China

This indispensable species was exciting to see even though it was well into fall. Numerous plants with up to 30" stems and clusters of black fruit. Even though the leaves were turning brown in anticipation of winter, we imagined the scene in spring with the overstory of Magnolia sieboldii and the Disporum with its pendant red-purple bells in small bunches of 3-7 or more. Ear to ear grins! This is the same population as the CDHM 14604 collection two years later.

Excellent little Asian Allium that is very nice with small heads of white flowers. Perfect for the rock garden or does great in regular garden beds as it does appreciate some moisture during the summer. Sun and decent drainage and thrives in one customers garden in Michigan. Tidy and of good disposition and certainly not a garden thug.

A Steve Hootman collection from the Sino Himalaya of this quite unique creeping Honeysuckle. This is a Kinnikinnik (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) alternative, making a mat of small rounded green leaves turning rich purple/red/bronze tones in winter. Small light yellow Honeysuckle flowers are sprinkled throughout. Very cool.

Steve Hootman, Curator and Director of the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden, often pats himself on the back for collecting this exceptional species in China and each spring as our plants flower, we murmur attaboys and give him virtual high fives while virtually raising our glass in salute. Loves some shade, great foliage and spring pink flowers. Steve has bagged a host of amazing Rhodos on his collecting trips and this Peony is just as exceptional. Narrow leaflets with a distinct sheen provide backing for the fat dark pink flower buds which often emerge in the early to mid spring before the leaves. This gives an extended period of tantalization before the impressive pink flowers open. An added bonus are the lovely shiny black seeds arrayed in the starfish-shaped seed pods. All in all, a very choice introduction. Huzzah, Hootman and well done Laddie! Just cover the 'noses' an inch or two as too deep is worse than too shallow when planting peonies. This species is best in light shade although part sun such as morning sun is perfectly ok. These are seedlings that are a couple years from blooming size.

We collected this in 1997 on the Tibetan Plateau near Zhongdian in an area of Tibetan open range. The early October withered, deciduous leaves and dried seed pods shrieked Iris! Eventual flowers confirmed the species, first described in 1995. Thin leaves and basal gorgeous flowers. Young plants.

From one of the richest botanical late afternoon spur-of-the-moments "let's see what this dirt road offers" we have ever had. From trees, to shrubs to perennials to monocots, we made very little progress up the road in the time available. This indispensable perennial Merry Bells was 2' tall with tempting blue fruit in light shade and part sun.  Upon flowering, this deviated from the typical purple-pink bells of cantoniense with greenish flowers whose midsection is infused with a pale chocolate. The species is wide-ranging and it would not be surprising to see color variation in the flowers. Certainly a rarity whether it is this species or proves to be something else entirely.

Beautiful clumping species that may well be the queen of the genus. Or are we granting royalty because it is new on the scene? Maybe, but it is awfully good. This makes a stout small clump of evergreen, fern-like leaves from which emerge in spring the peculiarly Coptis greenish-yellow flowers. From China.

An extraordinary variant from Linda Cochran's (of course) old garden which she allowed us to salvage when moving. Distinctly mocha foliage in early spring, with various plant parts retaining dark tones. Notably, the flower stem is very dark as are the bracts enclosing the flower bud. The flowers are lovely, white and richly colored in dark maroon. These are bulbs from isolated, hand-pollinated seed. It will be 3-4 years before these flower but lengthy establishment will result in maximum size.

Lily of the Valley. A good selection of this stalwart species with a yellow margin to the leaves and said leaves are larger than average as well. Typical scented white flowers. There are numerous spellings of the cultivar name but since this is an American introduction, we can only assume this is correct.

Second generation plants from our collection from a grassy bank above a stream in Tibetan Yunnan where it was growing in moist rich topsoil at around 10000'. This is a choice herbaceous member of the Barberry Family with rich darkly mottled new growth and broad sharply lobed palmate leaves up to a foot across with a crystalline pink chalice of a flower giving way to large red fruits in fall. Gorgeous moist shade plant to 3' tall although we've seen this same collection at a friend's garden pushing 4' tall. Hardy to Zone 5 and best of all - it's easy. These are very large flowering size plants of a size that is seldom if ever available. Beautiful as a single specimen plant or especially effective in drifts of 50.

Pretty cool False Solomon's Seal whose terminal display of small, narrow-tubed yellowish to green flowers carries more interest than might be implied. This is genetically distinct from the white flowered M. henryi from Yunnan and has a pure, sweeter fragrance than the more cloying white form. We love them both. Sometimes seen as the invalid species ginfushanica.

