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Imagine prizing open the rigid and unrelenting fingers of one Kelly Dodson and wresting from him prized jewels and precious heirlooms. A scenario not far from the one that has finally made this exquisite Central American bulb available to you, our beloved customers, for whom we endure much separation anxiety and grief. The flowers like little flames must be very akin to the will-o-the-wisps in their native cloud forest, luring unwary travelers to an endless curse of botanical lust. Desirous of moist, well draining mix and not amicable to deep frosts. Bulb at or near flowering size.

Our collection from Vietnam of this fascinating epiphytic genus.  This was growing on a tree trunk on a small limestone ridge populated by a mix of frost-tolerant and frost-intolerant species.  The hardiness of this remains to be tested here - maybe a warm zone 8b? - it made it through the admittedly mild first winter here so at least some frost hardiness.  Excellent drainage is likely key to improved hardiness and ours is in a tufa wall.  Spreads by creeping rhizomes and has dimorphic leaves with persistent basal fronds and fertile foliage fronds though only the latter have been produced on ours thus far.

Alpine ferns, full-sun ferns, NZ ferns are all underrepresented in US cultivation. This species and even more broadly this genus are completely unrepresented as far as I can tell. Named the thousand-leaf fern for its finely divided appearance, it can be found high in the mountains of Aotearoa scrambling in between rocks where it forms dense low clumps, a habitat betrayed by its distinctly fuzzy texture. Happy in sun with sharp drainage and though its considered semi-evergreen it goes dormant for us in the greenhouse during winter and will likely doubly do so with outside temps. Hard to say on hardiness given the scarcity but we are betting on 8a at least. 

As a plant hunter and explorer, it doesn’t get any better than being part of a team that finds and introduces a species new to science and we were tasked with growing this from very limited seed.  It is even better when that species is not new because it is obscure with minor taxonomic differences from other known Asian species but instead, waves those richly ornamental characteristics like a flag.  The main feature that jumps right out at you on this entire-leafed tree is the tawny amber indumentum on the underside of the leaves which tantalizes spring into fall, the latter time enhanced by the orange-red fruit. This has also been collected by a French nursery from a different area but likely the same mountain range.  This very limited offering is from one clone propagated by cuttings. 

The devilish trident form leaves of this Japanese cultivar brought to the US by Barry Yinger have that alluring femme fatale combination of danger and beauty. While the name translates to bamboo leaf referring to its resemblance to trifoliate bamboos the latter would certainly have far less of a presence in human culture if they were as unfriendly as this impostor. Think of the screening you could make to keep those pesky neighborhood kids from tromping on your tender goodies. Comes with all the traits you expect from Osmanthus, tough, easy, fragrant flowering. One of the coolest in a vast sea of cultivars.