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42 products
42 products
Dark-flowered form from a wild collection in Turkey. The typical form cultivated in the Northwest is a soft blue lavender but this is a rich blue purple with falls marked at the base with prominent white feathers around a peninsula of yellow. Closely allied to Iris unguicularis, this has wider more substantial foliage and flowers later - usually in March here. Special indeed!
Cretan Arum. Aside from Crete, this is found in Turkey as well. A beautiful species that checks the boxes for drought/heat tolerance as this is a summer dormant bulb. The green leaves appear in fall and have been undamaged here in winter drops to 10F so guessing can go lower. Scented soft yellow spathes. Not flowering size, plant in well-drained soil 3" deep in sun and enjoy.
This excellent hardy orchid is one we received many years ago from our late Plant Guru, Jerry John Flintoff as Dactylorhiza incarnata subsp. africana. Well, that has been merged into D. elata and it looks right to us but we are not orchid botanists. Vigorous, with green leaves and richly colored flowers. Native to Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia in north Africa, dallying on some islands in the Med (smart orchid!) and jumping to France, Spain and Portugal up to Belgium and the Netherlands.
One of the sweetest little bulbs imaginable! Summer dormant with dainty white flowers on 6" stems appearing in Aug into Sept. This grows in Portugal, Gibraltar and Morocco and is just as happy growing with our native Madrona (Arbutus menziesii) here as it is Olives back home. Grassy foliage up in fall and winter.
A lesser-known cousin to the better-known Iris unguicularis. This is a Turkish species and while it blooms a bit later than it's famed cousin, is still early enough to be immensely gratifying plus it has hands down far more attractive evergreen foliage than I. unguicularis. We had a flower or two this past December but expect it to really kick in when March roll around. The flowers are held down in the foliage and often this foliage is cut pack prior to flowering so the blooms can be enjoyed unencumbered. We've never gotten around to do that and our enjoyment has not been diminished one whit Easy with drainage and will take some summer dry. We've found the foliage looks better in part shade and actually grow this in our shade garden.
Truly a Sea Holly as this Eryngium is a dune plant throughout a good part of Europe. Hard to beat texturama for the dry garden, Mediterranean style or really, any ol' garden as long as you aren't too nice to it. Good drainage in lean soil and you can bask in the splendor of the gray, lightly spiny foliage and the small light purple flower buttons.
Kind of a rocking plant in that it really requires nothing from you. We have it in a drier spot in our shade garden and it just trucks along looking good and putting on nice white flowers for months on end. Horrible winter weather comes and it doesn't care - just stays evergreen. We've gotten rather attached to it and you will as well. One of Beth Chatto's 100 favorites.
2nd generation from Turkey of this usually perennial Foxglove. The flowers, while not huge, more than compensate with a stellar performance - essentially the same credo I have lived to generally good effect. The small hairy-lipped pale yellow flowers densely pack the stems, blurring the line between plant and art.
This dandy Salvia came to us from the garden of Dan Post of whom we hold in the highest possible esteem. He has trialed this under intense deer pressure and it gets a thumbs up in all the critical categories. Easy, hardy, deer-proof and lovely. Bushy big leaves to 2' and tall branched flowering stems to 40" with blue violet flowers splotched in white, touched in yellow.
Sea Holly. One of the best of the lot with great marbled foliage and blue thistlely flowers which are great for drying. Likes a sunny poor soil and is known for laughing disdainfully at Port Townsend deer, the modern rats of the new Millenium. Let this self-sow for best results.
A real stunner, this rare member of the bellflower family holds aloft its glorious flowers atop 3-5' stems. Those flowers? Quite unlike anything you've seen before, unless of course you're hiding the world's first Passiflora x Campanula hybrid (our phone lines are open!). Reflexed white petals forming a sun-like halo around a showily protruding pistil make for a guaranteed garden conversation starter. Potentially a great fit for the sunny rock garden or other well drained sunny spot.
Eyes that look like these would be a little more concerning than dazzling but on an iris they are well worth a futile staring contest. This selection of I. unguicularis has an extended area of white and purple striping at the base of the petals that provides a stunning contrast that is sure to draw the eye, or to the more imaginative among us conjure images of eyes you might see at a really wild music festival.
Hardy species in the Gesneriaceae or African Violet family from Greece and Bulgaria where it favors shaded rocky outcrops. Our old mama plants fill a 3 gallon pot with a packed dome of evergreen leafy rosettes that give rise to 4"-5" stems with flowers of pale lavender faces and dark corolla base. Great starter plant for newbies to hardy gesneriads and it is so rewarding that even the long-time collectors have to confess to feeling that familiar thrill when it flowers. Good drainage, excellent in north-facing crevice of rock wall.
One of the finest of the species Peonies, this Mediterranean goody is among the first to bloom in spring. Fabulous new growth and very showy single pink flowers. If you want scent, get a hybrid. If you want class, here you go. This is a stunning and very good plant whose foliage gleams with a metallic sheen which looks great throughout the summer. The late summer/early fall seed pod display is of high ornament. Good, well drained soil, this will be more heat tolerant than the other species and the one most apt to succeed if you live in an area with minimal winter cold. When planting, just cover the red buds no more than an inch or two. These are seedlings that are a couple years from blooming size.
This has grown into one of our favorite plants. Much like an Eremurus or Foxtail Lily in effect with basal strappy leaves and a 4'-6' tall branched flower spikes in May and June with lots of pale peach tinted white flowers opening from reddish-striped buds. Longest-lived in sandy soils and late summer dormant.
Seriously good small Meadow Rue from Greece that brings it earlier than some more familiar species. Makes a rounded mass of fine leaflets on many stems to 12"-18" tall with a full helping of clean white flowers. You could ask for more from a small plant such as this but it would be bad form.
Pinecone Thistle. Pretty cool 6"-12" tall plant from dry pine woods and wastelands in southern Europe and northern Africa. The spineless gray-green, thistle-like leaves, are felted gray-white underneath and are a perfect accompaniment to the art project flowers. Tufts of filamentous purplish flowers erupt from hefty cones of overlapping, feathered brown scales. Beautiful conversation plant for the rock garden and while perennial, it is short-lived, so save some seeds.
White Asphodel. From Spain to North Africa and over to the Balkans, this has done very well for us in our garden. Narrow leaves in small clumps with flower stems 2'-3' tall and perhaps with greater maturity, to 4', and which bear showy starry white flowers. We also enjoy the darker round seed capsules which extends the interest. This will go summer dormant and isn't for the humid Southeast.
Got lots of sun and sandy or well-drained soil with average to low fertility in a dryish garden beset by rabbits and deer but still want lots of flowers for the bees and other pollinators? Look no further as this will nicely fill the bill. Mature plant has hundreds of pink papery bracted flowers in midsummer on drooping stems. Best displayed in a raised bed.
This is one sweet Pea. Native to the Caucasus Mts, this takes a backseat to its more floriferous and showy cousins for it has simple pairs of pink flowers borne with restraint that nestle comfortably among the rounded leaflets. Don't be misled by the backseat as it is the backseat of a Bentley. Perfection of leaf and flower in exquisite refinement that demands you take a moment to admire. It has prime space in our sunny border despite the petitions from more flamboyant plants blooming in containers back in the relative obscurity of the stock greenhouse.