Himalayas

Fabulous Award of Garden Merit shrub that has lovely pinnate Pea-like foliage and scads of luscious pink Pea flowers for several weeks from early to mid-summer. Quite pest free and wanting only good sun and drainage. A little light pruning for shape once a year and you are set to enjoy.

Helmeted Cobra Lily or Jack in the Pulpit. Young bulbs of this rare species from the Indian Himalayan foothills. Tall stems to 4'+ carry big 3-parted leaves and strongly cowled or helmeted flowers varying from green with white stripes to purplish. Choice plant and one to brag about. These are seed-grown from our plants in our shade garden which have persisted and done well for 7 years now.

An exceptional collection by Steve Hootman, Ken Cox and us of one of the finest Hedychium species for our area. We collected the same species in the same area on the same trip as part of the NAPE expedition and the collections were merged under this number. This is an early and consistent bloomer with rich tangerine-orange dense flower spikes in late summer and early fall. Rich moist soil and mulch if winter is severe to keep frost from the rhizomes.This is significantly different from the other densiflorum we offer, being much more robust and taller to 5'. It also blooms about 6 weeks later, with deeper orange flowers packed much more closely together. This is very happy in our shade garden. Similar to, and perhaps indistinguishable, from Frank Kingdon-Ward's collection called 'Assam Orange' as he beat us to this remote area by 70 years. Quite a gap between collections! These are big divisions.

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 received this plant as the cultivar 'Gigantea' which doesn't appear to be an accepted name hence our double quotes. Disclaimer aside, it is a big mother, stout of stem, leaf and flower and very grudging with seed and divisions. Large late summer light purple flowers. Muy Gigante!

This species is one of the easiest to grow and in the wilds of the Himalaya would be found as an epiphyte hanging out on the mossy trunks and branch crotches in essentially cloud forest conditions. In its typical expression, this sports red flowers but in this unusual variant, the flowers are creamy white followed by edible pale lavender fruit and its alliance with Vaccinium (blueberries) is easy to see. Eventually this will form a rounded woody caudex above ground called a lignotuber which is a food and water storage adaptation to coping with the vagaries of life in the canopy. Very easy to grow and will tolerate short exposure to light frost, but best no colder than zone 9.

If Thomas Hardy had written a book based on this plant, he would have tiltled it "Fusca the Obscure". Or Poe "Descent into the Plant Maelstrom". BIO -Botanical Interest Only. If you buy this we're doing an intervention on you and get you into the Plant 12-Step Program. You need help.

An recently described (2018) 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!

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.

Himalayan Bush Mint. Surprisingly hardy species - the gestalt at first glance is gotta be tender - that will be valuable late summer-fall color. Soft felty leaves on a plant that can hit ten feet tall, you grow this not for the aromatic and pettable foliage but for the tubular orange-red flowers in September-October mainly. Cut to the ground by hard frost but will regrow and would totally groove on a wall in its colder zones. Pronounced ko-hoo-nia.

This is a pretty interesting selection of climbing hydrangea we received from the intrepid plant hunting duo of Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones of Crug Farm Nursery in Wales. They collected this on a plant hunting trip to Sikkim and found this in the forest near the town of Yuksom. This has the typical small coral-green lacecap flowers and will self-adhere to a wall or tree-trunk as do the others but what sets this selection apart is the generally evergreen leaves which turn purple in the winter. Admittedly, Crug is in a mild portion of Wales which helps with the evergreen nature but what a nice bit of unexpected ornament. This was not collected at a particularly high elevation and we have no idea how hardy this will prove to be but for that sheltered spot in need of winter interest, gotta try it! Especially if grown on a wall, hardiness should be greatly improved and we expect this to be good to zone 7 anyway.

Rare in cultivation, this form from NW India of this Solomon's Seal is mainly an epiphytic species growing in mossy trees and on mossy, humus covered rocks. The speckled pale pink flowers hang as small bells as the new growth elongates and as the season progresses, the flowers turn into attractive red fruits. In frost-free areas, the fruit-bearing stems overwinter and overlap the flowering of the next year's growth which is very charming. This is an evergreen species in mild areas and is some years for us but of late has been deciduous due to cold winters with no ill effects. It has done very well in our raised shade beds and this is another plant we mulch in the fall as a winter precaution. Good drainage.

Superb blue-green leaf selection of this exceptionally ornamental evergreen Himalayan Blueberry. We saw this in western Arunachal Pradesh in 2003 at 10,000' and discovered an eastern range extension of this in Sichuan in 2006. This is a superior form to both populations and likely has its origins with Barry Starling, UK Ericaceae expert. Fruit is edible but very tart, good only for special preserves and you might be better served eating the birds that came to eat the berries. Not that we would. Or do.