This naturally occuring hybrid Deparia comes to us via plantsman Lance Reiners. Forms a clump of glossy dark green single fronds, each of which is marked by an extremely crenate margin, think scrapbooking scissors. The overall effect is rather eel-like and somewhere between a small blechnum and a tongue fern. Very unusual and quite attractive, wants a wet but well drained spot. Should be hardy down to Zone 7 given its parentage but will possibly go slightly lower.

Pretty fantastic selection originating in China but now out of Japan at considerable cost. This Mayapple will develop quite irregularly lobed leaves that are like a psychotropic rectilinear parallelogram awash in pale patterns and dark mottled patterns flashing you back to your youthful experimental phase. Divisions from our plants - not fresh imports. Legal in all 50 states for recreational use with no side effects other than recurrent euphoria.

One of the great evergreen hardy fern species from our collection in Hubei in this wondrous narrow valley cleaved by a stream. Wondrous because of the flora which included Acer griseum among a host of choice species. Tough fern which looks good pretty much all the time with very few exceptions.

This busy Lizzy is not the free-wheeling wild times tropical annual of your Grandma's time, this is the conservative backlash foliage over flowers, year round workhorse Impatiens. Hardy down to the warmer parts of Zone 6 this is a great plant to add some tropical flavor to your less-than-tropical perennial woodland garden. Plus happily spreading and easily dug to share with friends! Wheels of lime or silver-streaked dark green leaves centered in red with yellow balsamineous flowers in Summer. These are cutting grown from a particularly narrow form at the old Heronswood nursery. 

Chinese Bleeding Heart. While we miss Dicentra, we do enjoy this new name and the "ichtyo" reference to the fishtail flowers. This clone probably hails from a Sichuan Mt Emei collection by Don Jacobs. This is a vigorous and impressive plant growing in shaded moist sites in the wild. Taking that into account, that is where we grow it here in our shade garden where it grows under an Ilex fargesii with the odd Lilium nepalense poking through. Broad leaflets on 20" tall foliage with large palest yellow flowers. In exceptionally rich moist soil this can really get a head of steam going and perhaps be too much of a good thing but in our shade garden we have been nothing but happy for the seven years it has been growing.

Vigorous plants and our hybrids with mainly delavayi as the parent showing more vigor and variation in shape and color than what we associate with known delavayi of wild origin. Whatever the parentage, (I sometimes wonder about my own) these are arresting shade plants for rich moist soil. Red flowers are amazing surprises under the leaves. Persistence of patterned markings are variable and expect fading to varying degrees as the leaves mature. These are all unique individuals which we would be happy to have in our garden. We have offered these earlier as presumptive hybrids and we presume no longer. We will jump on the Dysosma instead of Podophyllum wagon soon.

The bees have done some fine work in the garden, shuttling between a Roy Lancaster collection of the purple/white Epimedium x omeiense and our collection of the rare yellow Epimedium flavum, found only in a small area of the Erlang Shan in Sichuan.  These are unselected seedlings which all have garden merit and are deserving of a good garden trial but our ADPS (Attention Deficit Plant Syndrome) is getting in the way of doing that so we are jobbing it out to you.  Various colors and evergreen foliage.

A crisp October morning at 10000’ on the frozen summit of a mountain in Hubei with small copses of Rhododendron oreodoxa var. fargesii huddled together with leaves curled tubular in the cold. The grassy patches among the rock outcrops were brown and sparkling with frost crystals.  We were there in search of the wee Allium henryi discovered in this area by Irish plant hunter Augustine Henry in the 1880’s but perhaps not introduced as our research indicated it was dubiously in cultivation if at all.  At this point in the season, most herbaceous plants had succumbed to repeated hard frosts and we were left searching for likely maybe could be Allium withered brown foliage and tattered spent seed heads all of 3-4 inches in height.  The view was spectacular although until we could claim a seed or two of a dwarf Allium, we could not give its just due.  At last we found a scant few small plant remains in a weekly-grassed spot and some equally petite remnants in humus pockets on the flanks of a shaded rock cliff.  Less than 10 seeds from each and we could find no more allowing us a moment to soak in the magnificence of lesser mountains marching away before as with precipitous valleys intervening all clad in true firs (Abies fargesii var. fargesii) which was so familiar yet so exotic.  We realized this was one of the great vistas and Kelly said “Mom would like this” and from his pack pulled out a Ziploc of said mom’s ashes and gave them a good scattering.  So what about those onion seeds?  One lot did indeed turn out to be the blue-flowered Allium henryi with flat leaves lined in white underneath while the other, this one, proved to be the thin-leaved and also blue-flowered Allium cyaneum.

A very low growing species which we received under the name jinfushanensis but have since had identified as undulata. We saw the true jinfushanensis on Mt Jinfo fall of 2010 and it bears no resemblance to this which is better! Slowly spreading evergreen stems and speckled whitish bells.