about 3 lips are better than one? Or was it heads? or was it 2? Nah pretty sure it was three lips and who would beg to disagree after seeing this oh-so-kissable little mutant hardy orchid. The name says it all, where the usual flowers of the species usually have only one ruffled lower edge the flowers on this form have a triangular trinity that only adds to the exotic appearance. 

A collection by Shayne Chandler in Ecuador of this shrubby evergreen species as Baccharis buxifolia except its folia is not buxus-like in that the leaf margins are serrate and not smoothly entire.  We've not flowered this and honestly, are quite pleased it is not buxifolia as that is a bit of a yawn ornamentally.  The leaves of this look close to Baccharis arbutifolia which is much more ornamental with raspberry-colored flowers accented by white stamens which would be a Siren's song to a seed collector.  Deer resistant.

Tasmanian Blueberry Vine. Very cool evergreen vine from Tasmania with tubular greenish white flowers in May and June followed by very showy violet non-messy berries which depending on the weather, can persist through the winter. One of the finest small vines.