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145 products
145 products
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.
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 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.
Evergreen mat-former with very large cobalt blue trumpets spring to early summer. This might ruin your other blue flowers for you as they will look embarrassingly insipid in comparison. A rich moist soil in full to mostly sun is best. Despite popular opinion, these are pigs and thrive on a good manure mulch! Thanks to our friend Urs for sharing.
Variegated Willow. A yummy and scarce selection brought to the west from Vermont by the beloved Millet. This makes a densely twiggy, broad yet tall multi-trunked small tree or shrub. Fast and easy (not at all like Sue), this is unique in its creamy foliage variegation. A sweet thing (like Sue).
A very small white-flowered version of the typical European species generously shared with us by our friend John Massey of Ashwood Nurseries in England. This is very petite - just an inch or two high in leaf and ideal for that special spot just waiting for the keen-eyed visitor to spot and covet while you go "Oh, that old thing." Best under deciduous shrubs or trees to get full light through flowering and new leaf expansion.
Dog Tooth Violet. The European representative of the genus which contains our native Avalanche Lily. This selection has great mottled foliage and lovely flowers of an even violet purple highlighted by a throat touched in maroon and yellow. Frans must have been a bit of a dandy.
Tough plant from Russia and Romania with blue two-lipped flowers from June into September. This will get 2' to 3' tall and likes good drainage in sandy, gravelly situations where it can get occasional water although it is pretty drought tolerant. Being a Salvia, the Port Townsend gardening soul-crushing deer won't eat it.........yet. Once our Uptown PT herd exceeds 100, all bets are off. Thanks to Panayoti Kelaidis for sharing seed.
A dwarf Foxglove from Spain and North Africa and a Plant Select introduction for those hot and cold Rocky Moutain gardeners. Bewitching spires of dark Baltic amber flowers in early summer, this perennial will form nice clumps with multiple flower stems. Evergreen narrow leaves in less harsh winters, this is hardy to zone 4b. Not too wet, don't overfeed.
A strong-growing form favored among some of the remaining specialty nurseries in Oregon. Dense evergreen mats of tight foliage erupt in spring and sporadically thereafter, with improbably large and impossibly saturated deep blue trumpets. This mountain species is no effete alpine, moist rich soil is its cup of tea.
This is a good white flowered selection of this little creeping European species. Ours came from the UK via our friends at the former Hedgerows Nursery whose plant offerings set a very high bar for the rest of us. This was last listed in the UK in 2008, we believe, and may have been deemed insufficiently distinct from other good white selections to carry its own name. A fine plant nonetheless, and it reminds us of our friends, David and Susie.
Long have we had a love affair with this most noble of the weed clan Plantago. Hailing from Spain where sun and good drainage and robust olive oils and sturdy red wines are so critical to properly growing and appreciating this gem, this adapts easily to the NW. A delight in the rock garden
We were gifted this little green "roller" from John Grimshaw, Director of the Yorkshire Arboretum at Castle Howard. As he handed us a nondescript pup, we wondered what magical thing attended this to earn a place in his exquisite collection. "This is from the garden of Carl Linnaeus" STFU! The Father of Binomial Nomenclature!?! Linnaeus & Grimshaw - now that's provenance! Plant geek manna from botanical heaven. This is possibly Jovibarba globifera subsp. allionii.
A must-have if you're Wulfenia obsessed. Endemic to the Carnic Alps, this has a limited range in the wild. Dense clusters of tubular, violet-blue flowers appear in mid-summer above glossy evergreen rosettes with scalloped-edged leaves. Needs a fertile, well-drained moisture-retentive soil but really, don't we all?
A seldom encountered Buttercup from the Pyrenees. This is so well mannered that one has a tendency to think of it as a Trollius rather than a Ranunculus. Thick short rhizomes create a dense crown with rich green leaves and deep yellow flowers of good substance. Nice.
Papillion' possesses excellent foliage looking very clover-like with flattened tri-lobed leaflets in triplicate and is no great leap to imagine butterflies. These seedlings from the Ashwood nursery breeding program, have the characteristics of the parent and the flower color can be either white, pink or blue.
Andalusian Dutchman's Pipe. Native to Portugal, Spain and hopping across Gibraltar to North Africa, this curious vine with its heart-shaped leaves always gives pause with its small mahogany-purple flowers shaped like trippy little saxophones. We find it nigh unto impossible to walk by without stopping to admire the pixie quirkiness. Comparatively large seed pods follow the flowers.
Young plants from our seed collection in Switzerland a couple summers ago while hiking the 120 mile High Pass Route. Nothing like fresh snow in late August on the crazy narrow goat track path above a dizzying drop on the highest pass to make you wail for mama. Kelly wailed, Sue was fine. A few extra plants from planting out. Showy filamentous purplish flowers.
No shipping to Maryland. Non-spiny, non-seeding ornamental thistle similar to that favorite of European designers and English cottage gardeners, Cirsium rivulare 'Atropurpureum', this has the typically red flowers tempered by a bit of magenta. A beautiful plant with a misleading name because blue it ain't but we don't hold that against it as we are just happy to be growing it!
A striking Angelica for the sunny border. Finely dissected, deep purple to nearly black foliage is accented by purple buds revealing pink flowers in late summer. Biennial, but removing spent flowers before seed set will prolong its life a few years. Or if you have terrible timing, just collect and plant the seeds.