Himalayas

Collected in northern India by the intrepid plant hunting duo of Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones, this species offers some midsummer exotica with yellow flowers emerging from soft red calyces on 2' stems. Yet another hardy-for-us species in the Zingiberaceae that we are enamored with.

Himalayan Maidenhair Fern. Evergreen to semi-evergreen creeping fern making the the most textural groundcover imaginable. Salmon pink new growth goes to light olive and finally green leaflets on black wiry stems just 8"-12" high. Likes a loose moist soil but will tolerate dry when established.

One of the finest False Solomon Seal's around and rarely obtainable. These are spirit-breakingly slow to grow from seed. However, these are of such perfection when mature with stout 24"-30" stems arching gracefully and each bearing a terminal plume of flashy white flowers that once again we forsake common sense for beauty. 

Offering from division of this excellent selection by our friends at Crug Farm who collected this in Nepal while plant-hunting with Dan Hinkley and Jamaica Kincaid. The species is typically very robust and stout and this is no exception with green leaves and a red pseudostem. The white flowers with a light lavender wash are a nice departure from the norm. This does not like warm night-time temps and hot, muggy humidity - it's from the mountains after all.

A true Ginger relative, this is a vigorous and hardy hybrid between R. auriculata and R. cautleyoides and is a wonderful fusing of all that is good in both parents unlike me who got the short round gene. Stout tanned foliage with large variably purple streaked flowers in shades of cream.

One of the few plants the damn yaks don't eat up in the Tibetan Plateau which explains why we were able to collect seed of this herbaceous honeysuckle relative. Bold leaves with absolutely nothing flowers in June which yield smashing clusters of marble-sized red fruit.

Perhaps the penultimate perennial in our shade garden. This Asian False Solomon Seal species reaches the pinnacle of expression in this pink-purple flowered form. In time, this will develop thick stems variably black or green and less commonly coated in a subtle pale peach fuzz of small hairs. These impressive shoots arise from the soil in spring as if the imaginings of some wild fever dream about asparagus. At full maturity which will take some years, these will be pushing 6' in height and when in flower will render even the most consummate gardener speechless.

(David Culp, author of 'The Layered Garden', was not without speech when he dropped to his knee upon seeing this blooming but the words were disconnected and for the most part unintelligible. He said almost a year later in conversation "You know, that was was just one of those moments in your life").

The large panicles of small pinkish purple flowers appear usually the first week of June for us and own the shade garden. We have many striking plants in the garden but when Martha Stewart Living wanted to know when to come out and shoot the garden, we said "First week of June - Maianthemum oleraceum will be blooming". It will be a few years before these become contenders for the best thing in your garden but if ever a wait was worth it, this is that wait.

Sometimes simple is best, shocking coming from this bastion of maximalism and specialization we know, but its hard not to love an approachable friendly face in an intimidating crowd. This species is that friendly face for the at-times daunting world of alpine and rock gardening, adaptable and charismatic with it's primula-like flowers. This little Euro delicacy comes from the legendary Aberconwy nursery, one of two selections bred to combine the compact habit of the white-flowered 'Doksa' with the usual bright pink form. This one favors saturation of color over extreme dwarfness but is still quite compact. A little specialist and a lot cute, a welcome addition for the beginner and the erudite expert.

Very collectible selection of this hardy terrestrial orchid which boasts - yes, boasts, of its unique, light chartreuse foliage. if your ears, like ours, are tuned to that high frequency in which plants converse, you can just make out this orchid sounding like an NBA player after throwing down a one-handed jam from an alley-oop "Yeah! Lookit me! Me! I'm a bad-ass orchid! You ask yo mama how bad I am! An yo sister - she loves how my leaves shine when the lights go down." I've given up on the NBA because such displays are wearisome but somehow, with this orchid, it is an endearing cheekiness. Light yellow foliage looks it best in bright shade to part sun and not the part during the hot part of the day. Leaves 18"-24" with pinkish-purple flowers a few inches taller in June and hardy to zone 6 especially with winter mulch.

