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455 products
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 floriferous and perhaps hardier selection with a bit larger flowers than usual by the late Don Jacobs of Eco-Gardens in Georgia. Don was one of the first nurserymen to get into China in 1983 as the bamboo curtain was lifting. It is hard not to like the soft lavender-blue flowers with darker spotting around the white band surrounding the yellow thumbprint. Light shade.
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.
From the Tian Shan Mts comes this tough little subshrub that is among the finest expressions of silver foliage to be found. Eversilver aromatic leaves on an 18" rounded plant with yellow button flowers in late summer. I bet the deer find it repugnant. Good drainage, some to little water.
A frost-tender gesneriad from China formerly in the genus Briggsia. In the wild, this is found at low elevations growing on mossy rocks in moist shaded positions. This has comparatively big white flowers whose QR code pattern of yellow and red in the throat starts to make sense, telling you things, if you stare at it long enough. Great for the cool greenhouse or African Violet culture.
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.
Roof Iris. These are seed-grown from our plant from an Eric Hammond collection in China. This species actually does grow on thatched roofs in Japan and China and is quite easily grown in the garden Large, 5-6 inch lilac-blue flowers are very nice on stems to perhaps 18" tall. Happy in zones 4-9, this is easy but watch for slugs on the new growth as these might attest.
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
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".
An interesting Asian Lysimachia which we have not yet identified. These genus is widespread and varied in Asia with over 170 species and varieties in China alone. It is so much easier to key out monotypic genera where there is but a single species. This is from lower elevations and we have not trialed it outside yet but looks frost sensitive. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering
Our collection from Sichuan of this variant on the Jasminum humile theme. A scrambling, weaving and somewhat scandent shrublet with thin stems that infiltrates the marginal spaces among shrubs and can grow up through them for a little support. Bright yellow flowers which are unscented but cheery nonetheless. This form is doubtfully or at least very scarce in cultivation so good on us. Now for a bit of botanical esoterica. Enrico Banfi proposed in 2014 that the Alternifolia section of Jasminum to which this belongs, be moved to a new genus, Chrysojasminum and if this gets adopted, then we would have Chrysojasminum humile var. microphyllum. Do we know how to have fun or what?
Beautiful clumping species that may well be the queen of the genus. Or are we granting royalty because it is new on the scene? Maybe, but it is awfully good. This makes a stout small clump of evergreen, fern-like leaves from which emerge in spring the peculiarly Coptis greenish-yellow flowers. From China.
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.
We quite love the Roscoea clan and we have a special affection for this one which challenges for top honors as having the smallest flowers in the genus. Why would I want the small flowered one you ask? Because these small orchid-like flowers are an intensely colored black-maroon like a Lapin Cherry reduction dessert sauce is why.
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.
Stunning thin-leafed variant on the typical form of the species which usually sports leathery leaves perhaps 4X wider than this rare selection from the Witch Hazel Family. This does not seem as determinedly upright as the typical species so expect a multi-stemmed textural delight. Small yellowish flowers with reddish anthers in late winter won't stop traffic but are still darned welcome.
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.
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 plantsman extraordinaire Darrell Probst from China. This has evergreen broadly grassy leaves and nice spikes of lavender flowers held above the foliage. A lovely rarity.
This is a choice little dwarf species from China of which we never have enough. Perfect lavender-blue flowers just a few inches high over densly clumping short foliage. This is one tough baby Iris as Sue brought this out from her garden in northern Vermont. Deciduous.