G

A decidedly unBaby's Breath Baby's Breath. This is a delightful deciduous creeper that absolutely covers itself in lavender tinged white flowers with darker pencilings. Very nice in the rock garden or rockery. Appreciates good drainage but some moisture in the soil.

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.

The one-spotted form of the classic Giant snowdrop. Maintains the broad grey-green leaves and buoyantly rounded flowers of the species but does away with the upper green band generally seen on the inner segments in favor of just the apical wishbone green marking giving a distinctly snowier and elegantly clean appearance.

A classy selection we brought in from the UK as the pure white clone 'Serenity,' but turns out to be a dead-ringer for this Scottish selection with alternate petals dusted in light turquoise. Full sun in cool sun areas, or part sun in hot sun. Moist acidic soil please.

Very rare groundcover species from Southland and Stewart Island, New Zealand where this is restricted to just 4 small coastal populations comprised of just 6 individual plants. The plants form flattened brown-gray rosettes - and spread by stolons in moist dune hollows. Our plants have green leaves which may refer to our soils or geography and weathered our 12F winter with a bit of mulch. Quite uncommon in cultivation and usually found in botanic gardens and a very few, ahem, exceptional specialty nurseries.

A white flowered variant of this familiar Geranium whose flowers are backed by a green calyx rather than pink which adds to its overall indispensable lightness of being. The paler than normal green leaves accentuate this and makes this valuable for brightening a somber corner or tempering hotter colors. This was found on Mt Olympus in Greece on a Ness Botanic Garden Expedition and introduced by the same. We should have thought more about our name - 'White-Far' 'Far White' 'White Reach' 'Reach White' just doesn't get it - those Brits one-up us on plants again - buggers! This will handle dry shade to mostly sun and is nearly a mythic plant for those tough places and somehow thrives under the regime of absentee gardening.

Fine South American evergreen shrub to 20" or more when grown richly or half that grown rock garden lean. Wiry red stems bristle with small stiff leaves that pair well to the plentiful small white bells and reddish fruit later. From Simon Bond in England who had some obscure treasures when we visited his Thuja Alpine Nursery.

Riveting species from mountainous regions in South Africa where it grows on moist cliffs and near waterfalls. Vivid cardinal-red flowers on slender stems with white blazes on the lower 3 petals makes this nearly imperative to own. This is hardy in the PNW thankfully especially if mulched in the event of severe winter cold.

One of the classic alpines for rock gardens and one that should be on the "Easy Alpines for Beginners" list if it isn't already. Low tight mats of small evergreen leaves topped by fuzzy spherical violet-blue flowers in early summer, this looks good all the time. This particular one is from a Hinkley collection in Turkey.

Endemic to the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, this dons prickly, Acanthus type leaves (hence the species name) and pinkish purple toothbrush type flowers. Evergreen and tough, this can tolerate more shade than other Grevilleas. The flowers are known for their sweet nectar and the birds will thank you for this one!

Absolute rock hardy jewel from Lebanon and Syria. Well. it's rock hardy here anyway - we know that means something entirely different in Minot. This is perfect for our area as it is winter growing and summer dormant so our Mediterranean dry summers feels a lot like home to it. Surprisingly, it has been very tolerant of being watered all the time while dormant so it is more cosmopolitan than one might guess its geography. Blooms in late spring with lots of lavender-blue flowers on stems up to 18" and after flowering it disappears until Fall. Not often available and we have the inimitable John Flintoff to thank for sharing this with us.

James Roof' is a man among boys when you are talking West Coast Silktassels. This male cultivar is gloriously well-hung with flowering catkins that dangle nearly a foot in length resulting in catkin-envy among other Garrya cultivars and the occasional insecure gardener. Or so we are told. Tough evergreen doing it's thing in early spring.

Chinese Bald Cypress. Another one of those monotypic genera we love! This deciduous conifer is the only species in the genus and highly threatened by habitat loss in the wild. This will get to be a big tree which your yet unborn child's children can sit under. In their boat. Fairly slow - ours is in our bog garden pond.

We saw this at the O'Byrne's in Eugene and Plant Lust caused our pollen to shed and our stigma's got a bit sticky. It is so embarassing but Ernie and Marietta are used to it. Completely hardy here and clothed in small white crinkled fragrant flowers in Apr-May. Yes. Yes. Yes! Yes! Yes!
(photo thanks peganum Wikipedia Commons)

A choice Snowdrop with very large single flowers and one of the earliest to bloom. This was found in the garden of John Gray in England and is a hard one to come by. Increases moderately well and seems to be a survivor with a good constitution as it is going strong here while more effete selections have dwindled.

A selection of this outstanding European alpine species notable for having large flowers and being quite a good bloomer. Not all acaulis flower freely but 'Krebs' brings it with large upward-facing trumpets of impossible blue except they are right there in front of you so it must be possible but how can such a tight mat of small green adpressed leaves produce such a fantastical display of color intensity? The good thing is we don't have to know how and why about everything and sometimes it is quite enough to have your senses left reeling by a wee bit of green that does something so flamboyant that it would leave Sir Richard Branson shaking his head in rueful acknowledgment at having been thoroughly bested. We were so excited to finally get this clone that we told all of our friends we got 'Krebs' and it was a long time before we noticed no one was coming over or inviting us to dinner. Our friends aren't plant people for the most part so the misinterpretation was understandable and most have come back once we explained but we really miss Rich and Karen.

An indispensable Port Townsend plant. This rugged South African is sun, wind and drought tolerant and absolutely hardy here. One of the most admired plants in our border for its profuse display of large yellow to orange daisies on low stems. Good drainage.

Hybrid seedling that came up in OSU Grevillea researcher Neil Bell's garden at the base of his Grevillea victoriae so carries a preponderance of the all the good traits of the parent. What are those good traits, you say? Hardiness, showy reddish flowers in summer, evergreen, tough, hummingbirds love it, deer hate it. Grow dryish and lean.

Variegated version of the Broadleaf Griselinia. This New Zealander is an evergreen shrub with laurel-like green apple leaves whose margins are painted in cream as if from a palsied brush. Insignificant flowers bear little mention which is saying something coming from us, Champions of the Botanically Interesting. The foliage is of first-class stand-alone merit and why chance the potential clashing distraction which flowers might bring to a broad-leaf evergreen of this caliber? Excellent shrub responding well to pruning or hedging and suited for mild gardens such as near the water or in urban heat sinks here in the Puget Sound metro area. Try it as a south or west wall plant in areas frustratingly on the periphery of its hardiness range. The straight green-leafed species has been a stalwart at Washington Park Arboretum for decades in Seattle and this version will be no different.

Received as Edward Whittall group but lacking the features of that mixed up group. Not to say this isn't worth having in its own right. Quite a distinct form that we can't quite put a name to, lacking in the usual double inner markings of elwesii. These have a large, nearly x-shaped green marking and at times produce 3 rather than the usual 2 leaves. A charming curiosity, pin your own favorite name on it Xcellent, Xstatic, X-Out, Xerox, Xenon, X-marks-the-spot, you get the gist.