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Steve Hootman, Curator and Director of the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden, often pats himself on the back for collecting this exceptional species in China and each spring as our plants flower, we murmur attaboys and give him virtual high fives while virtually raising our glass in salute. Loves some shade, great foliage and spring pink flowers. Steve has bagged a host of amazing Rhodos on his collecting trips and this Peony is just as exceptional. Narrow leaflets with a distinct sheen provide backing for the fat dark pink flower buds which often emerge in the early to mid spring before the leaves. This gives an extended period of tantalization before the impressive pink flowers open. An added bonus are the lovely shiny black seeds arrayed in the starfish-shaped seed pods. All in all, a very choice introduction. Huzzah, Hootman and well done Laddie! Just cover the 'noses' an inch or two as too deep is worse than too shallow when planting peonies. This species is best in light shade although part sun such as morning sun is perfectly ok. These are seedlings that are a couple years from blooming size.

Staggeringly impressive recent introduction of this Solomon Seal species from - wait for it - Vietnam. This is similar to our favorite Polygonatum huanum (formerly as kingianum) but is just more of everything that is good. Large red flowers snug the whorled leaves on stems which reached 15' tall this year in the garden, and which remain green for us until temps drop below 20F. These are young plants but worth the wait!

This is indeed the king. One of our most coveted plants, this is an especially fine form from our friend Philip MacDougall. This beauty can reach 12' tall with subtle hooks on the leaf tips to help it hang onto neighboring plants. The best thing is the ORANGE flowers in abundance in the leaf axils. Swoon City.

This Chinese woodland Peony is one of the few species blooming and thriving in full shade as well as sun. Nicely dissected ferny foliage and slightly nodding single pink flowers, 2-3 per stem, makes this distinctively beautiful. We had a rare trip in the spring to Yunnan and Sichuan in 2006 to see plants in flower and this was one of the standouts. Later to make growth in the spring than some of the other species so don't panic. This has been a stalwart in our shade garden for many years and is an ideal candidate for those of you with late hard freezes as this breaks growth later in spring than the other species we offer. These are seedlings so it will be a couple years before you see blooms. The biggest problem with peonies is planting them too deep so just cover the red growth buds no more than an inch or two. These need a cool to cold winter dormancy so not a plant for LA.

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.

Vigorous plants and our hybrids with mainly delavayi as the parent showing more vigor and variation in shape and color than what we associate with known delavayi of wild origin. Whatever the parentage, (I sometimes wonder about my own) these are arresting shade plants for rich moist soil. Red flowers are amazing surprises under the leaves. Persistence of patterned markings are variable and expect fading to varying degrees as the leaves mature. These are all unique individuals which we would be happy to have in our garden. We have offered these earlier as presumptive hybrids and we presume no longer. We will jump on the Dysosma instead of Podophyllum wagon soon.

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.

This has consistently been a head-turner here when it is in flower. A hybrid by Butterfield and registered in 1981, this fine selection is finally becoming available. Rich pink flowers of good size and a large fringed lip or slipper pouch which is decked out in orange-pink spots with the interior all orange ruffles and flourishes. A good increaser and best suited for pot culture where it can be brought in and left to go dormant in a cool spot over winter. Unless of course you garden in a very mild setting and then this is great outdoors where it can be tucked into a partially shaded rotting log or mossy rock outcrop. Pleione orchids require excellent drainage and we've seen them in China and Arunachal Pradesh growing on mossy cliffs or tree trunks.

One of the most intensely colored Juliana type Primroses out there. This puts on a no-holds barred display of shrieking magenta flowers that is a celebration of pigment with no apologies. The rich color sets it apart from all others. Tolerates full sun if given enough water but looks better given some relief from afternoon sun. Very tough and a good clumper. Our plant came from Rice Creek Garden in Minneapolis years ago so that gives some clue as to hardiness. It also came under the name of 'Lois Lutz' which we have sold it as for a number of years including this year on our online store here. Thanks to the American Primrose Society show people down in Portland for pointing out the error of our ways.

Pretty fantastic selection originating in China but now out of Japan at considerable cost. This Mayapple will develop quite irregularly lobed leaves that are like a psychotropic rectilinear parallelogram awash in pale patterns and dark mottled patterns flashing you back to your youthful experimental phase. Divisions from our plants - not fresh imports. Legal in all 50 states for recreational use with no side effects other than recurrent euphoria.

