China

It's a well-known fact of life that miniature means cute. And this widdle-bitty Iris hits all the same dopamine and oxytocin receptors longing for the long forgotten taste of that sweet sweet brain candy we shoveled in so naively as children. Nurseryman Darrell Probst clearly has an eye for the adorable, as this unique selection of an already extremely rare and choice iris sports pale flowers of only about 1.5" amidst fine grassy evergreen foliage.

Chinese version of this species which gets into the Himalaya as we've seen in Arunachal Pradesh. Softly banded in mocha as the new green leaves emerge, the white flowers show nicely below the expanding leaves. Late summer, round orange fruit appears. A different collection from what we've offered previously.

One of the very best woodland plants from China. This Ranunculaceae Family memeber has evergreen rounded glossy leaves evoking some exotic wild ginger. The plant forms a tidy dense clump with lots of comparatively tall stems bristling with puffs of white flowers. Moist soil is best.

Very collectible selection of this hardy terrestrial orchid which boasts - yes, boasts, of its unique, light chartreuse foliage. if your ears, like ours, are tuned to that high frequency in which plants converse, you can just make out this orchid sounding like an NBA player after throwing down a one-handed jam from an alley-oop "Yeah! Lookit me! Me! I'm a bad-ass orchid! You ask yo mama how bad I am! An yo sister - she loves how my leaves shine when the lights go down." I've given up on the NBA because such displays are wearisome but somehow, with this orchid, it is an endearing cheekiness. Light yellow foliage looks it best in bright shade to part sun and not the part during the hot part of the day. Leaves 18"-24" with pinkish-purple flowers a few inches taller in June and hardy to zone 6 especially with winter mulch.

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.

Chinese Mayapple. One of the great shade plants with just outrageous new growth when the bold and distinctly lobed leafed are colored in ochre velvet with complex dark patterns like something seen during guided psychotropic therapy. Broadly rounded and lobed leaves shield the red flowers beneath. Rich moist soil and avoid direct sun. This a shorter plant and more richly colored overall than the delavayi we offer as a presumptive hybrid. We will soon adopt Dysosma as the genus - maybe in the winter when we can make all the database changes.

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.

Very nice Chinese member of the African Violet family that is surprisingly hardy and well suited to milder gardens here in the Northwest. We have friends in North Vancouver BC who have grown this beautifully for years in their moist woodland garden. This would typically grow on mossy rocks in the wild. Yellow tubular flowers. Not that we're big fans of the genre but having watched the movie 'Transformers' on a flight back from the UK, we think Tremacron would be a great name for one of those big robot things.

Rich deep blue trumpets with exterior pale striping on this collection from a 10,000' alpine moist meadow where it mingled with too many Primula, dwarf Rhododendron and a Bistorta that unexpectedly threatened to steal the show. This requires rich, moist acid soil with afternoon shade in hot sun areas.

It is always a real treat to see this come into flower in late spring and early summer with bright white buttons of double flowers held on thin wires of stems above the narrow green foliage. This comes from the mountains of Europe and may likely be the closely related species pusilla based on its narrow leaves. Great rock garden plant and zone 5 hardy.

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.

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'.

A collection from Sichuan by Riz Reyes which is quite exceptional. This is the largest of the clones we grow with bigger flowers, larger leaves and taller in height and is probably worthy of a clonal name. "Rizing Star" wouldn't be half bad acknowledging both one of the Northwest's fine young plantsmen but also the superior flowers in this clone which is a good thing in a Disporopsis! For purposes of garden design, this is essentially an evergreen Solomon Seal that will get 18"-28" tall with off-white flowers touched in very light yellow in the interior and heavily speckled in dark amber. These are young plants and really need to put on their spring flush of growth to visually look like they are mail order worthy but if you get yours early in 2014, just be aware that though they are sturdy, they won't look their best until April.

Our collection of this less-commonly encountered evergreen Solomon Seal lookalike in the Asparagaceae Family.  Fetchingly growing by a boulder and overhanging a small stream while we cast glances behind us in case the nearby troop of monkeys concluded we were in a vulnerable position.  Small white bells on the undersides of the stems in May and June are pleasantly scented if you are flexible enough to get your nose down to your ankles.  Purplish fruits follow.

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.

An excellent clone of ours we have ssslloooowwwlllyyy increased so that we finally have a few to share. This form as well as our 'Primo' seem to differ from the various Scottish selections of humenana we grow by having MUCH larger flowers. Totally a must-have and if we weren't obliged to make payroll, we would keep all of them.

Our collection from the lower slopes of Mt Japfu in Nagaland at around 7000'. (NAPE= Nagaland/Arunachal Pradesh Expedition 2203) This is an epiphyte growing below the frost zone with showy red flowers and narrow petals. Best cool in loose, airy, mossy soil, treated like an indoor fern. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering

Rollicking twining Monkshood from China that delights in scrambling up into shrubs or onto thin trellage. Although a fine and aristocratic perennial, it remains devoid of snobbery embracing chainlink as if it were ornate wrought iron at an Antebellum mansion. Dusky lavender flowers in late summer and fall are hugely welcome. This is totally herbaceous dying completely back after flowering only to reemerge in spring bigger and better than before. The climbing Aconitum can be confusing to pin down as to proper identity but we finally sat down with flowers and foliage and key in hand and confirmed that this indeed A. episcopale. This is likely from a Diana Reeck collection in Yunnan in 1996 but that is best guessing. Nice blooming-sized plants.

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.

This is very close to 'Kaleidoscope' and comes from the same Japanese nursery from which a plant was purchased and patented in this country as 'Kaleidoscope'. One has to wonder how a plant already in the trade on an international basis can be patented but that is a discussion that can run long into the night. 'Galaxy' is nearly indistinguishable from 'Kaleidoscope' and may well be a sister seedling or another selection in Japan. Lightly hairy stems hold the pale green leaves with their radially symmetrical chocolate splotches. Red flowers held beneath the foliage but who cares, really? It's all about the leaves. Moist shade and be prepared to be envied.