China

Our collection from an end-of-day hunch-driven venture up a nondescript dirt track into forested hills which remains one of the best two hours we have ever spent in the field. A deciduous species with upright fronds 20"-30" tall on plum-colored stems (stipes and rachis). Texturally, graceful and light. Spore-grown by us. Tolerates deep shade and rabbits.

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.

Fern fans we are, fern experts we are not, but we continue to chip away at the imposing taxonomic massif of Pteridphyta in hopes of becoming somewhat conversational in Fern. Currently, we can ask the equivalent of where the restroom is and order beer when talking Asian ferns. This is a creeping fern with long, thin rhizomes ideally suited for weaving through shallow moss on shaded rock faces with small orbicular-ovate evergreen leaves. This should be reasonably hardy as Acer griseum was growing a short distance away.

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

From the southern portion of its range, this collection has performed wildly beyond expectations given the low bar set from the dormant plants in the wild where they were 8'-10' tall in full exposure. We seldom name plants but this selection is worthy with profuse bee-laden white flowers from top to bottom.

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.

Our China collection of this most remarkable species. Favoring rich, moist areas which is required to pump up the nearly 6' in length frond volume. These fronds extend out laxly horizontally which assists in their asexual reproduction from plantlets developing from the little furry balls - careful! - at frond's end. Mulch crown in cold winters.

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'.

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.

This is a Chinese species with 12"-15" stems and good purple flowers borne on numerous scapes late spring and early summer above the stoutly grassy foliage. Stout compared to some of the finer textured Alliums anyway. This has been very easy and appreciates summer water as it is not one of the xeric bulbous types. This self-sows just enough and has not been a pest at all but the volunteer plants have simply taken the planting from intentional to natural.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Another one of those shouldn't-be-hardy-but-is begonias. This comes from SW China and does fine here in moist shaded gardens especially if you mulch it during that arctic blast we can get. Excellent long-fingered foliage to 18" tall cloak the pink flowers which are a nice hidden surprise in late summer.

A fine conifer showing an enviable muscularity growing from the slopes of a rugged limestone mountain. Eschewing an unimaginative verticality, these old trees favored a more imaginative approach to what constitutes being a tree without sacrificing but rather enhancing, beauty. The evergreen needles are more blunt than similar populations in Vietnam and on female plants, the green, small olive-like seed is borne at the end of larger fleshy aril that as it ripens, turns from red to an evening purple. This dispersal mechanism is well-adapted to animals and especially birds, as they can travel great distances, efficient flocks of Johnny Podocarpusseeds. This appreciates some shade to prevent yellowing and has been hardy here at Far Reaches to 10F.

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.

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.

A selected form from England notable for pale cream flowers which are lighter than typical for the species. We're just over the moon about Roscoeas and this uncommon selection is certainly in the top tier. All the allure of a hardy orchid without the expense. Trouble free pretty much.