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This is an Olympic Mountain endemic meaning it is found nowhere else. This sweet little alpine is found among the dark shale chips on the gravelly-sandy ridgetops and is one of the first alpines to flower coming into bloom with its fuzzy little pokers of blue-violet flowers as soon as the snow clears the exposed ridges. The dissected or pinnatifid silver-white leaves are felted in dense microscopic hairs giving rise to the varietal epithet of lanuginosa. The reflective color of the leaves helps cool the plant and allows it to cope with the full sun exposure while the plastered hairs trap moisture keeping the foliage from dessicating in the wind, sun and frost. Good in troughs or rock gardens in a gritty mix. This needs a winter and we can only imagine that it would dislike prolonged summer heat as well as warm humid nights. Seems pretty easy here although we might trade being able to grow this for sitting out on an August evening without having to put layers on.

A multi-stemmed large shrub having a small tree appearance as it is quite upright from our Asian collection in an area of extreme ecological devastation. This had fallen from a cliff edge making seed capsules accessible. Narrow flower heads of whitish flowers have a graceful quality that is found in the wild species. Proceeds from this offering go to support the mission of Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy. Previously offered as Syringa aff. yunnanensis.

Twisted Stalk. One of our favorite natives (the list spans several pages of small print) of our woodlands is this Solomon's Seal relative. These are seed-grown from a collection near Easton WA. Branched stems bear dangling white flowers followed by showy red-orange fruit.

Silver Feather Grass is one of the most graceful and curious of all perennial grasses. From a low clump, spectacular flower spikes rise to 30" unfurling curled streamers that jive in the breeze. These corkscrew feathers fly off carrying a single long, weighted seed which uses the wind to self-drill itself into the ground. Drought tolerant and kinetic.

It is difficult not to like this plant and if you don't, then you may well have to wonder if you are a difficult person. I mean look at this! Tubular crimson flowers flaring to a yellow starry smile? Midwest to Southeastern native enticing hummingbirds and butterflies throughout it's range in late summer and fall.

Thanks to Adam Black of Peckerwood for sharing cuttings of this shrubby winter-blooming Senecio. This is a collection from Mexico and has proved to be a good plant in Texas as well as hardy in North Carolina. Pretty new to us so we can't vouch for it yet in our maritime steppe climate but late season yellow flowers would be sweet.

Nice plants of one of the best of the mossy saxifrages. This is one of the first to flower of this group in the spring with buds showing quite early. Tight darkly evergreen green mats of closely packed needle-leafed rosettes which can be obscured with the unabashed profusion of red flowers with yellow centers. A easy plant for sun to half sun as long as it has a moisture retentive yet well drained soil - the classic soil condition so it seems! Great in the rock garden, edging along a path, nice in containers. It's main bugaboos are drought, lengthy hot sun/reflected heat and too much shade. Hardy to zone 4.

A Ben Kamm collection of this Bolivian Lobelia relative from rocky areas at 10,000'. This makes multiple upright stems 2'-3' tall with showy orange-yellow flowers that will remind your hummingbirds why they migrate to South American in the winter. Hardiness unknown but the collector speculates possibly zone 8a-8b and mulch most def for winter. Great for sun.

This purple-flowered groundcover Skullcap is from our friends at Free Spirit Nursery in British Columbia where they only grow hardy plants - zone 5 or lower. We've come to regard them as brilliant. Low growing to 8" tall and spreading by rhizomes. Looked great in the Free Spirit garden.

Superb selection of this autumn sedum from Graham Gough at Marchant's Hardy Plants in England which we can offer thanks to our friend and plantsman, the ever-generous Jim Fox. Check out Jim's book "How to Buy the Right Plants, Tools, and Garden Supplies" although if there are warnings about mail order nurseries in there, please ignore that section at least when it comes to us! This sedum can develop excellent red-burgundy foliage in full sun which complements the red flowers and all with an excellent habit which is what you would expect from one of the UK's most celebrated nurseryman..

A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering. Our collection of what we presume to be this species although given the distribution from Nepal into China and Vietnam, we wouldn't be shocked to see this species broken into varieties or subspecies. If it is this species, give it some room as it can hit 40' tall as a venerable old-growth specimen but expect much less in the garden. Upright evergreen with pale butter-white flowers and blue-black fruit. Young plants of this rarity and hardiness unknown at this point.

This is loving our crevice garden but might be better in our rock garden as the 20" mat of trailing stems clad in small rumpled leaves is a tad big for the crevice. A profusion a creamy, violet-striped erect flowers sporting a purple hooded upper petal. From the Himalaya & Everest National Park, to nearly 15000'.

We saw this inhabitant of high alpine meadows in Sichuan in May of 2006 and were blown away by the small carpet of large pink flowers. Did we ever want that bad but no seed to be had. Fortunately a Norwegian friend collected seed and we can offer this rarity. Goes brown the winter so don't freak out.

Nice rosettes of white-edged leaves on this slightly lime encrusted Saxifrage. A hybrid of S. callosa and S. cotyledon. this will have 12" stems of numerous white flowers flecked in teeny red dots. Full sun in cool sun areas and in hot areas, a little afternoon shade would not go remiss. This could be as simple as planting on the back side of a rock in the rock garden.

One of the best little plants you will ever have. An evergreen member of the Primrose family from high grassy meadows in Europe, this has multiple stems to 10" bearing sweet fringed lavender bells. This forms a nice clump in time and has no discernible faults and remains attractive even out of flower. A key component to the elfin garden.

We are crackers over this group of Saxifrage and this species pleases us no end. Rosettes of rounded leaves with a an entrancing (we would be such ideal subjects for hypnosis) purplish coloration where the leaf blade joins the petiole and that dark color lines out through the leaf in the veins. Small white snowflake flowers typical of the Irregulares section are a perfect combo.

A superlative form of this Saxifrage which we got years ago from Wendy Perry at Bosvigo Plants in England who got it from Elizabeth Strangman at Washfield Nursery. Very compact with lots of short stems bearlng airy white flowers. A true connoisseur's plant for moist lightly shaded spots.

Our Asian collection from a high elevation meadow where this grew with Paris, Primula, Roscoea, Reineckea, Delphineum, Gentiana and Rhododendron - just typing this makes us want to go back there right now! This durable little Salvia has very nice flowers of yellow and purple well-displayed above the foliage.

A Roy Lancaster introduction of the variety chinensis from Yunnan, China (which in of itself, is reason enough to have this plant in the collection but then Roy is a hero to us so we're biased but not without reason) of an invaluable winter blooming shrub tolerant of deep shade with white fragrant flowers from late fall into early winter. Superb shade evergreen shrub.

Purple Stem Sweet Box, Wonderfully fragrant winter bloomer in December and January whose small white flowers with pink calyces perfume a disproportionate area relative to their size. Narrow alternate evergreen leaves on a plant up to 30" tall but usually shorter. This small evergreen is the same plant offered as var. digyna which has opposite leaves or as var. humilis which is a synonym of var. digyna but the taxonomy shifts like the wind.