Japan

This is the Japanese version of our native False Hellebore. Wonderful broad pleated leaves and when old enough, nice spikes of white starry flowers to 3' or more. This likes a rich moist soil, emerges early in spring and goes dormant by mid to late summer. Deer resistant and very hardy. Young plants.

A Dan Hinkley collection from Japan of this fine mid to late summer blooming Allium species. Good richly colored purple flowers are freely produced on this densely clumping little dude. Good in containers and great in the rock garden or special little niche. This was originally misidentified as Allium thunbergii.

Rare plant found only in limited areas in central Honshu, Japan where it likes the forest fringes in the subalpine areas and is known as hiiragi-sou or holly tree-leafed weed. Hiiragi-sou sounds better than the translation. This selection has dark blue flowers and is a deciduous clumper to 16" tall - very nice!

One of the classic broad leaf evergreen small trees, this grows quite slowly and will fill the evergreen shrub niche for many years. This has small apetalous (that would be no petals so you can guess at the wow factor) chartreuse flowers in spring. Just a great Asian plant requiring decent moist soil.

Another excellent selection shared with us by Jan and Marty, this has flowers with a reverse of rich purplish-pink and faces of lavender pink that are washed in white. Each petal is gently heart-shaped which is very fortunate when one considers the possibilities offered by other organs. And we will stop right there.

These Japanese versions of the European nobilis are ones we have grown from seed and have been hoarding for a few years but since there is no room left in the Hepatica house, we must send a few of our kids out into the world. Each plant is different from white to pale pink and we get to pick. These are larger, established plants - not fresh from Japan. Also note that these are not as hardy as the European Hepatica but good for sure in zones 8-9a.

Oyster Leaf. The leaves are edible and taste - and feel - exactly like raw oysters. If raw oysters are your thing, this is an OMG veg alternative. The now closed El Bulli in Catalonia, regarded as one of the greatest restaurants ever, ran with Oyster Leaf innovative ways. Loved to have tried the leaves striped in golden caviar and splashed with Grey Goose. Beautiful glaucous blue-green leaves on sprawling stems tipped in small sky blue flowers. This likes ample nutrition. Perennial and dormant in winter. This is a plant of just above high tide line on cold northern hemisphere beaches from Maine to Greenland and Japan to Alaska so if you have a cool to cold garden, here you go.

A very good evergreen fern native to Taiwan, China and Japan which we imported from a specialist in the UK. Tidy and attractive species reaching 30" wide with fronds to 20" tall, this requires shade to part shade. And brace yourself - it is tolerant of dry shade! Happier of course with some water, Spore-grown by us.

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.

A curiosity found and named in Japan, this has long, crazy thread-like leaves on thin stems and will make a spreading, small mound which would hang over an edge if so sited. It can be staked up to get a bit of height which we like. No fruit or flowers on this Mulberry and don't grow this clone for silk production - the poor silkworms would starve!

This choice Tongue Fern is notable for the yellowish variegation on its evergreen 12" long leaves, and is likely conspecific with the clone sold as 'Variegata', Pyrrosia are easy but require great drainage and unless you are planting it in a stumpery, rockery or slope, you will need to seriously amend with gravel, bark or assorted detritus of life. Nice divisions from our stock plants.

This tasteful perennial from Japan bides its time in the shade garden as the floral hoi polloi scrabble for attention during spring and summer. Once the fracas has died down, this takes center stage in September and October with its intricately constructed buds like little pieces of sculpture which open to fuzzy light lavender flowers. 

Frosted Jade Ajuga. A rare Ajuga the likes of which you may have never seen. We all are familiar with the utilitarian carpeting-with-abandon slug magnet ubiquitous in gardens everywhere. This is a different critter altogether and resembles Bugleweed about as much as a Bichon Frise does a Junkyard Dawg. Stays put in a clump with erect stems to 16" with showy leaves of white, green and cream and intense violet blue flowers. This has been one of the most asked about plants in our shade garden and when we say what it is, the answer usually is "That's an Ajuga? Do you have it?" It is completely deciduous as well which is another mind boggler. And for slugs - they do like this one too, but really it is mainly the new shoots in early spring. We just keep an eye on the growth and if they are getting nibbled then we go out one or two evenings and inflict bodily harm and don't worry much about the plant afterwards.

This is very close to 'Kaleidoscope' and comes from the same Japanese nursery from which a plant was purchased and patented in this country as 'Kaleidoscope'. One has to wonder how a plant already in the trade on an international basis can be patented but that is a discussion that can run long into the night. 'Galaxy' is nearly indistinguishable from 'Kaleidoscope' and may well be a sister seedling or another selection in Japan. Lightly hairy stems hold the pale green leaves with their radially symmetrical chocolate splotches. Red flowers held beneath the foliage but who cares, really? It's all about the leaves. Moist shade and be prepared to be envied.

One can collect hundreds of named cultivars of this Japanese primrose and not have two that are identical. This is an ideal plant for the OCD plant collector who wants to take a long deep dive - just make sure when trying to have them all that money remains to buy groceries and keep the lights on. White flowers flushed fuchsia with a reverse that is solidly soft fuchsia. This will bring felicity to your garden.

Japanese Foam Flower. Uncommon evergreen groundcover which thrives in shaded, moist acid conditions and is uncommonly well suited to clothing a fallen mossy log or rock as it spreads by stolons like a restrained strawberry. Late spring/early summer small white sprays of flowers. Gotta love these monotypic Saxifragales genera!

The Wynn-Jones of Crug Farm collected this woodlander from Japan's Shikoku Island and represents a link to the shared flora we have here in the Northwest as there are native Mitella in our nearby woods. This is a low and evergreen species with foliage patterned in chocolate markings. The flowers are small pinkish-brown affairs with strongly recurved corolla lobes and held on stems 8"-15" above the leaves. This won't stop anyone in their tracks on its own but as part of the intricate plant tapestry that is required for an exquisite shade garden, this is an essential element. Plus if you are a tiny bit competitive, you can't disregard the fact that you will have something that is very unlikely anyone visiting your garden will have in their own garden. Zone 6 at least, likely lower and best in shade to part shade.

A fine selection of this deciduous Japanese species which was introduced by We-Du Nursery. Sizable flowers of rich purple are the hallmark of this plant and it more than holds it own against more recent hybrids. All Epimediums can't be painted with the same drought tolerant brush and this one appreciates more water than the real drought tolerant species.

Another one of those hyphenated names which pique our interest beyond sane rationale no doubt due to some character defect on our part but there is nothing defective about this Japanese gem. Glossy evergreen leaves are evocative of Blechnum which is high praise in our book. Gently, almost apologetically creeps to form a congenial aggregation of crowns. This formerly was placed in different genera such as Diplazium and Lunathyrium and one can sometimes find this plant labeled as such. Thanks to plantsman Lance Reiners for sharing this with us.

This Strawberry Saxifrage has rich colored leaves quite maroon underneath and intricately marked in silver on top. This sends out runners like a strawberry which makes new plants at the tips & makes a great groundcover for moist shade. Dandy and delicate white/pink flowers on 18" stems. This has proved itself in our shade garden.