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145 products
145 products
Purple flowered version of the typically blue-flowered European species. Thanks to our friend and Hepatica guru John Massey of Ashwood Nurseries for sharing seed. We have flowered these plants and they are indeed purple! Perfect in the woodland garden, very hardy and with impeccable provenance.
Surely one of the best Omphalodes with electric blue flowers nearly twice the size of the species. This was shared with us by our plant guru John Flintoff who has given us so many treasures over the years. A vigorous and not fussy coarse foliaged groundcover perfect under Rhododendrons and one that is easy to keep in bounds. Those blue Forget-me-not flowers somehow just seems to feel like an integral part of spring for us.
Little gem of a Stachys we brought back from Scotland in 2013 although we hate parting with any, to be honest. Super compact with tight rich green rugose leaves and short spikes of snow white flowers of a purity and innocence so unsullied that felt compelled to ask permission prior to dividing. Perfect rock garden plant.
This variety of the charming European wood anemone graciously comes with slightly larger flowers reducing the need to reach for those reading glasses or get down on aching knees to appreciate their idyllic fairytale beauty. Or for those of a younger generation, your instagram photo will be in focus without the help of that $10 bootleg iphone macro lens - $10 more to put towards more anemones perhaps...
A superb form of Lathyrus vernus, the Spring Bush Pea. This has long willow-like leaves compared to the typical form and the same lovely violet flowers. A graceful perennial, this makes a dense clump retaining textural interest long after the flowers fade. This narrow leaf form has a number of names - subsp. gracilis, 'Gracilis', var. flaccida, 'Flaccida', 'Filifolius' that are used interchangeably and we're not sure what is correct but we know that if we simply say 'Narrow Leaf' then you can use whichever name carries the most weight in your opinion. Excellent is sun or light shade and a plant we would not be without.
This widespread little fern is of Scottish provenance where it is abundant and easily found in rock cracks and sundry centuries-old architectural features such as stone walls, stone bridges, stone follies and stone buildings that combine to make villages and gardens so damned picturesque especially when covered in ferns. The spores are covered by a bubble-like indusium which inspired the common name of Bladder Fern.
Pink Willow Gentian. Thanks to Claire Cockroft for sharing these with us so we can pass them along to you. Choice and scarce pink form of one of the classic fall blooming gentians, this develops into a robust plant with many arching stems ranked with pink flowers. An easy wow.
This excellent clone of the Wood Anemone has larger than usual white flowers held nicely above the foliage with better than usual substance and poise. Hard to describe precisely but like some things that are elusive in definition, you know it when you see it.
A dark colored selection of Allium senescens ssp. montanum by Mark McDonough that puts on a serious flower display of ruddy pink flowers in mid to late summer to the unending delight of those little orange Skipper butterflies. Clump forming and not invasive, this is muy bueno.
Rarely offered little Wormwood which is troughable, which is a term we should trademark in order to capitalize on the 20 or so people who have both troughs and a penchant for dwarf Artemisia. We need a new business advisor or maybe we should listen to the current one. Few inches high and spreading. Yellowish flowers.
Wood Anemone. This is a good blue form with flowers darker than many of the blue selections and even though the individual flowers are a little smaller than typical, we don't care as this is such a lovely thing. Found in the Estonian woodlands by Mart Veerus and introduced we think by Janis Ruksans.
Classic name for what must be an English selection with amber tawny yellow flowers - in the US with our bright yellow squeeze bottle mustard, it would have to be an old forgotten bottle of mustard indeed. Easy doer we got from that consummate English plantsman David Mason and he didn't steer us wrong. Wide leaves backing stems with umbels of pub mustard flowers with a white eye.
A fine selection with seasonally variable light blue trumpet flowers which we received from our friend Urs Baltensperger. Most folks instantly gravitate towards the impossibly dark blue selections and while these are critical to have, consider how much darker they will look with this growing alongside. Just sayin'. Evergreen mats in rich soil.
Crested Hart's Tongue Fern. Crested ferns are always fun and this one does provide some amusement in the garden. Rather than the typical evergreen, entire sword-shaped leaves which taper to a point, these crested forms splay out at the end into a rounded and ruffled flourish which might mark this as a self-indulgent dandy were it not for its complete absence of ego. More than happy to play a necessary supporting role to those blooming Trilliums for example. Doesn't mind a bit of lime and will self-spore in mortared walls.
Rock Soapwort. This is a lovely and tough rock garden or crevice plant from the Pyrenees where it grows in exposed sheer rock faces. Dense cushions of close-packed rosettes with narrow short green leaves. Pink-purple flowers are held on short 2" stems in groups of one to three. One becomes a group when hanging with the Threes. Full sun, good drainage, zones 3-8.
Madeiran Blueberry. We have the late Art Dome to thank for sharing this Vaccinium native to Madeira with us. He grew this beautifully in his Seward park garden but it really does need a mild garden. Big flowers for a blueberry and lots of tasty fruit. We were all grazing last summer.
A nice small flowered light pink form of this necessary Anemone species which followed us home from the UK a few years back. What is a necessary Anemone, you ask? One which is indispensable in your shade or woodland garden and whose absence would not only be noted but commented upon and repeated, a gardening gaffe going viral.
Uncommon and choice dwarf Thyme we introduced to the US when we brought this little gem home from an alpine nursery in Scotland. A very fine plant of compact habit and the expected profusion of flowers which while not red, are a vividly intense neon fuchsia-infused magenta. Find that on a paint chip!
One of the better grasses you will find as this has impeccable manners coupled with tasteful presentation. A dense and self-contained spiky green mound of thin green blades gives rise to dark-stemmed flower spikes which can reach 30" tall and are at their best in late summer to autumn. Came to us via Marchant's in the UK.
One of our most favored small trees is this princeling of a cornel. Late winter flowers of yellow filamentous buttons followed by perfectly clean white variegation in the leaves and all further accented when the flowers turn into edible reddish fruits in late summer. Extremely hardy species and these are on their own roots and not grafted.