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An impressive Fairy Wand Flower or Angel's Fishing Rod. This is a good species with a narrow presentation and nice flowers of good rich pink held 4'-5' tall on wiry stems. This is not a big robust clumper but tends towards a narrower verticality quite in keeping with modern design trends. I think we have only seen one Dierama so far that has not floated our boat so some might say we are so biased that our opinions are worthless but we prefer to think that the genus is just chock-full of good garden plants with this being one of them. Evergreen except in cold winters. Mulch is good and Dierama do appreciate decent soil that doesn't dry although they tolerate some periods of dry.

This Japanese woodlander is among the very elite of plants for shade. Slow to propagate and uncommonly beautiful, this is always coveted and spendy. Broad Maple like leaves are the foil for the large 3" light lavender Poppy-esque flowers. Cool shade is ideal for this prize.

Neat species widely distributed from Thailand to China and into the Himalaya to Bhutan. This has stout stems that can reach 4' on old large bulbs with many leaflets arrayed like the spokes of an umbrella. Large green flowers often tinged with purple followed by red fruit. With such a broad range, there is variation in the species but a constant seems to be consistently good growers in the garden. Ours often don't appear above ground until early June so be patient! These are medium-sized bulbs and yes, we agree with you that we should have these sized by centimeters.

We sourced this from Edrom nursery in Scotland amidst our quest to attain Roscoea world dominance. Large soft yellow flowers sub in for the usual dark purple, which in all honesty pairs better with the rosy blush of the peduncle, shame that's one letter too many for Scrabble excellence but learning for the sake of learning I guess.

Climbing Monkshood. This seedling from our collection on the Chongqing-Guangxi-Guizhou expedition in 2010 sports gold to chartreuse new growth in an attractive pop of contrast that helps to tide you over while waiting for the light to mid-blue flowers on stems that can reach 10'-15'. This a widespread and variable species in China and one we find most appealing.

Rare Japanese alpine especially in this choice dwarf form. Compact little dome of good green foliage studded with yellow flowers. Ideal for the trough or rock garden. There needs to be more trough gardeners. Join the North American Rock Garden Society - it truly rocks.

A good hardy form of this Sedum-like species from Rick Lupp of Mt Tahoma Alpines who has grown this in his sand beds for over 20 years where it has taken single digits in the winter. Low, fleshy green leaves are a perfect backdrop for the salmon-red 3"-4" flower stems with nice heads of small white flowers accented by a small salmon-pink eye. Perfect in our crevice garden.

A Bay Area species thought to be extinct until a single plant was discovered in 2009 during a botanical survey prior to a freeway expansion. This one plant was dug and lifted by crane for transplanting to San Francisco Botanical Garden and one of the first propagations was given to us by the curator. Low growing to 2 feet or so and spreading with white flowers. Perfect example of ex situ conservation by botanic gardens and specialist nurseries.

Dog Tooth Violet. There are no bad Erythroniums and this is near the top of the heap. Dark pink flowers are infused with a blue tinge giving them a wonderful lilac color and creating an easy avenue to naming this cultivar. A star in the shade garden with nice mottled foliage.

An easy plant for the rock garden or well-drained front of the border. This doesn't require much beyond the basics and yet on this meager fare of occasional watering it will bloom most of the summer and well into fall. To ask for more would be simply bad form. Mat forming with gray-green lightly hirsute rosettes with umbells of white flowers with small green turning pink eyes.

Sought after and desirable spring ephemeral from the cold forests of northern Japan. This bulbous species - think Corydalis solida for comparison - is one of the best of the blue flowered species in the opinion of the UK's national collection holder of the genus. A single flowering size bulb of this gem but they multiply!

This charmer with white unarmed Thistle-like flowers may well be ssp. insularis but there is a dearth of both information as well as time to review that information. Maybe this winter when the plants are dormant. Under a foot high with nice showy white flowers in mid to late summer.

A lovely gold leafed sport of 'Cream da Mint' that Rick Sawyer found in his Fernwood Nursery in Maine. This truly glows particularly in spring when the gold coloration is at its best. The larger than usual white scented flowers are a fine accompaniment. Slower spreading than many selections.

This is a true jewel and one we always look forward to seeing in the fall when the tabletop sized patch of low dense dark green leaves are alight with outrageous large white daisy flowers. Talk about contrast with so many of the hot colors of Autumn! In taxonomic flux, we previously offered this as Nipponanthemum nipponicum. The white flowers take on some pink-lavender tones as they age and all looks quite good over the dark green foliage.

A rare Toad Lily restricted to a small area of moist cliffs in Kyushu, Japan where its long 2'-3' arching stems can hang in excellent presentation of its upward-facing yellow flowers. This would look pretty fantastic in a container or planted in a Fern stumpery if flowers were allowed. Cool summers and moist - not for hot interior gardens so great here.

Wide petals of bright fuchsia pink tempered by a pale white eye simply cannot fail to please. Unless of course you don't do pink, but this could be that gateway plant to that wanton world where pink plays such a big role.

A very charming lithophyte from our collection in China where it clad the upper portion of an appliance-sized boulder in the shade of an open broadleaf evergreen forest. This evergreen to semi-evergreen fern has leaflets so soft they rival the downy belly of a baby chinchilla - pure conjecture but accurate. There was heavy usage from grazing in the area this was found and there were examples of Lithocarpus being felled by keeping a fire burning at the base of the trees. The grazing benefited Rhododendron spinuliferum however, which turned these gangly shrubs into perfect dense, upright specimens that Peter Cox said were the best he had ever seen.

Also sometimes found as Polypodium cambricum 'Omnilacerum Oxford' this form of welsh polypody likes to get a bit wavy, so a perfect one to bring along with your mates to that all night rave. Or if instead of a slightly addled teenager you tend more towards florid Victorian you may describe it more viscerally as 'all lacerated'. Basically the usually entire margins of the pinnae can go from a gently undulating curvature to a starkly incised jagged edge, these forms tend to express a bit variably and develop with age but nonetheless add some extra character to an already excellent all-rounder fern.

Our collection of this large species from Fanjinshan in China where we saw it growing in the open with mixed scrub. This was a leafless 10' rounded open shrub with seed capsules at the ends of the branches. We have not yet flowered this but Flora of China has this as the only species that grows in this area so that works for us. Expect white flowers tinged pink aging to red or some variation thereof and being fairly profuse in May. May is always a safe month to say when you have not flowered something. Gives you a little wiggle room. If you've got the room in a naturalistic wild garden or want something big summer screening, this could be the ticket. This would be excellent backing for tall Joe Pye Weed for example. Aside from appealing to hummingbirds with its broadly tubular flowers, this is the type of shrub that is begging to be nested in. Good branch angles, nice shell of exterior concealing foliage and relatively open interior. Channeling my inner bird.

Rare selection of this Japanese woodlander of delicate stature notable for its smoky cast to the foliage particularly in the early part of the season. Named for Mt Hakkoda in Aomori Prefecture (best skiing in Japan) where we presume this was found. This is a little shorty with small pale bells and will clump up nicely. Thanks to Darrell Probst for sharing this bit of rare awesomeness.