China

A charming little evergreen Lysimachia with lovely dark rounded ovate leaves on slightly kinky stems.  Probably kinked stems would be more accurate but kinky sells. Small yellow flowers are borne over many weeks and all is in a harmonious scale.  Growing with Disporopsis aspersa, Mahonia, Ligustrum, and Ophiopogon which are all hardy here in zone 8a so we will say the same for this without outside trials.

If Thomas Hardy had written a book based on this plant, he would have tiltled it "Fusca the Obscure". Or Poe "Descent into the Plant Maelstrom". BIO -Botanical Interest Only. If you buy this we're doing an intervention on you and get you into the Plant 12-Step Program. You need help.

This is a collection by Wynn-Jones in 2000 from near Baoxing Sichuan who thought at the time it was an unusual form, but it is well within the gradient for typical Reineckea carnea. This is a must for the shade garden along with every other one Reineckea you can lay your hands on! Good to zone 6 and likely 5.

Toad Lily. Our collection from Asia This toadie was found on the lower flanks of the mountain we were exploring where it favored openings in the forest where it got dappled light and a brief bit of direct sun. Distinct softly haired velvety leaves with white flowers ruby spotted on the reflexed tepals curving down below the jester's cap of similarly colored naughty bits.

Fairly recent introduction from China of this superb evergreen perennial. This makes a tidy rosette of evergreen leaves with very attractive scented white flowers in early spring which adds another layer of interest to the shade garden. Makes a nice clump. We say yip-sil-landra by the way. Doesn't mean it's right but we do it so authoritatively that no one questions us. Related to other little treasures like Helonias and Heloniopsis. We saw this on Dayaoshan fall of 2010 where it was growing on little mossy ledges on a shaded cliff face. It is always so exciting to see a plant in habitat when you have gardened with it especially when it is a fairly recent arrival to cultivation.

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!

Superb blue-green leaf selection of this exceptionally ornamental evergreen Himalayan Blueberry. We saw this in western Arunachal Pradesh in 2003 at 10,000' and discovered an eastern range extension of this in Sichuan in 2006. This is a superior form to both populations and likely has its origins with Barry Starling, UK Ericaceae expert. Fruit is edible but very tart, good only for special preserves and you might be better served eating the birds that came to eat the berries. Not that we would. Or do.

A deciduous shrubby Cotoneaster collected in Asia by Arlen Hill who owns one of our favorite nurseries, Keeping It Green. This was a scrambler on a rocky cliff but will be a small shrub in the garden. Such a varied genus from groundcover to small trees with the shared attributes of pollinator-irresistible white flowers and red fruit for fall and early winter interest. Someday in our dotage when discretionary time is abundant and we tire of whittling to fill the hours, we will fire up Flora of China online and puzzle through the key to a proper identity for this species.

Beautiful Styrax from southern China and a nice infusion of new genetics to go along with the forms already in cultivation. Vigorous grower of pleasing habit and not overly large at 20'-25' with profuse white flowers of good size for this species. Small nut-like fruit follow the flowers. A favorite genus of ours.

Dramatic Bergenia from legendary OR nurseryman Russell Graham and we have named it so in appreciation and to keep this clone distinct. One of the most frustrating plants in our garden, not for us but for pleading customers as we've never offered it. Deciduous leaves up to a rounded square foot and white-pink flowers.

Seed-grown from the clone 'Soft Caress' which is good parentage to say the least. This will be similar and expressing to varying degrees the qualities of its parent which are good non-spiny foliage with upright yellow candles of flowers on a narrowly vertical evergreen shrub. It will be good and also a unique one of a kind.

Fantastic and uncommon variant of this choice species. We received this from a friend's garden where their over-fed plant was 40" tall by 6' in a jaw-dropping patch. Pretty much hated them until they gave us a start. Took Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones and Dan Hinkley over there a few years back and they hated them as well. Flying rectangles of green with small red flowers beneath - who comes up with this stuff?

Lucky dip offering of open-pollinated seed-grown plants from a very vigorous and bold foliage mama plant. There were adjacent good Epimediums so these variable children should all be attractive and evergreen. Colors are going to surprise us all.

A very good, not scary, evergreen groundcover. 'Mariko' is a selection from a collection by Mikinori Ogisui, incredible plantsman and plant explorer, who named it for his wife. Judging by the graceful spidery flowers with showy pink sepals and white spurs and petals plus bronzy new growth, Mariko herself has it all going on.

Cutting-grown from a plant grown by Roger Eichmann from seed collected from the “best” augustinii in June Sinclair’s renowned species Rhododendron garden.  We say “best” because that varied from year to year in June’s opinion as to which of her 3 favorite clones was the best but we can tell you that all three were stellar.  Masses of lavender-blue flowers can cover the foliage on one of the classic Rhododendron species that is the keystone plant in many a garden.

Our collection of this exceptional form of this distinctive vining species of Monkshood from the wooded slopes of Longshou in Sichuan. It was an overcast day on this our first day in the field in the fall of 2012. The summit of Longshou was completely socked in which is frustrating to a plant hunter aside from missing out on spectacular views. As we made our way down the mountain, we got below the clouds and exciting plants started to pop out - Schisandra in full red fruit, 5' tall Arisaema, Vaccinium delavayi and off to the right, a flash of bright color. We hurried over and it was an climbing Monkshood in full bloom with eye catching reddish-purple flowers. The excitement turned to lamentations as it was in bloom which meant there was no seed which was a total downer. The lamenting turned to exultant whoops as we noticed this species had aerial stem bulbils in the leaf axils which are even better than seed. We think this is quite superior to other color forms of this rare species and have given it the name 'Monk Gone Wild' because it is a pretty crazy color for a Monkshood plus this monk managed to remain technically celibate yet still have lots of children via these stem bulbils.

This is indeed the king. One of our most coveted plants, this is an especially fine form from our friend Philip MacDougall. This beauty can reach 12' tall with subtle hooks on the leaf tips to help it hang onto neighboring plants. The best thing is the ORANGE flowers in abundance in the leaf axils. Swoon City.

This Chinese woodland Peony is one of the few species blooming and thriving in full shade as well as sun. Nicely dissected ferny foliage and slightly nodding single pink flowers, 2-3 per stem, makes this distinctively beautiful. We had a rare trip in the spring to Yunnan and Sichuan in 2006 to see plants in flower and this was one of the standouts. Later to make growth in the spring than some of the other species so don't panic. This has been a stalwart in our shade garden for many years and is an ideal candidate for those of you with late hard freezes as this breaks growth later in spring than the other species we offer. These are seedlings so it will be a couple years before you see blooms. The biggest problem with peonies is planting them too deep so just cover the red growth buds no more than an inch or two. These need a cool to cold winter dormancy so not a plant for LA.

Grown from a seed collection in China by the brilliant plantsman Bjornar Olsen, this is an easy and very pleasing lily. Turk's cap style flowers are predominately in shades of pink, varying in intensity. The recurved tepals are pale white on the margins and speckled with deep carmine spots. Spreads fairly fast, making a lovely patch.

This compact gem with large, lovely pure white flowers is one of our most favorite plants and we have A LOT of plants. Unlike the solitary and territorial avian Snowy Owls, these flowers bloom in clusters, showing off en masse while happily mingling in the garden. Named by Nigel Rowland of Long Acre Plants, who is someone we have not met but know has exquisite taste.