Sort by:
451 products
451 products
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.
This is an unusual Allium from a seed collection in China. We say unusual because the small drumstick heads of flowers are yellow which was not expected. This is a smaller species with thin grassy leaves and flower stems 5"-9" tall and requires summer water as it is not one of the bulbous types. This shows no sign of being a "damned weedy onion" and merits a special spot.
Here's something good for zone 9 or a conservatory or a move in and out plant. This is a very fun Gesneriad from northern Vietnam collected by Josh McCullough from an area that likely sees some frost although we wouldn't put it to any severe test! This has late season large trumpets (if trumpets had an inflated tube) of pink/white flowers. Glossy green foliage, this would be a classic epiphyte growing on mossy or humus covered boulders and even in trees. This has been very easy for us in our cool greenhouse kept just above freezing in the winter, This would love the Bay Area!
For some reason the evocative cultivar name of this Aspidistra really sells it for me, eliciting extra joy in conjuring up visions of exotic night skies via it's lovely variegated patterning of white dots in varying sizes and distinctness across a canvas of dark green evergreen blades up to 2.5ft tall. As with other aspidistras its tolerant of deep shade and does well as a houseplant (Houseplant with an astrological name, can you get more trendy?). This species is particularly tolerant of cold temps without burning and is also extremely floriferous if you're a botanically minded flower enjoyer who doesn't mind a curious stoop to view them.
Eye-catching species from China with palmate leaves spritzed with white on top and a bright maroon underneath. The pink flowers are just another layer of adornment which always come as a bit of a surprise to us as we are always completely satisfied with the leaves alone. Another surprise is the hardiness which is zone 8. If winter is going to push the lower limits of that zone for any length of time, be a bud and take care of your homie with a little mulch. This is slow to go in the spring, waiting until June but it catches right up.
False Solomon Seal. This Chinese species is one of our favorites in the shade garden and we delight in its ribbed leaves with elegantly understated small violet daubing at the base of each leaflet followed by the precise detail in the small greenish flowers. In the late summer into fall, it has strut-your-stuff full heads of bright orange fruit that just makes us shake our heads in amazement. We've paired this with our collection of Hedychium densiflorum from the eastern Himalaya which has late season spikes of similar orange flowers but at 60" rather than the 30" of the Maianthemum. It's nice when a speculative pairing actually works.
Our collection from Asia of this evergreen fern we might refer to as Pyrrosia lingua, but given that taxonomy is especially fluid these years, we're allowing it might be something different. This formed an impressive colony on the bluff overlaying a partly shaded large rock slab where it would endure periods of dry. Vigorous! Good drainage is important.
Shrubby little Gesneriad (African Violet family) which will form multiple stems to a foot or so tall with lots of funnel-shaped light lavender-white flowers with throats lined in dark veins. Kind of reminds us of one of the subshrubby Monkeyflowers in a way. Best kept from frost but easy inside over winter. This is widespread in China dipping into Vietnam and jumping over to Taiwan and Japan ranging from 1000' to 7200' stems 3" to 4' tall. There seems to be one form commonly in cultivation which is the glabrous var. pauciflorus and obviously the hardy alpine 3" tall form as well as the subtropical 4 footer needs to be introduced! Sounds like a sponsorship opportunity for a collecting expedition by the Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy in case there is a generous gesneriafficinado out there despairing over the paucity of available diversity in Lysionotus pauciflorus.
We've seen this wee gem in both Bhutan and Sichuan at high elevations at 12000' where it mingles in alpine meadows. Open-faced lavender pink flowers at ground level followed closely by foliage just a few inches high. Easy in the garden. Who would suspect it's a Solomon's Seal?
This charmer with white unarmed Thistle-like flowers may well be ssp. insularis but there is a dearth of both information as well as time to review that information. Maybe this winter when the plants are dormant. Under a foot high with nice showy white flowers in mid to late summer.
Another fantastic humeana clone of ours with very large flowers of which we are finally offering a few. This comes at no small personal diminishment of something deep and pure that must be the precursor to our intrinsic plant hoarding proclivities of which monetary compensation assuages but little. Similar but different than 'Boffo'.
This was quite a pleasing sight as we slogged up the muddy trail of an obscure mountain in Guizhou with the rain coming down and the slopes wreathed in thick fog and the contemplation of setting up a very wet camp later was weighing down our normally plant-happy attitudes which are the norm when out in the field and we were just starting to grumble when we came around a corner and saw looming out of the mist and overhanging the trail, branches of this fine Malus laden with small cheery lemon-yellow crab apples each bejeweled in glittering raindrops and it was like gazing upon a constellation of anti-depressants. What rain? What mud? All is forgotten with a good dose of plant hunter's little helpers. Small trees to 15' with broad, irregular crowns and likely white flowers.
A collection by Aaron Floden that ticks many of the boxes for the species brachystemon but this has not yet been verified. The anticipation is keen indeed! The green-cream flowers in terminal groupings of 3-5 show well and even as buds entice in the nascent olive green shoots. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering
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.
We received this extraordinary selection from and equally extraordinary plantsman, David Mason of the vaunted former Hedgerows Nursery. Few members of the genus approach this for impact which is only heightened by flowering before other large-flowered forms. The emerging spring growth is enclosed in soft salmon sheaths and the hot damn lavender-pink flowers stand proud before the leaves develop. This is a cool climate genus.
Superb form collected in NE Yunnan at 1900 metes by perhaps the preeminent modern plant hunter, Jens Nilsen. The list of 'firsts' in Jens' history of collections is astounding. This collection is not a first but is notable for being an exceptional form. Larger in all parts than previous introductions with gold flowers in midsummer.
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.
Excellent selection of this early flowering Chinese species. This is more robust than the typical cautleyoides which is already an awesome species. Puts on a show with large flowers of a soft primrose yellow that are held well above the leaves. A good increaser, this will in a few short years, be a focal point.
Cutting-grown plants of this evergreen Dogwood from our collection in Asia. Quite a handsome plant in both the wild and our garden which sports soft yellow flowers in June and July. Later, the round red fruit go from being attractive ornament on the tree to tasty snacks on the trail. Which is how we got ours. Our tree in the garden has handled low teens in the winter surprisingly well.
Exceptional Mountain Ash form our collection on the summit of Leigongshan in Guizhou where this was a multi-trunked small tree/large shrub to 10' with nice clusters of white berries. This species is being grown in the UK but they have yet to put a name to it. From the highest point in its range. Freakin' Cool!