China

A fantastic small Thalictrum from a Darrell Probst collection in China - no surprise that it is a great plant coming from Darrell. This will make an impressive ball of fine foliage with too many to count small white flowers whose petals are reflexed to unashamedly or brazenly - your choice - display its plant junk with soft lavender filaments. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering. Eventually to almost 2 feet tall and as much around.

One of those captivating Chinese species. This has a neat stoloniferous habit sending out runners and making new bulbs so you soon have a grove of Lilies. Flowers pink with dark spots with recurved petals in the classic "Turk's Cap" style. We love it.

Our most vigorous clone of this species which we collected in Sichuan in 2006. This will fill out a pot in no time and will do equally well in the garden. The day we found this is memorable because that evening we stayed in a hotel where we had to sleep with the lights on because every time we turned off the lights, numerous rats would scurry out from their home in our built-in bed and rustle about through our gear. When we turned on the lights, they would all dash back under and into our bed. Fortunately they kept to their level of the bed and we kept to ours but it was not the best of nights. This is a good evergreen perennial with whitish flowers with light purplish interiors and best in shade that doesn't dry out.

We saw this inhabitant of high alpine meadows in Sichuan in May of 2006 and were blown away by the small carpet of large pink flowers. Did we ever want that bad but no seed to be had. Fortunately a Norwegian friend collected seed and we can offer this rarity. Goes brown the winter so don't freak out.

A distinctive Vaccinium (Blueberry) collected by Jens Nielsen in western Yunnan at 3000 meters. Large leaves of serious substance alternately flank the arching stems and take on red-bronze colors when young as well in winter on the least mature leaves. No surprises on the white urn-shaped flowers or with the purple-black fruit which add ornament to an already interesting plant. We can only guess as to mature size of the plant but would think 3'-4' tall with arching and trailing branches to 6' or more. This is likely epiphytic in the wild which means good drainage in the garden.

Codonopsis are usually twining members of the Bellflower or Campanula family and the range of color and shapes in the flowers of the various species keeps our interest in this genus at a sharp edge. We are very keen on this one as it not only has intriguing flowers but a non-vining growth habit. This makes a low clump of leaves from which long, stiff flower stems emerge to 18" tall. The flowers are held several per stem and while not large, overcome this size deficiency with exceptional detail. The small ivory bells are heavily netted in vivid maroon veins inside and out. These stems are surely adapted to growing through grass or other low plants in Yunnan and Sichuan. Hardy to zone 6 and likely lower.

This collection is from what we regard as the southern form of this populous Asian species. What makes this special is that this was from the 10000' summit of this virtually unknown mountain and surely must be the highest elevation that this form grows. That, plus being one of the toughest days we have had in the field. This makes a good show with likely white flowers followed by heads of red fruit that matures to blue-black and the evergreen leaves are more attractive than the northern populations. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering

A good dark flowered form of Allium wallichii from China. Although the individual florets are fewer in number in the flower heads, the rich dark purple color more than compensates. This species is eaten by the local indigenous peoples although that wild crafting is becoming less frequent as grocery stores are awfully convenient. An easy species for the garden.

An evergreen shrub we collected in 1997 on the slopes of the Cangshan Range above the town of Dali in Yunnan. Very attractive species whose glossy leaves are more than adequate ornament but when combined with the clustered small curved creamy flowers, it verges on the sublime. Best for milder gardens. Even though it was 20 years ago, the memory of finding this is like a snapshot. This was growing along the dirt single track road that wound up the mountain where it was mingling in a thicket of Myrica, Rhododendron edgeworthii and R. sulphureum, Hypericum, Tripterygium and Nomocharis pardanthina. The view down to the far plain below revealed the city of Dali to the right of gleaming Lake Erhai and just to the left, the famed Three Pagodas of Dali were scarcely visible as tiny pale scratches set in a triangle within the landscape. Writing this, we are transported back and can feel the breeze on our cheeks as it blows uphill carrying the faint "Pink-Pink-Pink" of hammer on chisel from a stone mason shaping a large marble boulder he had found among the scrub and rocky jumble of the lower slope.

