Himalayas

This deciduous and broadly distributed Asian fern boasts alternately pinnate fronds up to nearly 2' long that gives it a certain je ne sais quoi while not straying too far from the archetypical fern appearance. Pair that with its ease, tolerance for deep shade, reliability and you get a surprisingly well-rounded do-er considering its uncommon availability on the market.

These are seed-grown plants from a fantastic rich purple form of the Blue Poppy shared with us by Merrill Jensen of the Jensen-Olson Arboretum in Alaska where these magical plants grow like Matanuska cabbages. This is a very choice offering. We've not seen this before and the pedigree remains a grandis mystery, so to speak! These could vary from seed but we hope not and be sure to save seed after flowering as you will want a drift of these! Only for cool to cold climates, with no warm humid evenings.

Tall Jack in the Pulpit. These grow into big boys with a large green flower and distinctive vertical spadix held well above the foliage. This merits that overused word of awesome especially when it gets 5' tall and you are eye-to-eye with that intriguing flower. The showy brilliant red fruit cluster is most welcome in early fall.

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.

An easy plant for the rock garden or well-drained front of the border. This doesn't require much beyond the basics and yet on this meager fare of occasional watering it will bloom most of the summer and well into fall. To ask for more would be simply bad form. Mat forming with gray-green lightly hirsute rosettes with umbells of white flowers with small green turning pink eyes.

A cool tolerant species from the Himalaya, we keep this in our 40F greenhouse over the winter and it seems to like it. We're not traditional orchid growers as a rule but this has been super-easy, even in pots like everything else here. These are non-flowering divisions in gallon pots and could and should bloom next year. White flowers are of good size.

A good form of this Chinese Jack in the Pulpit from plantsman Darrell Probst which sports the eye-catching and very elegant white-striped purple flowers typical of the species but here with the added ornament of dark stems rather than green.  This used to be known as var. liubaense, for the lack of ciliate hairs on the spathe rim but this is a minor distinction and is no longer recognized.  An excellent increaser by offsets, resulting in a proper colony over time.

Seldom offered species and one we had the privilege to see in a very remote area in western Arunachal Pradesh in 2003. Well, Sue saw it as Kelly was confined to bed violently ill and missing this remains one of his great regrets. This originated from friend and plant legend Peter Cox of Glendoick. Pink to white flowers.

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.

One of the most satisfying and reliable of the hardy Gingers. We've grown this Nepalese beauty for years now and it always blooms in mid to late summer with flowers of the most gentle orange. This is a good increaser in moist loose soil and looks marvelous in half sun or bright shade. This does not need a long warm Fall to flower but relishes our cool pseudosummers here in the Puget Sound. We mulch ours in the fall to keep frost for reaching the rhizome and basically other than that we just water and feed it. Very low care.

We've sold this before as the pink form of baileyi but now have the correct name. These are lovely 4-petaled flowers of a distinctive mauve pink and has proved to be a good perennial form. While it is in the Poppy family, it hates the sun and dry. Give this a moist well-drained rich soil in bright shade to morning sun. Our sympathies if you live where this cannot be grown, which is about anywhere it gets hot and/or humid in the summer.

A selection by the late plantsman and plant hunter Michael Wickenden of Cally Gardens from his collection in the Mishmi Hills of India. Aptly named for the late summer display of small deep red-pink flowers, these are nicely displayed over the broadly rounded leaves, which when given enough sun, take on purple coloring.

These are robust plants from seed collected by Chris Chadwell in northern India in 2012. Chris is extremely knowledgeable on the flora of Nepal, Kashmir and northwest India having done nearly 30 extensive botanical expeditions to those areas. This species is particularly interesting to us, as not only is it perfectly hardy for us in our gardens but it extends the geography in our accessions: it joins our shorter-stature 2003 collection from near eastern Bhutan, along with our 2006 collection from Sichuan. We like geeking out on a species and when we can observe the various expressions of morphology as influenced by the diversity of its range, it really doesn't get much better for us. Safe to say we get a "botanical flush". Anyway, this hardy true ginger relative is good down to zone 7b with enough mulch for short durations to single digits and happy in bright shade to mostly sun. This species blooms reliably for us every year outside and makes us very happy in October with its open spires of white crane fly flowers highlighted by salmon-pink working parts. Moist with drainage.

Blackberry Lily. Our collection of this extremely widespread Asian species which not only has attractive deep orange flowers that are overlaid in a plethora of red spots but also the seed is curiously attractive looking for all the world like a large blackberry. This has wide application in traditional Chinese medicine and our collection is likely an escapee from the local mountain village.

One of the showiest in this genus of vining Bellflowers. Large purple-blue flowers with a dark ring - sometimes pure white - quickens our pulses in either expression. Recently reduced from species status, grey-wilsonii has been retained as a geographic race of the species convolvulacea based on larger leaves and flowers.

Jack in the Pulpit. One of the more refined Himalayan 'Jacks' with a graceful purple and white or sometimes green and white striped flower held beneath the spokes of long narrow leaflets. This adds an exotic touch and increases by offsets and by seed - the latter when it gets its party on by having both sexes in the flower.

This epiphytic Vaccinium relative - indeed some have merged the two genera - is a stunner. Growing on trees in the cloud forests of the Himalaya, this forms woody lignotubers from which arise the branches clad in evergreen leaves which hold the narrow pendant yellow flowers in late winter and spring. This is an especially good form with red calyces. Tolerant of light frost and needs very good drainage. Our overwintering hummingbirds love this in our greenhouse.

Hardy dwarf Jasmine from Himachal Pradesh in India. This is an ideal little rock garden candidate or if you are looking for a small shrub for that special nook, look no further. Small yellow flowers lightly scented are scattered among the evergreen leaves all summer. Tolerant of dry, deer aren't interested, no maintenance needed.

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.

A collection from Nepal deemed distinct by Crug Farm Plants in Wales. From terminal bud cones in mid to late summer, yellow-orange flowers spout from prominent red bracts. The foliage is red-tinged underneath and is held on dark stems. Clumps nicely and the species as a whole is of elegant presentation. Moist, rich and mulch if winter is cold.