New & Restocked

These serve a lot of great purposes in a Kniphofia collection or general plant collection with structural grass-like foliage and bright impactful late-season flowers which ascend lance-like in late summer to fall when most of it's flaming brethren have have lowered their spears, which also means extra nectar supply in the lean season for your pollinator population. In addition to being a late bloomer the species is relatively dwarf and offer nicely gradient-ed orangey yellow flowers. Good intro poker before getting into the more unwieldy but epic larger species.

A columbine caricatured for cuteness would be a fair assessment of this species and selection. Taking an already dwarf plant and selecting for the smallest of its kind is very Alpine gardener behavior and luckily this one plays along happily growing and seeding in our crevice garden. Buoyant light purple and white-centered starship flowers outsize in comparison to the teensy vegetative parts. Happy in colder climes but unsuited to strong summer heat.

When ethnobotanical and ornamental interest collide it's always a plant worth investing in, and this one hits high marks in both categories. The common name paperbush refers to the use of the plant in making paper, notably that used in Japanese banknotes. Meanwhile the specific epithet of chrysantha foreshadows the unique clusters of early-blooming tubular yellow flowers with an incredible scent. Add to that the gently arching candelabra-like form and I can't see why this isn't in every garden possible. 

Collected in Ecuador at nearly 12000', this bromeliad will certainly tease with possibilities of hardiness.  The stiff evergreen sword-like leaves are well-protected by evenly spaced sharp teeth which are the pinnacle of personal protection against herbivory.  Critically, they guard against unwanted advances upon the infrequently produced stiff flower stem whose stoutly erect bearing is regarded either as a triumph of botanical engineering or the epitome of salacious horticultural projecting. The many stemless flowers were not seen but are arranged in stimulating tight spirals up the upper half of the thick vertical shaft. Growing on slopes in the humid páramo zone of mixed grass-forb-shrub communities with wide temperature swings and ample water from rain, clouds, fog and frost.   

Our collection of this verticillate (leaves in a spoke or whorled arrangement on stem) species from a chilly mountain summit at almost 11000'.  Even at this elevation, there was still active grazing by domestic animals and tasty morsels like this were to be found only in the embrace of woody and unappealing shrubs like Berberis.  Wreathed in gloomy and mysterious hill fog, the red fruit on this Polygonatum shone like baubles most desirous.  A smaller species, upright 16"-24" tall and fairly sun tolerant if that is your only choice rather than the preferred part to light shade. Fresh divisions of healthy rhizomes.

Friends who bring you seeds are good friends, friends who bring you seeds from legendary South African seed supplier Silverhill are even better, luckily FRBC board member Cody Hinchliff falls into the latter. Very cool African butterfly bush with evergreen, glaucous silver-grey-green leaves and globules of purple flowers that are more rounded and bunched than their more commonly grown relatives. Rare in US cultivation but some have claimed suprising hardiness when given some protection to establish. An approachable way to check off another continent in your garden of the far reaches.

This busy Lizzy is not the free-wheeling wild times tropical annual of your Grandma's time, this is the conservative backlash foliage over flowers, year round workhorse Impatiens. Hardy down to the warmer parts of Zone 6 this is a great plant to add some tropical flavor to your less-than-tropical perennial woodland garden. Plus happily spreading and easily dug to share with friends! Wheels of lime or silver-streaked dark green leaves centered in red with yellow balsamineous flowers in Summer. These are cutting grown from a particularly narrow form at the old Heronswood nursery. 

Oh ill-fated queen of legend, doomed by prophecy, but glorious and radiant in life. In this Guinevere is rightly given to a bearer of such lovely white flowers. Detractors of the art will complain of browning, and beauty befuffled by rain but don't all things fade in the end. These are seedlings off the rare British cultivar and could theoretically sport a different color but we have had pretty flawless luck thus far in continuing the blushed pallor of a medieval English queen. 

A Cistus-introduced selection of this superb species which is nearly worth drilling into your neighbor's walls or delving into that abandoned meth lab house down the street for, probably a novel experience for you PNW'ers. Regardless of your Appalachian bonafides the rich burnished look of the leaves and buds of this are definitely worth their weight in semi-precious metal. Adds extra year round value to the exquisite smelling pure white flowers of the species.