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Hardy species in the Gesneriaceae or African Violet family from Greece and Bulgaria where it favors shaded rocky outcrops. Our old mama plants fill a 3 gallon pot with a packed dome of evergreen leafy rosettes that give rise to 4"-5" stems with flowers of pale lavender faces and dark corolla base. Great starter plant for newbies to hardy gesneriads and it is so rewarding that even the long-time collectors have to confess to feeling that familiar thrill when it flowers. Good drainage, excellent in north-facing crevice of rock wall.

Pink 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 pink! Perfect in the woodland garden, very hardy and with impeccable provenance.

There really isn't anything like this - a plant with no comparables. Early spring yellow stars followed by leathery lobed green leaves in a dense low mound. It is the early yellow flowers that steal the show in part because they have so little competition and in part because they are so unique. As the season progresses, the yellow bracts turn to green and look like perfect green flowers well into summer. We did a little plant profile on this for Fine Gardening spring of 2011.

Rare and elusive in commerce, this is a denizen of the New Jersey Pine Barrens and moist areas along the Eastern Seaboard. When in flower, it always strikes us as looking more extra-terrestrial than a product of our own earthly evolution. Bizarre pink cones of small packed flowers studded with blue anthers are just a giggle. Rich moist soil in some shade. This is Federally listed as endangered and threatened. Our plant was received many years ago from the Rhododendron Species Botanic Garden who grew it from seed and we have propagated it like mad here at the nursery so our conscience is clear.

Choice selection with ruffled heavily marbled leaves and light pink flowers. You normally grow Hepatica for the early spring flowers and any foliar enhancement is pure gravy but with Cremar, flowers bow their heads to the majesty of the leaves. Quite a choice plant and does well in light shade with decent drainage.

This coveted form has white flowers with a fully visible striking pink reverse to the backs of the petals. The leaves which follow bloom are impressive in their own right being quite large with rounded lobes and rich purple-maroon undersides. A plant of this in your garden will forever mark you as a discerning plant nerd. Ultimate hardiness is not known but ours has weathered 8F in our shade garden no problem.

To find fault with this bit of botanical jewelry would be to put on display character defects so profound that your friends would desert you in droves while making plans for your involuntary institutional incarceration. Perfect marbled leaves subtend appleblossom pink-white flowers of larger size than typical. Shade garden pizzazz.

Very choice selection not often available but we have some very nice plants. This has soft blue flowers in profusion during those often grim early spring days. This is an overachiever in the shade garden as it is a good grower and will make a sizable clump which just means lots more flowers. It all works out nicely.

An outstanding selection from Mt Kiyosumi in Japan, this is distinguished by russet and burgundy tones to the new foliage and the lacecap flowers are the perfect complement to that foliage with the sterile florets being white in the center of the flower and blushing into a distinct pink rim. In our shade garden, we have this paired with our collection of Rhododendron falconeri subsp. eximium with its vibrant rusty brown-orange tomentum and both plants play off of one of David Eisenhour's exquisite bronze's which in this case is the seed of a Zulu Daisy. www.eisenhoursculpture.com. The combination has its share of moments of perfection during the growing season.

A favorite of ours from South Africa. We have this growing in front of our greenhouse and the first winter we mulched it and covered with a tarp. No damage. The second winter we just threw a tarp over it and no damage. Then finally we didn't protect it at all and there was no damage at 17F - even the flower buds were unscathed. Yellow daisy flowers are lovely over the glaucous succulent foliage.

Fantastic collection by arguably the preeminent plant hunters of our times, Bleddyn & Sue Wynn-Jones of Crug Farm in Wales. This is from a 1993 collection in the Odaesan Mts in cold NE Korea and departs from the norm of this little known genus by having blue flowers. We nearly wept when it flowered. Moist and shade.

A superior red seedling that arose here and one that is a bit larger than the other large red selections we grow. It was fun to lay out a table of flowers of all the cultivars and our seedlings for comparative evaluation. It was quickly apparent that it is hard not to love red and might as well go big. Just add water, food and sun. The name refers to Anna Massena, Princess d'Esseling and Duchess of Rivoli of France. Her husband was a serious amateur ornithologist with 12,500 bird specimens including an unidentified hummingbird which he had collected along the west coast of North America. This was later named Calypte anna - Anna's Hummingbird. This is a favorite resident here all year and loves the winter flowers in our greenhouses during spates of freezing weather. The males are little emerald green Jack Russell's, flashing a conspicuous Rivoli Red throat patch.

These were shared with us by Kelly's mentor and fair to say, hero, the late Steve Doonan of Grand Ridge Nursery. A superb selection with petaloid stamens giving this a robust doubled appearance. Always hard to come by and much sought after, this will in time make a nice carpet of ostentation of which we were at first embarrassed by our display of excess but we have managed to come to terms with it. These are multi-eyed divisions potted this winter so there won't be much for roots until they start growing this spring but will be nice plants. We would like to save them until they are fully rooted out but they always sell here before that happens so we have listed them with the root caveat.

A seedling selection named by us for the extra large flowers which when compared to others, is not only beyond the pale ones but all others as well. Signaling the end of summer, the September-October flowers of the palest pink are similar to the cultivar 'Pallida' but bigger so of course it has to be better. These will be ecstatic in rich, moist soil in a sunny position. Used to be Schizostylis.

This gets more than its share of attention in our shade garden causing people to completely ignore the poor Gaultheria x wisleyensis on the other side of the path. Gold washed, flecked and stippled foliage with light pink lacecap flowers. An excellent Japanese selection.

Interesting and showy Japanese species that makes tidy little evergreen clumps. This is a just too darned slow to ever make it a viable plant for mainstream nurseries but it so worth the wait. So of course we love it! Unusual lavender-pink flowers held well above the foliage. These will slowly increase to make one sweet little grouping. Good moist soil in shade. The whole clan appeals to us beyond reason - Helonias and Ypsilandra are stellar relatives. We have a few very chunky plants we've kept for propagation but now that we have enough in the pipeline, these stalwarts are expendable. It's tough love here at The Farm but we know you'll do right by them.

If this is the new wave then I'm a bitter old codger, and I pray they don't mean to drag down the euphoric music genre down with em. It's not often you're growing hydrangea for a foliage plant, but for those who lust for the over-the-top, flamboyant, gaudiness that only the most outrageous variegation can provide, fear not your soulmate has found its way to you. Flowers are relatively subtle lacecaps compared to most marketed macrophyllas. The leaves however feature screaming yellow margins, with a variable cream inner border and natural green center making for a definite conversation starter, just please leave Depeche Mode out of it for my sanity.

Our own flowering divisions from a plant bequeathed us from the former garden of plant-obsessed Marian Raitz. This Japanese selection is a fully pink double and double means the flowers last longer than the typical single fertile flowers. Ideal for cool greenhouse pot culture or mild gardens.

Nice hardy Hebe for us here in the PNW as this hails from the alpine and subalpine areas of the drier mountains on New Zealand's South Island. A low creeper to just 8" high, the olive-green leaves are quite good but it really gets its groove on when it blooms as the white flowers contrast with the near-black stems.

The typically blue-flowered European species but from a great source. Thanks to our friend and Hepatica guru John Massey of Ashwood Nurseries for sharing seed. We have flowered these plants and they are indeed blue! Perfect in the woodland garden, very hardy and with impeccable provenance.