Himalayas

Thank gods for Steve Hootman of the Rhododendron Species Botanic Garden who is a champion of the lesser Ericads otherwise we would be blissfully unaware that so many necessary plants such as this existed and this rare epiphytic Vaccinium is just such a plant. Fortunately Steve did not assess a leech surcharge appended to each sale of this plant otherwise we would be in serious trouble as they were legion in the Salween and his stories of his boots squishing as if filled with water from the monsoon rains only to find that upon removal of the boots that the sloshing was not so much water as it was blood which poured red from the weeping leech bites. Eighteen bucks starts to sound pretty reasonable don't you think? Very cute little epiphyte with small rounded cupped leaves and wee white flowers. This is going to be a source of no small pleasure in zone 9 where it will be happy growing in a container creeping in a rotting log or mossy rock in part shade. We grow ours in a cool greenhouse kept just at or above freezing and has been easy as pie. Not the showiest in the genus but isn't high maintenance or prone to drama. This has an unassuming beauty that only generations of attention to understated detail can achieve and there is not a thing we would change about this except perhaps that occasional nightmare concerning leeches.

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.

Nice hairy-leafed species from the Himalaya ranging from Nepal to Pakistan. This is semi-deciduous in our area and will go totally deciduous in colder zones. Like most Bergenia, this can take full sun, but late spring frosts can ding the new leaves and pink flowers. Rounded hairy mid-green leaves with reddish petioles. This clone a gift from a serious collector's garden.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We're wild about Roscoeas which we think gives you the floral abandon and exotic appeal of an orchid with a fraction of the cost and difficulty. One of the hardy ginger clan from the Indian Himalaya. These like a woodsy soil that drains yet stays moist. Easy and rewarding.

Neat species widely distributed from Thailand to China and into the Himalaya to Bhutan. This has stout stems that can reach 4' on old large bulbs with many leaflets arrayed like the spokes of an umbrella. Large green flowers often tinged with purple followed by red fruit. With such a broad range, there is variation in the species but a constant seems to be consistently good growers in the garden. Ours often don't appear above ground until early June so be patient! These are medium-sized bulbs and yes, we agree with you that we should have these sized by centimeters.

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.

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!

Fantastic Roscoea only discovered in the 1980's in Nepal and still scarce as hen's teeth in the nursery trade and always commanding very high prices. Why is this so good? It represents a color break in Roscoea with large red flowers which resemble some exotic orchid except this is easier to grow! It's a show-off plant for sure. In the trade as 'Red Gurkha' but recent nomenclature based on determining that this represents a naturally occurring variation of the species in stable wild populations in Nepal eliminates the perfect clonal name which everyone is still going to use.

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.

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.

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.

A favorite from the Himalaya, this thistle mimic is pretty outrageous in the garden. Robust clumps of gently spiny leaves and taller stems bejeweled in rank upon rank of long-tubed, white flowers which turn pink when pollinated. Nice to see we aren't the only ones who get a sexual flush during pollination.

These are divisions with a minimum of two growth buds of this very rarely offered, hardy terrestrial orchid from the western Himalaya and Pamirs, and which is a central Asian counterpart to our own native Epipactis gigantea. This has freakishly nice rose-pink flowers with as many as 15 per stem. Easy in the garden and a good multiplier with underground rhizomes forming a small colony of 18" stems.

We are quite pleased with ourselves for collecting seed of this desireable and scarce variant in the eastern Sino-Himalaya. This hardy Ginger relative has large flowers with white dorsal petals and a broad white labellum liberally washed in violet. Very plant-nerd worthy as well as being just a beautiful addition to the garden.

Seedlings from our Cardiocrinum giganteum var. yunnanense 'Big & Pink' which is one of two pink Cardiocrinums known to exist. We have the other one as well. These are hand-pollinated seedlings of this amazing and extremely rare plant and we expect them to be pink as well. They are probably a few years from flowering. One nursery person we know of was quite incensed that we would be selling these as pink saying "How do you know that they won't be white?" to which we replied "We don't but we don't know that they won't be red either." It is the first color break in the genus and there is no precedent to make assumptions other than best guesses and this is our best guess. We had two bulbs flower from this crop this summer and they were pretty darned pink. One came very close to the parent and the other was a notch behind but still way better than anything else out there so we are greatly encouraged. We can't wait seven years for these to flower to see what degree of pink - or not - they will be because the main bulb dies and we start over with offsets and seed. These do produce offsets so even though the bulb dies after blooming, you end up with more bulbs than you started with. This is a plant of temperate climates in China and the Himalayas and likes a lightly shaded, cool and moist situation. These are not planted deep like typical lilies but shallow and will often have their noses above ground as they get mature. We mulch these in winter with a blanket of dairy manure as they are a bit piggy. Oh, and that nursery person who was concerned about our ethics? She ordered one. Plant so the tip of the bulb is exposed and mulch well to keep winter freeze away from the bulb.