Chinese Mayapple. One of the great shade plants with just outrageous new growth when the bold and distinctly lobed leafed are colored in ochre velvet with complex dark patterns like something seen during guided psychotropic therapy. Broadly rounded and lobed leaves shield the red flowers beneath. Rich moist soil and avoid direct sun. This a shorter plant and more richly colored overall than the delavayi we offer as a presumptive hybrid. We will soon adopt Dysosma as the genus - maybe in the winter when we can make all the database changes.

Beautiful flowers on this selection from the Versailles grex of the cross between P. limprichtii and P. formosana. Large rich pink-lavender flowers with an expressive fringed lip invites you to explore the voluptuous inner hollows colored sensuously in orange and yellow. Why silk pajamas, candles and Bolero just popped into mind is curious........and not a bad idea.

This sweet little Trillium from the Siskiyou Mountains has been moved into its own genus of which it is the sole representative. This is known as a monotypic genus and we are drawn to such isolated species. This is quite diminutive but is very beautiful with usually white flowers but can be pink or have varying degrees of dark pink spotting. It increases well by division - these are nice freshly divided plants.

This is a surprisingly hardy terrestrial Orchid that is quite easy to grow given a couple of rules. Loose crumbly organic/gritty well-drained soil and fairly dry in the winter. Oh yeah, real cold is not the best either. We have friends who grow these easily in nearby Port Ludlow in rotting logs, stumps and deep moss on rocks with a tarp thrown over in winter to shed rain but that is in a mild maritime garden. Traditionally this is grown in containers and overwintered in a cool sunroom or coldframe. Were making this sound harder than it is and we don't mean to as it is worth the minimal fuss. Pink and white Cattleya-type flowers on such a little plant. This increases freely by small bulblets which is how we have come to offer these to you.

We learned our original offering of this was incorrect as noted by a Primrose Society judge who said what we had was 'Jay Jay'. Shortly thereafter, we got a letter from Deborah Lutz who said our 'Lois Lutz' was not correct and she should know as Lois was her mother and would we like the correct one? Thank you and Yes! We can now offer the correct 'Lois Lutz' with a provenance that would delight any appraiser at the Antiques Road Show. This is vigorous and floriferous with masses of short-stemmed vividly vibrant flowers that hide the foliage. And it is correctly named!

One of the great evergreen hardy fern species from our collection in Hubei in this wondrous narrow valley cleaved by a stream. Wondrous because of the flora which included Acer griseum among a host of choice species. Tough fern which looks good pretty much all the time with very few exceptions.

A tried and true selection that really puts out with classic orchid flowers with rich pink petals backing a white cup that is nicely fringed on the lip with some light spotting on the interior and touched in yellow in the throat. An amalgamation of attributes in one flower. Good increaser needing good drainage like a rotting log and overwinters here in Puget Sound.

Mint Bush. Brought to the UK from Australia by Jeffrey Irons and sent to us from a friend in Holland. A Welsh nurseryman describes it as "a cracking plant tolerant of heavy frost and sells on sight". We love the genus with the aromatic deer proof evergreen foliage and in this case, white flowers tinged with lavender in late spring and early summer. This will get 3'-4' tall and tolerates some dry once established but does best in the usual well-drained moisture retentive soil.

This was one of those "Holy shit - lookit that fern!" moments when we first spotted this species growing in a moist stable and vegetated scree at the base of a soaring vertical cliff face fronting this mountainous outcrop of improbable pinnacles in Guizhou, China, The fern was perfect in scale and not intimidated in the slightest with 5'-6' wide leaves on a clumping plant 6'-8' tall. We were dismayed not to collect spore but happy to get a small plant of this species from fernologist Sue Olsen a few years back. This grows to be a pretty hefty clump but does not run. Hardy to zone 8 and mulch crown if it gets serious in winter.

We remain a bit confused on this one and maybe we can blame it on overwork but mostly there is still no universal consensus on taxonomy in the genus. We originally offered this as P. versipelle subsp. boreale and then Aaron Floden told us that Julian Shaw's recent work had reclassified this into P. mairiei, so we dutifully changed the name. Eventually Darrell Probst saw this and wondered what we were doing, as he collected the original seed from the type locality for versipelle subsp. boreale. These botanical dust-ups, while fun to observe, can be frustrating in getting a broadly accepted name so we're going back with our buddy Darrell on the name.

These are from a superb collection by Darrell Probst from China, which is notable for having over 20 small maroon-mahogany flowers clustered just under the leaf blade. If you have a choice, more flowers makes it easy! This is a striking addition to the shade garden and a moist rich soil will make this very happy, which has a direct positive influence on you. We're pretty sure you won't find this too many other places. We always liked it but now we like it even more!