We've seen this wee gem in both Bhutan and Sichuan at high elevations at 12000' where it mingles in alpine meadows. Open-faced lavender pink flowers at ground level followed closely by foliage just a few inches high. Easy in the garden. Who would suspect it's a Solomon's Seal?

An undescribed species from a recent Hinkley collection in eastern Arunachal Pradesh. A staggeringly good foliage plant fully clad in large deeply divided leaves and sporting yellow flowers - such a nice departure from pink! These admittedly mingle within the foliage and teasingly tantalize in their allure. Hardy in mild Z8b gardens with a deep airy mulch. With many herbaceous "hardy" begonias, hardy as long as the rhizomes and crown don't freeze!

A rare grand foliage plant from lower elevation in the eastern Sino-Himalaya. Allied to Schefflera, this differs in its armor of spiny prickles and whose terminal inflorescense produces black fruit. We offer this with some trepidation in fear of sparking a feeding frenzy among the Araliaceae collectors who are a particular subset of plant nerds that walk the knife edge of obsession that separates reason from Poe's " A Descent into a Maelstrom". Before you knee-jerk and click add to cart, take your meds and wait an hour. Of course this may well be sold out by then.......... A portion of the proceeds goes to support the mission of Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy.

We always think of this as an easy and affordable substitute for orchids as the flowers are reminiscent. In the ginger family, this is easy Asian tuberous plant can be grown in part sun to light shade. It will get a foot or more high and will have a succession of showy purple-pink flowers and clump quickly.

Named for the stringently impeccable plantswoman and designer, this large-leafed deciduous Bergenia with pink-white flowers is a worthy namesake. She had a deserved reputation of not brooking fools gladly but strangely was always pleased to see us - perhaps a case of the exception proving the rule. Light green leaves with crenulate dentation on the scalloped leaves.

Also found as Potentilla lineata. We originally received seed of this back in the 90's from a Chris Chadwell collection in Nepal. An exceptional foliage plant with long silken silvery leaves and tall loosely arrayed yellow flowers in early summer, which we have offered in the past simply as Potentilla sp. This was misidentified by another nursery in the area as P. gelida and as a result, is in the trade here as P. gelida which is unfortunate as it bears little similarity to this ornamentally uninteresting species. Then to make matters more complicated P. lineata recently became Argentina lineata nonetheless it is one of our favorite herbaceous Potentilla-like plants which Chris ID'd for us here in the summer of 2013.

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.

A hardy Ginger relative from our seed collection just a long days drive from the Tibetan border. Narrow petals of white and peach are floral whimsy and always manage to coax a smile out of us. The unscented flowers compensate for that lack by having one of the showiest seed displays in the genus. This collection seems to be distinctly shorter than other forms of spicatum we grow. Mulch in winter.

Chinese version of this species which gets into the Himalaya as we've seen in Arunachal Pradesh. Softly banded in mocha as the new green leaves emerge, the white flowers show nicely below the expanding leaves. Late summer, round orange fruit appears. A different collection from what we've offered previously.

A very distinct form of this species which was collected in Nepal by Tony Schilling and shared with us by David Mason of Hedgerows Nursery. A good spreader rather than a clumper, the rounded ping-pong paddle leaves offer much as a small-scale groundcover. White to tinged pink flowers in early summer. Deciduous to semi-deciduous, we are inordinately fond of this collection and have it planted at the entrance to our shade garden. This particular collection is quite rare in the trade. Tony used to be the director at Wakehurst and David was deputy director so the chain of provenance custody is just how we like it.

Pretty awesome evergreen fern because not only is it cool, but it increases fast enough to make a statement in the garden before you are in your dotage and have forgotten why you bought this, yet not in that rampaging acreage-eating Borg-assimilating manner that is sometimes described as "a good nursery plant".