New Zealand

Ok, this is delightful! A small evergreen subshrub which has these shiny little leaves on mahogany stems with sprays of lavender-blue with a distinctive magenta ring enclosing a white eye. This happily flowers from June until frost and shearing off the spent flowers encourages continued bloom. This makes a 10"x24" billow of foliage and flower in sun to part sun.

Alpine Water Fern. Found at higher elevations in Australia's New South Wales and Tasmania growing in grasslands, moist rock crevices and sphagnum bogs. A stalwart fern and go-to evergreen low groundcover because it looks great despite your prolonged attention lapses from Netflix binge-watching.

Nice hardy Hebe for us here in the PNW as this hails from the alpine and subalpine areas of the drier mountains on New Zealand's South Island. A low creeper to just 8" high, the olive-green leaves are quite good but it really gets its groove on when it blooms as the white flowers contrast with the near-black stems.

The cream of the the New Zealand woody Asters and a star in the rock garden. This comes from the alpine areas of the mountains near Marlborough up to 1900 meters. Flowers are a bit of yellow teminal nothings but the whipcord silvery branchlets are exquisite perfection. Full sun and drier lean soil will suit this. Took 3 nights of 0F at Hedgerows Nursery in 2009.

A mat-forming, creeping bit of amusement from New Zealand where it grows from Auckland south. This is related to the monster Gunnera of cast concrete leaf fame but is just a tad more manageable. Great at pond's edge in the shaded woodland and small pipecleaners of reddish flowers are a pleasant surprise. The orange fruit against the small rounded brownish leaves is a welcome bonus track.

A superb compact and very floriferous plant we got from the sadly late Michael Wickenden at Cally Gardens in Scotland. This is just about the perfect little container plant with low, dense tuffets of deep green narrow blades of leaves and a profusion of small white flowers on short stems which retain interest long after flowering with their seed heads. This would be an ideal plant for some plant factory to pick up for tissue culture to flood Lowe's and Home Depot with millions of these but we would ask that if there is any inclination to do so, know that Michael was vehemently opposed to this and that his wishes be respected. Because this is the new America, when conscience fails, please consider a gentleman's royalty on each plant to be sent to Cally Gardens.

Poor Knight's Lily. Crazy good plant endemic to 3 islands off of New Zealand's North Island where it grows in rocky outcrops. Evergreen sword leaves to 3' with stunning red bottlebrush flowers that are like nothing else. It is frost-sensitive and can take 15 years to flower but if potbound, you can shave some years off. The wait will be completely worth it.

This is thought to be an intergeneric hybrid between 2 of New Zealand's shrubby daisies. This gives a fabulous textural addition to the Mediterranean garden like some happy marriage of heather and rosemary. Small white flowers cluster at the tops of the stems. Good drainage, tolerant of some dry.

Variegated version of the Broadleaf Griselinia. This New Zealander is an evergreen shrub with laurel-like green apple leaves whose margins are painted in cream as if from a palsied brush. Insignificant flowers bear little mention which is saying something coming from us, Champions of the Botanically Interesting. The foliage is of first-class stand-alone merit and why chance the potential clashing distraction which flowers might bring to a broad-leaf evergreen of this caliber? Excellent shrub responding well to pruning or hedging and suited for mild gardens such as near the water or in urban heat sinks here in the Puget Sound metro area. Try it as a south or west wall plant in areas frustratingly on the periphery of its hardiness range. The straight green-leafed species has been a stalwart at Washington Park Arboretum for decades in Seattle and this version will be no different.

An unusual member of this New Zealand endemic genus, shrubby evergreen with extremely fine needle-like foliage that varies in color from dark green to russet tones of gold and brown. The fascinating fruit are sheeny, translucent, pale purple to dark blue berries. Can grow to a dense and yet airily architectural mass of 5ft. Fairly hardy as it hails from sub-alpine zones, should manage alright in Zone 8 and up.

Sweet little groundcover whose double white flowers resemble fluffy bits of white popcorn strewn on the leaves. Perfect underplanting for other shade plants to pop up through and great between stepping stones. Gently spreading and not hard to keep in bounds. Darn near perfect.

An interesting hybrid selection of this New Zealand Iris relative. Evergreen (except for hard winters) olive green foliage provides a grand setting for the numerous stems of small bright white flowers. This makes a clump pretty quickly and is great texture in the garden. This has been consistent a performer in our border garden for years and the worst winters fry the leaves which we cut back in spring and then the new growth appears and it blooms very happily and we can't remember we had a bad winter. When we have mild winters it looks great and we don't have to do anything. We mulch the crown of ours when we have an arctic express barreling down upon us just to be on the safe side.

Fantastic New Zealand tree-like Asparagaceae member, its cousin C. australis isn't uncommon as a houseplant or tropical, winter garage-dweller; but this rarer species features broader leaves and slightly more cold tolerance. Still relegated to summer-only or houseplant status for most of us, and a bit trickier to grow in exchange for its elevated appearance. Requires moist but very well drained soils and doesn't cope well with intense summer heat. For those looking for a rewarding challenge and a unique appearance not easily found elsewhere there is a lot to enjoy here.

Always vying for Top Hebe in our esteem, this compact grower sports narrow blue-gray leaves with months of white flowers. Our plant has weathered our worst winters with nary a whimper and is at this moment of writing on August 5, without fault, well into month two of blooming. We had the good fortune to have superstar UK garden photographer Andrea Jones visit the summer of 2013 and our 2'x3' plant of Hebe recurva, which was underplanted with Mertensia maritima, was looking smashing. The Mertensia had of its own accord draped a stem over the Hebe and was at its peak with its own even bluer leaves and its small sky-blue flowers. Andrea homed in on this like she was laser-guided and we only wished that we could take credit for the artistry. She was kind giving us credit for the combination while creating the space for serendipitous opportunity.

Evergreen or in this case everorange stiff blades which complement the starry white flowers in late spring makes this New Zealander an invaluble addition to the garden.

Butterfly Iris. Described by Sarah in our mail order dept as "super precious" which is spot on. In the Iris family from Tasmania and New South Wales, this makes a substantive clump of thin evergreen leaves with tall wiry stems holding enchanting white flowers well above the leaves. Grown for decades in the Seattle garden of Jeanette Kunnen.

Beautiful variegated form of this new Zealand Griselinia. As the species name suggests, this favors coastal conditions and can take the wind. We saw the typical form growing happily at Robin's Hood Bay in England as we finished the Coast to Coast walk. Think a much more refined laurel and you are in the ballpark. Easy to prune, gets to 12', zones 8b-9 or warm 8a. Flowers insignificant.

We just love plants that keep us guessing. At first glance, is this one dead? Would we care if it was? It looks freakin' cool. A New Zealand prostrate groundcover with wiry stems that from gravelly/sandy soils from coastal to subalpine areas. Our plant is from John Massey's private garden at Ashwood Nurseries. Light amber flowers require good knees and sharp eyes.

Very rare groundcover species from Southland and Stewart Island, New Zealand where this is restricted to just 4 small coastal populations comprised of just 6 individual plants. The plants form flattened brown-gray rosettes - and spread by stolons in moist dune hollows. Our plants have green leaves which may refer to our soils or geography and weathered our 12F winter with a bit of mulch. Quite uncommon in cultivation and usually found in botanic gardens and a very few, ahem, exceptional specialty nurseries.

These are from seed from the good hardy form at the UW Arboretum. This makes an impressive multistemmed shrub to 10 or 12 feet fine textured in foliage but what a knockout in bloom. Loads of heavy textured hanging yellow flowers like Kirengeshoma followed by ornate knobbly long bean pods.