China

This wild-collected Sichuanese Polygonatum has the province's signature added spice in comparison to the usual Polygonatum prattii. These grow to only about half the size (3-4") and have attractive red-purple stems, and new leaves suffused in the same peppercorn hue. No chewing required to experience delightful tingling, in fact please don't. Quite hardy, and happy in a shady spot with decent moisture, small pink vanilla-scented flowers.

This species is best known from the clone ‘Chocolate Stars’ which has been around for years and noted for its brownish foliage.  This is not that but does have leaves in shades of copper when first emerging that later morphs into various green realms as the season progresses.  Likewise, the flowers for us start out white in the early part of spring and later are softly lavender.  These are rare second-generation plants from our own wild collection for those plant collectors (Me! Me!) who appreciate seeing alternative expressions of a species.  Fast-growing in moist light shade with white to lavender tubular flowers followed by narrow reddish seed capsules.  This will self-sow so we just pull off the seed-bearing stems leaving the fresh new foliage to fill out the plant.  We leave a stem or two just so we can have a few seedlings to pot up.  Any unwanted seedlings are weakly rooted and a literal snap to remove.

A very rare member of this famously lustrous fern genus, this species is found only in two provinces of China. Possessed of delightfully round fronds that never fail to elicit cries of "that's a fern!", and that each with their glossy, pebbled texture look very much like fallen scales of some great dragon or dinosaur. The magic continues when the acrostichoid sporangia emerge, cloaking the entire back surface in what looks like fine black soot. Flora of China describes the rhizomes as long creeping but this hasn't been the case for us thus far as they have plodded along with small clumps with only a few new leaves at a time. We recently planted this out in our tufa wall and it already shows signs of increased vigor though so perhaps it just dislikes the confines of black plastic. Cold hardiness to be determined but we feel good about its chances in the PNW, a rocky substrate is desirable and a touch less moisture than most ferns.

Yet another of diverse and headachingly difficult to identify genus that love but doesn't love us back (at least taxonomically). The dark, opaque, and serrately margined rhizome scales have led us to believe it belongs in the section pseudovittaria where the publication helpfully states species delimitation is particularly difficult. Whatever the species it is an attractive small evergreen species that grows epiphytically in the wild and while spreading by rhizome tends to form a nice tight clump overall. The fronds start off broader and slightly twisted but become thin and much more upright as the sori develop. This has proved hardy for us thus far in the tufa wall housed in our collector's garden and has drawn the particular admiration of a few very knowledgeable local fern fanatics.

A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering

A collection by Iris-king Darrell Probst of the well-named bamboo iris. Not the plants of Van Gogh or your grandma, these grow as a series of stout green stems that hold aloft leaves which would be at home in the hands of an aristocratic lady fighting off a summer-time faint. That faint may well have been elicited by the elegant flowers of the palest lilac imaginable which come in small groups. Proof that even classic genera can offer the strange and wonderful.

Scented Solomon Seal. Our collection from 10000' of this vigorous form of the species identified for us by Dr. Aaron Floden. We have other collections of this species which get just 3" tall but this collection gets near 3x that.  The expected soft-pink bells are scented which is an endearing, if subtle, attribute.

Our long-ago (1997) collection of this widespread in nature but poorly represented in cultivation Rhododendron species. This has little to do with its appearance as the petite indumented evergreen leaves and delicate blushing white flowers create quite a handsome overall appearance on a manageably sized plant to boot. Their quickness to bloom and adaptability to various light regimes only add to its garden-worthiness. Unfortunately the hardiness leaves something to be desired, may be doable in a low zone 8 but 8b and up to be safe.

Our collection from Guizhou in an area famed for its vast diversity and density of Rhododendron species. It was really quite staggering to see the Rhododendrons dominate the landscape even in the fall when all was out of flower. This little Mondo Grass grew as part of the herbaceous understory and had narrow evergreen leaves to 6" with 8" flower stems bearing up to 7 glossy blue-black fruits. Part of our mission here at the nursery is to provide wild-sourced plants in genera that is confused taxonomically in hopes more light can be shed. A portion of the proceeds goes to the Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy.

On the spectrum of hardy aroids Pinellias fall somewhere between Arum and Arisaema with the attractive heart shaped leaves of the former and the hooded long-tongued flowers of the latter. Take that mix and shrink it all down and you get this lil cutie which reproduces itself by offsets and bulbils held on the leaves while not being as weedy as some other Pinellias. I have some qualms on calling this and the other larger marbled "form" the same thing but whatever the correct name it is still well worth having.

The myriad of skinny little wimp linguas flee before the broad shouldered chad heteractis with its rippling dimorphic chest hair of stellate boat-shaped rays and rich wooly under layer, so says the Flora of China's arcane key . At least that's how I remember it. All this to say that this exciting little number we collected in Yunnan boasts wider fronds and more uniformly attractive indument than the more commonly offered Pyrrosia lingua. Rare to see this species in cultivation (though it's possible some linguas or "sp."s in the market are actually heteractis) and the elevation of this collection leaves some question as to its hardiness as compared to those finally reaching the mainstream but rarity and risk often go hand in hand.

A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering

Podophyllum or Dysosma – the Asian species are better in Dysosma but when shopping, most people look for Podophyllum when they need to push their shade garden over the top.  This Chinese species was shared with us by our friend and great plantsman Darrell Probst who knows an extraordinary plant when he sees it.  Among our sea of Podophyllum species and cultivars, this stands apart in habit, form and flower.  Upright stems hold green lobed saucers of leaves which cannot be confused with the other green-leafed species.  Beautifully displayed are single white flowers under each leaf which when pollinated, morphs into a glowing orange fruit.  For us, this species stays in a tight crown without the running habit of some other species.  This is good if your space is limited and bad if you want more and of course, we want lots!  Which we don’t have but the scant few we do have in surplus, are here.

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.