Chile

Very handsome evergreen shrub to small tree in the Myrtle family from Chile where it does get some snow and this is a good sheltered zone 8 plant. Small white flowers in some profusion are followed by attractive berries which have a bit of a wintergreen taste. All legal caveats, disclaimers and lack of labeling for potential allergens apply concerning edibility.

A plant we got from Michael Wickenden at Cally Gardens in Scotland who collected this in Chile. The flowers on this form seem a bit larger than typical as if they need to get any better. Wild orange-red dangling tubular pouches beckon man and hummingbird alike. Can clamber up into trees or kept small and shrubby by a bit of clipping. Sadly Michael died in October 2016 while plant hunting in Myanmar which is a keen loss as he was an uncompromising plantsman who was not afraid to take on nonsensical and misguided bureaucracy whether it was plant patents or ponderous legislation regarding wild and plant seed collection.

Or as we like to say, Lah-go Poo-Yay-Way. Presumably collected near the Chilean lake for which it is named, this uncommon clone is not horticulturally distinct from the Lake Caburqua form but does represent important genetic diversity in this monotypic genus. Scrambling and rambling and climbing woody gesneriad with orange tubular flowers and hardy here in Zone 8. A good wall plant for sure. We brought this home from England after acquiring it from an elderly collector who had numerous treasures which admittedly were staring into the abyss. Happy to say, it is living large here.

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.

Endemic to a small region of central Chile, and vulnerable in the wild, this is like the rare collectible variant of Lobelia tupa, with much the same habit and cultural requirements, meaning full sun and decent drainage, especially in the face of winter wet. The flowers present as a flurry of frilly pink corollas that conjure images of the fabulous tails of tropical birds, honed for years by evolution to attract flirtatious females. The flirtation here is with hummingbirds, endowed with the perfectly adapted slender beaks; or with coastal climate gardeners endowed with the perfect mild winters. Likely slightly less hardy than L. tupa and will be reset to the ground each winter. These are from wild seed collected by FRBC board member and botanist Cody Hinchliff.

Chilean Guava. Our mama plant is loaded with fruit in the greenhouse right now and after eating some, we're questioning why we are selling any instead of keeping them to lavish ourselves in personal extravagance. If we were just two miles down the road by the shore we would grow these outside but here in the relative Siberia of the Quimper Peninsula Steppe, we dasn't take the chance. One of the perfect evergreen shrubs for mild climates, this has shiny aromatic leaves giving olfactory testimony to its inclusion in the Myrtle family. Nice white flowers followed by ruby flavorful fruit the size of average Blueberries and all on a broadly columnar plant to 8' tall. If this was hardier, it would be ubiquitous. As it is, it is worth coddling in cooler climes and personally we are going to throw down some Chilean Guava on our foodie friends come Christmas. The best thing about bringing an Ugni dish to Christmas dinner? It'll be the best Ugni anyone has ever had. Neo in The Matrix, not in black but in Chef white, holding a plate of Ugni a la Far Reaches in one hand and reaching out, beckoning "Bring it, foodies" with the other. Oh yeah, so doing the Ugni.

A Chilean collection of a very large form of this showy species. You can correctly infer that since this is larger, it is showier! Four foot tall or more flower stems arise from the bold basal rosettes of ruffled rounded leaves to display in grand fashion the wands of white-throated pink flowers. If size is important to you and if we are all being honest, it is, then this is the Francoa to which all others must be measured and found lacking. Mild gardens here.

Quite the uncommon small evergreen tree to large shrub that has tiny little red flowers cladding the stems which individually are a bit of nothing but in their multitudes are really kind of fun. Native to Argentina through Chile down into windy Patagonia, this has not been trialed much here but is growing at the Arboretum in Seattle. Zone 8. Previously received as Maytenus chubatensis and offered as such but finally plowed through some South America floras and wait a minute - it's Maytenus magellanica! We down widdat since it is actually nicer and hardier.

Those dang taxonimists submerged our beloved Bolax glebaria into this newfangled genus and it jes' turns us into a couple of ornery ol' cusses. Oh well, a name is but an artificial convention that is nowhere near what the plant calls itself. Tight little hummock former for the rock garden.

We are very fond of this plant from Chile where it can scramble up into trees quite a ways and the branchlets poking out into the sun are studded with glowing brick orange 1.5" trumpets. We've also seen it kept as a loose mound in full sun literally covered in flowers. Evergreen.

This a bigger version of the little B. penna-marina ssp. alpina commonly found in nurseries. We never see this offered which is just a shame since it is a great fern. Well, not such a shame since a little exclusivity never hurts. This makes a dense groundcover of evergreen foliage.