C

We are smitten by the hardy gingers which we can grow and flower in our cold pocket garden and Cautleya is a genus that does just that. This species is a graceful member of the genus and ranges from Bhutan to Thailand. This collections hails from Vietnam and is often found growing on rocks, trees or rotting logs. This has the classic presentation for the species with clear yellow flowers and red calyces. We suggest mulching for winter.

Cardiocrinum is exciting enough but variety yunnanense with its burnished copper new growth causes pulses to elevate along with dilated pupils and flaring nostrils. When this is blooming it is almost as good as sex. It takes a few years but purple flushed white flowers on 12' stalks - oh yes!

This is our best guess as to what this plant is which we got as cuttings from obssessive plant collector Marian Raitz's garden. High degree of confidence in our guess, by the way. Award of Merit selection, this is an impressive evergreen shrub with graceful branches carrying white flowers and very good yellow fruit.

Quite a magnificent selection from Fernhill Gardens in Dublin, Ireland. Broad pleated leaves somewhat arching are simply perfect with the fat spikes of closely spaced yellow-orange flowers. Our plants came from the extraordinary garden of Linda Cochran and the best planting we have seen of this was at Nita Jo Rountrees luscious garden.

As neither of us were lucky enough to be debutantes ourselves, growing this 'Debutante' is ample solace. The flowers are small but tend to face upwards opening orange but fading rapidly to a soft pink in the interior which is accented by a yellow eye while the exterior retains a deeper orange-red coloring. To 30" of tidy habit with conservative values until it blooms with a rate of increase that might be best described as restrained with the weight of past generations measuring the suppression of potential impropriety.

A purple flowering variety of this Asian gesneriad. While the leaves are pretty typical of the family at maturity, the immature leaves are incredibly textured like the interior of corrugated cardboard, or pruned fingers from a overly luxurious bath. Bright purple, tubular, star-shaped flowers somewhere between Nicotiana and Asarum held in small stalked clumps above the rosette.  Prefers a rocky wet but well drained spot akin to its native environment.

A seldom-seen species of Sweet Pepperbush from our seed collection in the wild where it was leafless branches and a multiplicity of small finger-like panicles bedecked with small seed capsules. This has proven itself in the garden here with a profusion of summer white flowers literally alive with pollinators. This species can become a tree but this collection is currently a large shrub.

Coming to us from ace rock gardener Kathy Allen of Oregon, and native to the Caucasus this forms a nice spreading clump of evergreen lightly ruffled heart-shaped leaves before putting out flowering stems of up to 2 feet covered in star-shaped bells of white. Happy in a well drained rock or crevice garden setting.

Our collection from a previously unbotanized remnant old-growrth forest in China. It was like walking in a mountain valley in Appalachia with massive Beech, Chestnuts, Hornbeams, Magnolias and Rhododendrons all hundreds of years old. Just writing this - it is like we're there. Good evergreen fern - guessing on species.

This is a fine plant and another of the Bressingham Gardens introductions. Good ripe tomato red flowers arrayed nicely on the stem and held out to maximize viewing. Very accommodating those Brits. The flowers are nicely ranked with some overlap on each side which creates a showy floral synergistic effect. This is a compact grower to just a couple feet tall and very useful where you need a shorter plant that can still pack a punch. No doubt a sister seedling to 'Bressingham Blaze' from the same cross of C. masoniorum x C. paniculata as both were introduced in 1970.

We got tired of folks asking for Jenny after seeing her in our border so being savvy entrepeneurs we potted some up. This is a dandy Crocosmia of smaller habit with tasty flowers of butterscotch infused yellow. Not a piercing yellow but of a gentle hue. Jenny has class after all.

Extremely rare offering of this NW Argentina-SE Bolivia version of the Chilean Crinodendron patagua. This large shrub to small 20'-30' multi-trunked tree has evergreen leaves and small white bell flowers. Quite fast growing and is one of the primary species in the Podocarpus parlatorei forests. Hardiness is unknown but C. patagua has frozen solid here in a gallon pot at 17F, defoliated, and grew away in the spring like nothing happened. Hopefully another similarity these two species have in common. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering

One of our most favored small trees is this princeling of a cornel. Late winter flowers of yellow filamentous buttons followed by perfectly clean white variegation in the leaves and all further accented when the flowers turn into edible reddish fruits in late summer. Extremely hardy species and these are on their own roots and not grafted.

A bright flare of rich red flowers makes this is an excellent garden plant which puts on a good show and was named for a woman of no small means and substance. To bestow such a namesake upon a plant of anything less than the first rank would be folly in more ways than a simple flatlander such as myself could conjure so that alone should speak to its merits. The spawn of breeding Crocosmia xcrocsmiiflora x 'Lucifer' in the late 1980's by A.J. Hogan in Cornwall resulted in some excellent seedlings. This was the cream of that crop and was named in 1993 and bears little resemblance to 'Lucifer'. A robust plant to 3' tall or so.

One of two similar but subtly different chance seedlings in our garden thanks to the tireless hybridization efforts of our various bee species. Apparently they visited the nursery and purloined pollen from 'Dixter Pink' or 'Cottage Apricot' and placed it on our Chrysanthemum yezoense - awesome! Why didn't we think of that? Softly pale pink flowers with petals flat to slightly reflexed.

We haven't yet flowered this twining Campanula relative which we received as seed labeled Codonopisis - Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh form. RBGE is Mecca for plantspeople with one of the finest collections of plants in the world. This is a herbaceous vine to 6' with likely blue flowers. Zone 6 at least.

Ok, update as of this summer 2016. This has pale yellow-green flowers netted heavily with purple veins and variable leaves ranging from ovate to ovate-lanceolate with leaf margins all over the map running from serrate to crenulate, entire to lobed. Historically this has been regarded as Codonopsis rotundifolia var. angustifolia but Hong in his recent taxonomic revision of the genus now places this in the new species, C. bomiensis. Fits perfectly with his description and photos in the monograph and our thanks to Bob Armstrong for assisting us with identification. Native to China and Tibet, zone 6 for sure and very likely lower.

This is thought to be an intergeneric hybrid between 2 of New Zealand's shrubby daisies. This gives a fabulous textural addition to the Mediterranean garden like some happy marriage of heather and rosemary. Small white flowers cluster at the tops of the stems. Good drainage, tolerant of some dry.

Hybrid seedling arising in Mike and Polly Stone's garden at Askival in Scotland with C. wardii as a parent and likely C. fastigiata as well. This is a very free flowering and upright plant and much easier to grow than either parent. Good drainage with moisture retention in a cool site with good air circulation. Easy-peasy.

A collection from Nepal deemed distinct by Crug Farm Plants in Wales. From terminal bud cones in mid to late summer, yellow-orange flowers spout from prominent red bracts. The foliage is red-tinged underneath and is held on dark stems. Clumps nicely and the species as a whole is of elegant presentation. Moist, rich and mulch if winter is cold.

We love this plant. One of the first of the hardy Zingiberaceae to bloom and the contrast of reddish bracts and orange-yellow flowers plus the underside of the leaves blushed in red.....mmmmm. We're guessing on cathcartii 'cause it isn't spicata or gracilis. Moist organic soil.