Adorable dwarf Chinese Solomon's Seal to just 4 or 5 inches tall. This has lovely light purple flowers which often causes Polygonatophiles to swoon leaving them prone in the garden where they awaken to smell the delightful vanilla fragrance emanating from these small jewel-like flowers which induces further swooning. This is simply a clever pollination mechanism involving repetitive nose transferal of pollen but be prepared and don't wear your best clothes. These are divisions originally from a Diana Reeck 1996 collection in China.

A multi-stemmed large shrub having a small tree appearance as it is quite upright from our Asian collection in an area of extreme ecological devastation. This had fallen from a cliff edge making seed capsules accessible. Narrow flower heads of whitish flowers have a graceful quality that is found in the wild species. Proceeds from this offering go to support the mission of Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy. Previously offered as Syringa aff. yunnanensis.

One of the good Meadow Rues (there are bad ones, several of which are playing key roles in our compost pile) with nice small rounded leaflets and attractive pinky lavender flowers in cumulonimbus heads. Great midsummer textural color along with the often undervalued design elements of narrow, vertical and airy.

We've always regarded this herbaceous Hydrangea relative from Asia as one of the preeminent collector's plants for the shade garden. From a woody rootstock each spring arises multiple stems holding textured rounded leaves tinged in soft purple edges with midsummer terminal clusters of lavender flowers possessing the most exquisite detail.

A cute little cousin to the hardy Gingers, this Zingiberaceae member has tuberous roots from which low wide short strap leaves appear and in the center are nested small pink orchid-like flowers. This one has its origin in a Roy Lancaster collection in China.

Crimson Fans. An amazing clone of a hardy Korean species in the Saxifragaceae. The early spring flowers are little pale things which are les amuse-geules for the foliar main course. In sun, the leaves turn a screaming crimson as summer ages especially if briefly and carefully water stressed. Moist.

Second generation seedlings from our collection in Sichuan in 2006. We were thrilled to find this Epimedium - just 5 plants with a few ripe seed - growing on a shallow layer of moss and humus on a damp rock face along a narrow dirt road. Interestingly, two of the plants had black seed capsules and the other three were green. Yellow flowers from April to mid summer and then again in fall in our fertile and moist shade garden. We had this listed last year as Epimedium davidii which it closely resembles and thought this but a variation in flower until the keen eyes of Ben Stormes noticed that this was indeed the rare Epimedium flavum found only on the Erlang Shan which is exactly where this was found. This area, like many once remote areas in China, showed indications of being poised to be developed for tourism and there is little doubt that the plants we found are no longer.

These grow beautifully in the UBC Asian Garden in Vancouver where it grows up to 15'. Typically we would expect 6' or so in in the garden with the pale waxy evergreen leaves providing nice backing for the creamy multi-petaled flowers. Best in a mild garden like Seattle or PT.

A collection by Sweden's Goteborg Botanical Garden's 3 Henriks in China's Shaanxi Province at Nan Gong Shan 1250 meters. This is a small tree to 20'-30' with purplish new growth expanding to broadly cordate leaves and early summer pouchy flowers of pale red with yellow striations and purple spotting. Fast growing hardy tropical look. Cutting grown.

Very cool Candelabra type Primrose with whorls of rich black cherry flowers. Very distinctive and definitely eue-catching. Loves a moist rich soil where it will gently self sow and frankly boogie until dawn.

Second generation plants from our collection of this Solomon's Seal from the Cangshan in Yunnan. This has narrow leaflets arrayed in tiers with small bell-shaped pale white flowers overlaid in a dusky wash and which are clustered near the leaf bases which later become red-orange fruit bunched like small grapes. Surprisingly sun tolerant given enough water. In our lath house shade garden which is fairly bright, this has become quite impressive in the last few years making a bamboo-like clump of herbaceous stems to 7'-8' which makes us very happy.