Hybrid

Horned Poppy. Officially designated as a Xeric Awesome Perennial, these originally came to us as seeds from Panayoti Kelaidis' home garden in Denver. This has rosettes of foliage which erupt in early summer to 2'-3' branched displays of orange to yellow poppy flowers. Nifty long curved seed pods too. This really wants good drainage in lean soil with hot sun where it will self sow which is good as the parent plants can be short lived. We had one make a low wide dome of gray-green foliage and we counted between 400-500 orange-yellow flowers on it - hopefully some of these seedlings will carry on the tradition. Some of these will be Glaucium flavum, some will be grandiflroum and others will be obvious hybrids but none will disappoint.

A hybrid of Clematis marata and C. marmoria from Graham Hutchins of the famed County Park Nursery in New Zealand. This fairly tender little evergreen creeper has early spring female flowers of greenish-white which are strongly scented of citrus. Perfect little container plant to overwinter in the cool greenhouse or outside in mild areas.

Red flowers. Lots of red flowers. Bringing the heat. A two foot bonfire of visually searing heat. A heaping pile of glowing coals in the garden. A smoldering intensity that can wear thin in a husband or wife but is perfect in this plant. A virtual hotness matched only by the forges of the Orcs in Lord of the Rings but in a much more positive sense. May into July this is cooking.

An old Irish cultivar sporting an Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society. Small creamy flowers getting a pink tinge with age are perfectly paired with the tidy small green leaves. A dense clumper that puts on a good show, make that a jolly good show, old boy, in early spring.

Nice smaller hybrid between Mexican and American species which combines good vigor with sun and low water needs and a floral jewel box of garnet colored flowers in summer. Everyone wants to lay out the banquet table for hummingbirds and this should have them coming back for seconds. Good in the rock garden.

Found in Boone North Carolina by an extension agent, this Glad is possibly a hybrid with dalenii and has pretty awesome cold hardiness having proven itself in zone 6. July flower spikes to 4' with apricot flowers touched in peach at the petal tips as well as in the throat. Very good increaser as this makes numerous cormlets so spread the love.

What madness possessed us to make this esoteric cross between the usual maroon flowered species and the white flowered form? Consequences of a very liberal drug and alcohol policy is perhaps the best guess. Unflowered seedlings which will be either typical maroon pleianthum, typical white pleianthum f. alba or shades in between. We can definitively say the flowers will not be blue.

Nice red-orange flowers really puts on a show later in August which comes at a time when some of the other reddish varieties have finished flowering. Named for Phillipa Browne who is a Crocosmia hybridizer in the UK. We're certain she didn't name this after herself and that a fellow nurseryman chose to honor her work in this way.

This is an excellent rock or crevice garden Penstemon we picked up at Aberconwy Nursery in Wales. Their selection for lavender flowers of Penstemon rupicola, we suspect it is a hybrid as the species normally has blue-ish foliage and pink flowers. Great introduction regardless and it is thriving in our crevice garden. First introduction to North America for this Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy offering.

A bushy hardy Fuchsia with arching branches and largish leaves which is good because they are one of the good things about this selection being richly colored in red if grown in ample sun. The flowers are no slouch either and they have to bring it to keep up with the leaves and that they do with a red exterior and a double purple interior corolla. Winter mulch.

Bugbane. A dusky, dark-leafed plant that appeared as a seedling in our shade garden a few years ago. We are windy here and which seed from which black-leafed, named form blew in from our sales tables, we cannot say. We let it be where it landed until it got too large and now it is divisions in pots. To 4' with late season wands of whitish fragrant flowers.

This choice terrestrial orchid is a hybrid between Calanthe discolor and the rare C. izu-insularis resulting from breeding work in Japan. The flowers are nicely displayed above the pleated leaves with muted maroon sepals and petals which contrasts beautifully with the light pink labellum that is edged in white. Divisions from our plants - not laboratory imports.

One of the best of the herbaceous Potentilla hands down, period. End of story. George Zimmer of Men's Wearhouse "I guarantee it". This is a "Quit talking, just do me, baby" Potentilla. Deep blood red flowers combined with the silver foliage are an exquisite pleasure verging on pain. Full sun.

The best seedling from a cross Robin White made between Daphne acutiloba and Daphne sericea 'Collina' with acutiloba as the seed parent although the pollen parent dominates the characteristics. Robin authored a monograph on Daphne and is a genius breeder and nurseryman with impossibly high standards. Goodson is his mothers maiden name so quality is a given in the low, open domed plant with fragrant, dusky pink flowers.

This recent introduction is likely a hybrid of S. umbrosa 'Primuloides' and S. paniculata and is an exceptionally neat plant in appearance with tidy rosettes of leaves edged in a pale dentition. Lightest pink flowers set off by darker pink eyes and pink stamens held on short pink stems. Great rock garden plant for north or east exposure with a bit of lime.

One of the best of the hybrids, this Silk Tassle bush is a cross between Garrya elliptica and G. fremontii. It has nice rounded evergreen leaves with catkins 8"-10" long in shades of green and purple in the winter. Just when SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder - ratchets up, Carl talks us down from the ledge. Tough plant and tolerant of some dry.

A plant this diminutive just can't be this sassy but Ione Hecker is obviously the English equivalent of Dolly Parton because this is a lot in a little package! Finely cut gray leaves in a dense mound with surprisingly large flowers that are a blue-hued pink with rich fuchsia striations leading to a magenta purple eye. A class act in a trough or rock garden and it is remarkably hardy. This was selected by Ione Hecker from a batch of seedlings raised by E. B. Anderson and is a hybrid between O. laciniata and O. enneaphylla.

A very hardy Ceanothus granted the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit. If you are going to name something the Glory of Versailles then it had better be good! A deciduous shrub to 6' or 7' high or more and 5' or so wide with soft powder blue panicles of scented flowers mid summer into fall. C. americanus and the Mexican C. coeruleus are its parents.