A expert grower friend in Scotland gave us seed of "proper" 'Lingholm' after he could no longer bear seeing the dark blue verging tinged purple flowers of the US 'Lingholm'. We told him that gardeners here are near brought to tears by our domestic blue poppy and he said just wait. Large flowers of the most piercing, unsullied sky blue. Cool to cold northern tier gardens, or 7000' in the Colorado Rockies. Cannot be grown anywhere it gets hot and/or humid in the summer. These may not flower this year. Graeme - you da man - thanks for sharing!

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.

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. 

Nepal Lily. One of our favorite Lilies and one we've had the pleasure of seeing in the wild in Arunachal Pradesh near eastern Bhutan growing in low scrub on a sunny hillside. This is not from that trip but is a good form with very large pendant yellow-green flowers with a stunning chocolate maroon throat. Really pretty amazing. One thing that we especially enjoy is that it creeps about via underground rhizomes setting new bulbs along the way. It is not unusual for it to pop up 18" away from where you planted it. This fecund wanderlust does make for an impressive display in a few years. Good drainage in the winter and mulch. Our planting in our raised shade garden bed has had up to 80 flowers. Small bulbs that won't flower the first year with you but there are multiple bulbs so the wait is worth it.

Giant Himalayan Lily. Outrageous Lily family member which can reach 14' high in flower with huge 10" long Easter Lily white flowers flushed purple in the throat. This has an intoxicating fragrance which rides on the breeze throughout the garden especially in the evening. Large green heart-shaped leaves evocative of a Hosta ever increasing in size until it is old enough to bloom which is usually around 7 years of age. Once it is old enough, it sends up this amazing flower stalk in spring culminating in flowers in the latter part of June. This requires so much energy that the main bulb dies but it usually makes several offsets to carry on in subsequent years. As a bonus, the dried flower stalk with its decorative seed pods makes for an arresting bit of indoor decor. Considering the time involved, the sheer magnificence coupled with the poetic finality, flowering is an event that demands a party with plenty of sparkling wine. It's a great excuse for a little justifiable bragging. Plant shallow in rich and moist soil.

Seed-grown from the plants we grew from our collection in 2003. This species had been lost to cultivation due to garden hybridization so this reintroduction was quite important in the blue poppy world. These have been better than many at remaining perennial after flowering in all of their inky-blueness. Will not grow in hot climates, warm humid climates, warm humid nights, sun, clay, sand, dry, root competition, warm winters etc. so northern tier states, coastal West Coast or colder mountain areas. While we find them no more difficult than a primrose to grow, folks insist on trying them in Texas, Maryland, Kansas, or worse, indoors.

Himalayan Blue Poppy. Few plants capture the imagination and fire a lust to possess to the extant this fabled perennial does. Our 'Lingholm' strain is one of the best of the Blue Poppies and certainly one of the most reliably perennial. We never tire of seeing this in bloom with its large flowers of a good medium blue or of hearing the exclamations of delighted wonder from gardeners of every skill level. There is something about this that is magic and our sympathies if you live where this cannot be grown which is about anywhere it gets hot and/or humid in the summer.

This Meconopsis is not an Oriental Poppy. Forget we said the word 'Poppy' because everything that makes an Oriental Poppy happy will surely kill this aristocrat. Think cool. moist, part shade, what is going to make my Primrose happy? and you will be on the right track. This is going to be difficult south of northern New England unless you have a cool microclimate. Forget about Kansas although we have heard good reports from higher elevation in Colorado. We've seen the parent species of this hybrid at 12000' in eastern Bhutan and 10000' in Yunnan both in stable moss-covered boulder slopes which never dry. This appreciates a partly sunny to bright dappled shaded position with good loose organic soil that drains yet doesn't dry out. Acid soil and it doesn't like heat and it does need a winter so it can go dormant.

A small percentage will bloom and die - that is just the roll of the Blue Poppy dice and part of the mystique. This strain is much less prone to that plus you have viable seed with which you can start new ones if that does happen. That said, the 'Lingholm' selection in general cultivation has been so diluted by generations of seed-sowing that the Royal Horticultural Society is calling this strain Meconopsis Fertile Blue Group to denote that it is a tall blue flower producing fertile seeds. But what really matters is that these have no peers as there is truly nothing to compare. Young, sturdy plants which will establish very nicely in the garden.