China

A new offering for us here at Far Reaches, and a solid addition to any Pleione collection. This has a handsome deep magenta flower with a fringed lip and dark red spotting in the throat. As with all Pleiones, this increases freely by small bulblets, and needs excellent drainage.

One of the few plants the damn yaks don't eat up in the Tibetan Plateau which explains why we were able to collect seed of this herbaceous honeysuckle relative. Bold leaves with absolutely nothing flowers in June which yield smashing clusters of marble-sized red fruit.

Toad Lily. Our collection from Asia This toadie was found on the lower flanks of the mountain we were exploring where it favored openings in the forest where it got dappled light and a brief bit of direct sun. Distinct softly haired velvety leaves with white flowers ruby spotted on the reflexed tepals curving down below the jester's cap of similarly colored naughty bits.

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.

This is the coveted true species unlike the usual Allium sikkimense which is what you get from most seed exchanges. Ours came from Ian Christie in Scotland and with Ian's name as provenance, there is little doubt. Besides we flowered it and it is correct! Thin grassy leaves in dense tussocks with small headed blue flowers in late summer. A Chinese species that is not one of the bulbous summer dormant types but appreciates moisture during the summer and is quite easy despite its relative scarcity.

Our collection from Guizhou in 2010 of this mouth-watering shade perennial. Branched stems to nearly 3' with large reddish-purple pendulous flowers followed by shiny black fruit. We like this one so much we went back to the same mountain in 2012 and collected more seed! Gonna rock the shade garden.

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.

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. 

Our collection from southern China in an area little botanized by westerners. Green palmata-type leaves are admittedly unremarkable but the leggy red stems which bear these leaves and pink flowers aloft, lissome limbs gleaming like Chihuly glass. This has handled a hard Seattle winter with a bit of bark mulch.

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.

The correctly named true species as what is generally seen in gardens are forms of Cardiocrinum giganteum. The only deviation from the key of 3-5 flowers are some with up to 9 flowers which we attribute to easy living in our garden and variation within the species. This is most closely allied to C. cordatum from Japan, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands and has similarities in height at 4'-7' tall along with the distinctive grouping of leaves in the middle part of the flowering stem. New growth in spring is a brilliant copper-red and non-flowering bulbs go dormant quite early in June. White tepals are greenish-white at base with interior first touched in soft yellow-green and then deep within, purple. And fragrant late in the day. These are small bulbs perhaps 3 years from flowering. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering,

Named for UK plantsman Martyn Rix, this Iris gets bamboo-like stems to 2'-3' topped by fans of long green leaves from which the long flower stems emerge bearing a swarm of dark blue-violet flowers which are deeper colored than typical for the species. This would boogie in a rich moist in a partially shaded site in a mild garden. We usually get a brief cold snap each winter which keeps us from being San Francisco and that cold snap takes off the canes carrying the flower buds so we get to enjoy blooms in our cool greenhouses or visit friends in town who are just that much warmer. Very cool and worth growing. Evergreen in most non-violent winters.

A very good evergreen fern native to Taiwan, China and Japan which we imported from a specialist in the UK. Tidy and attractive species reaching 30" wide with fronds to 20" tall, this requires shade to part shade. And brace yourself - it is tolerant of dry shade! Happier of course with some water, Spore-grown by us.

Excellent selection from the former Heronswood nursery of this robust woodlander noted for the dark hued stems especially in the new growth. This is an exuberant grower sending up big dark chocolate asparagus spears of new growth in late spring which branch out as they get taller bearing small creamy-green bells followed by glistening small black fruit. The young leaves carry some of coloring of the new growth and the whole plant retains this color better if grown in sun in our mild sun climate. In our shade garden, the foliage matures to a very pleasing dark olive-green and seems like some impressive cousin to bamboo as it can each 5'-6' tall. We always mulch ours in winter as we don't want to freeze out the crown and the new growth can start early here in the PNW so this mulch protects it from getting frosted. An easy and stunning plant. This was and still is offered as a selection of Disporum cantoniense but we thank Bleddyn Wynn-Jones for correctly identifying this as to species.

Jim Fox brought us seeds of this rare Chinese Hypericum from Roy Lancaster's garden in England where it is one of the many stars. A shrub of some refined habit with arching branchlets to perhaps 3 feet or a little more with very nice yellow flowers in mid summer. Roy is pretty much God of Plants as far as we're concerned and we're well pleased to have a bit of his garden in our own.

Our collection where this was growing on a shaded and mossy rock face above a stream. The spider web covered in venomous painful neurotoxin droplets necessitated a frantic wash in the stream. White flowers sporting blue-violet anthers. Great shade plant and unexpectedly lovely in early to mid spring.

The form matching best with the species description. This is a low-growing evergreen Solomon Seal ally from China and has a more refined look than other forms of this species which we grow. Nice white flowers with a bit of caramel amber added and purplish fruit that follows.

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.

I liked the old name of Damacanthus which is what I blurt out when weeding around the spinier Bear's Breeches in the garden. Odd little deciduous woody subshrub of congested twisted stems and stoloniferous habit. It has grown on us over the years and has been useful in the plant version of "Stump the Chump".

Our collection of this Asian herbaceous perennial vining member of the Bellflower or Campanula family, this is very distinctive in having narrow and elegant tubular green flowers on a vine to 8'. This will die down each fall but pop back in the spring. This prefers bright shade to part shade and we found this growing in shrubbery in open forest.