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Our collection from Vietnam of this fascinating epiphytic genus.  This was growing on a tree trunk on a small limestone ridge populated by a mix of frost-tolerant and frost-intolerant species.  The hardiness of this remains to be tested here - maybe a warm zone 8b? - it made it through the admittedly mild first winter here so at least some frost hardiness.  Excellent drainage is likely key to improved hardiness and ours is in a tufa wall.  Spreads by creeping rhizomes and has dimorphic leaves with persistent basal fronds and fertile foliage fronds though only the latter have been produced on ours thus far.

Our first offering of this fairly new species (2009) of leatherwood first described by our friendly neighborhood taxonomist Dr. Aaron Floden of Missouri Botanic. Surprisingly attractive fuzzy oval leaves on a fairly airy shrub. Flowers are diminutive and yellow-green but slightly larger than the more commonly seen Dirca palustris and with a slight sweet fragrance. Let just say it how it is, this is unlikely to be the plant most asked about on garden tours, but it is very charming in its way and wins the approval of the trifecta of myself, Kelly, and Sue a very rare recommendation in its favor. Dirca to me embodies all that is great about Eastern woodlands when seen through the eye of a expatriate of the area. These plants are seed grown from the type locality and the only Kansas population in a range that centers around the Ozarks. 

This evergreen Solomon Seal mimic was collected in Taiwan by horticultural powerhouse Adam Black who graciously shared a plant with us some years ago.  Evergreen leaves on a low spreading plant with white flowers although severe cold events might turn evergreen to deciduous.  Pair this with fine-textured ferns, smaller Ophiopogon, Trillium or really, whatever floats your garden design boat.  Follow Adam on Instagram – he goes deep!

Even among the fern-enthused Dryopteris can sometimes have a bad reputation for same-iness. However if there is one stand-out member this is the one, looking totally unlike what you expect from the genus and rivalling even the tropical ferns of your dreams. Thick blue-green dactyloid fronds that will slowly spready but never truly become dense, making it a great accent plant to thread through your woodland stand-bys. Shockingly hardy down to Zone 6b and evergreen above 5F.