Eastern North America

This species is known as the "Silky Camellia" and while not a camellia it is as valuable and coveted as silk and in many ways as finicky to produce. A fine trader indeed is the one willing to travel the route by which seed can be procured, and our botanical Marco Polo in this case is the Stewartia king of Georgia, Jack Johnston. You'll need a bit of woodland shade in your Xanadu and careful handling as these don't like root disturbance but when the large white blossoms embossed with a center of deep purple blue-anthered stamens gets going your garden will become stately pleasure dome the envy of which will spread across continents.

Thanks to Will Johnson for sharing pictures from the parent plants in Jack's garden!

You know that friend who despite their nice but nothing-out-of-the-ordinary looks seems to inspire an inexplicable frenzy of devoted suitors? You know the one with the flirty charismatic air that you just can't place because you seem to be the only one not susceptible to their romantic magnetism? Well this is probably that friend to those of you on the other half of the country. Which is fine by us cause we don't need the competition in the DMs that are already chock full of a large diversity of nectar-hungry pollinators. What can we say, the tall elegance and up-for-anything attitude that sees V in both woodland edges and prairie meadows just has us hooked. Wild provenance plants from the Western edges (Iowa) of this Eastern U.S. native's range, these particular plants are hairy leaved and have flowers that start as bright pink buds that open to white. our friend Aaron made a mistake in introducing us to this one.

Fairly old-school cultivar of the always-delightful Eastern US native dwarf Iris, and follows the equally old-school trend of calling vaguely indigo-ish plants "blue" in the pursuit of horticultural marketing. The historic name is perhaps more true to life, the flowers exchange their usual study in a variety of soft lavender tints for a more uniform pop of purple.