Shop All

One of the most satisfying and reliable of the hardy Gingers. We've grown this Nepalese beauty for years now and it always blooms in mid to late summer with flowers of the most gentle orange. This is a good increaser in moist loose soil and looks marvelous in half sun or bright shade. This does not need a long warm Fall to flower but relishes our cool pseudosummers here in the Puget Sound. We mulch ours in the fall to keep frost for reaching the rhizome and basically other than that we just water and feed it. Very low care.

What a pink! The distillation of hues, shades and tints into a saturated concentration of the pink pigment is an unqualifed success in this saucy Primrose. The flowers erupt from the winter resting buds before the leaves expand and demand attention in the garden. Best in a rich moisture retentive soil.

We've sold this before as the pink form of baileyi but now have the correct name. These are lovely 4-petaled flowers of a distinctive mauve pink and has proved to be a good perennial form. While it is in the Poppy family, it hates the sun and dry. Give this a moist well-drained rich soil in bright shade to morning sun. Our sympathies if you live where this cannot be grown, which is about anywhere it gets hot and/or humid in the summer.

Woody member of the Ranunculaceae (Clematis, Anemones) form the East Coast woodlands. Known as Yellow Root, this spreads by underground rhizomes to make a suckering colony of stems which are topped by small purple flowers like a puff of smoke. Good fall color.

Our collection of this good foliage species with pink pipe cleaner flowers which closely resembles B. tricuspis and damned if we can distinguish between the two but a better botanist than we keyed this to spicata. This was growing in a shaded nook at the base of a mossy cliff with Actaea purpurea and across the track, Acer griseum. Fun shade species which should be deer resistant.

This hardy bush Fuchsia is quite a pleasing addition to the garden where it performs admirably in a sunny spot with lots of narrow hanging white flowers which are touched in faintest green on the tepal tips. Recent winters have put a whupping on reliably hardy plants so if it is going to turn nasty, mulch the base and trunk well. Easy and gratifying.

This is an interesting Asian fern of which we have just a few nice divisions. This grows as an epiphyte on tree trunks which is typical for the genus and was found at the high point in the mountain range so should have some hardiness. The distinctive large rounded paired sori on the backs of the leaves also fit the genus. This has been a good grower with creeping rhizomes allowing for division. Proceeds from this offering go to support the mission of Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy.

Elegant, graceful and beautiful form of the species with thin radially arranged leaflets and lovely narrow-waisted dark purple flowers accented by white stripes held fully visible below. The spathe limb or hood of the flower tapers to a long thread. This variety lacks hairs on the spathe tube rim or lip which would need magnification to see anyway. Increases by short runners terminating in a bulb and will form a colony in time. We saw this just above Kangding in China in 2006 including a fantastic black-leafed colony of a single clone which resides not in our garden but in our memories as a longing unfulfilled.

A fine little dwarf Astilbe native to Japan and one that has proved to be very enduring as well as endearing. This is one Sue used to grow at her old place in northern Vermont and charmed her to the point that it made the cut and followed her out west lo those many years ago. Low mounds of dense and finely cut foliage with short spikes of soft pink fluff in early summer. We grow this out in the full sun with ample water.

A collection from Japan by Quarry Hill Botanic Garden of this indispensable summer-flowering, beefy perennial. This is a rare opportunity to obtain this species with wild-origin provenance. Yellow flowers of substance like small shuttlecocks are held well above the leaves on upright stems in midsummer. Still remember being awestruck by a superb specimen at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum years ago.

A seed collection by botanist Aaron Floden from Campbell County Tennessee where a population of this attractive woodland species was found growing along Stinking Creek. Location alone should be reason enough to grow this. Who else is going to have a plant from Stinking Creek? This species is found on the Cumberland Plateau and we listed it briefly for a day as T. caroliniensis until corrected. Moist shade will result in large mapleacious leaves and white flower puffs held well above said leaves.

Fantastic Tanbark Oak variant from a small mutant population in Yuba County, California that was discovered in 1962. This features narrow leaves with prominent teeth on the margins. This population tends to be shrubby but in cultivation, it grows normally, capable of putting on 2'-3' or more per year. Evergreen, this will get to 30' and more if you have longevity genes and are around to see it. A broadly pyramidal shape, grows quickest in a rich moist soil but can take some dry when established and best in full sun but is surprisingly shade tolerant.

Robust seed strain from our breeding work with each possessing its own unique varying degrees of dark foliage and flowers from red to red-pink to red-purple. Normally, we select one or two to keep - which we did - and throw the rest out - which we didn't - as these are all worthy of pride of place in the garden.

A collection from Kyushu, Japan by the Wynn-Jones of Crug Farm. Deeply incised palmate leaves with long finger-like lobes are visually arresting in themselves while the early to mid summer large yellow daisy flowers just piles on the eye candy. Structure, beauty, form and function - only the most bitter cabbage would fault this for not being edible!

A great Dianthus which was like pulling teeth to get Sue to part with a couple. Makes a fine blue mat of foliage which is covered in eyes-a-popping single magenta pink flowers which have an intoxicating fragrance. First class rockery plant - killer with that black quarry rock.

Nice Sedum from 10000' in Mexico that has more cojones than you might think handling 10F here just fine. This has yellow flowers in late winter-spring from gray-blue rosettes on lax stems evocative of Echeveria on a stick. Some compulsives cut back after blooming to tighten up rosettes but we go with the flow.

Just call her Molly the Witch. This fabled Peony is a choice species from the Caucasus region with impossible to improve upon single yellow goblets for flowers. The red new growth in spring evokes some avant garde asparagus. Showy blue-black seeds mingle with the red infertile ovules in large seedpods in late summer staking claim to ornament of equal consideration to that of the flowers. These are plants whose origins lie with our late friend, mentor and knucklehead Steve Doonan and he would be so pleased to see these listed here. This was formerly the species mlokosewitschii but Hong has reduced it to a subspecific rank under P. daurica in his daunting 2008 monograph on the genus and darned if we are going to argue with him - dude is serious. These are youngsters that will take a couple years to get to blooming size.

Our collection from Leipingshan at 1800 meters in Guizhou in the fall of 2012. We always get a kick out of this species with its long tropical pinnate leaves. insignificant pale flowers and extraordinarily significant clustered large blue bean pod fruit looking otherwordly. Narrow small tree and very easy.

This is one of our favorite little dwarf shrubs that totally rocks the rock garden. Especially in the rock garden. Slow, slow growth, densely twiggy, small heavily textured leaves and clusters of deep pink flowers in mid summer makes this a great choice for containers or that small special place. A 15 year old plant might be 16" tall but probably shorter.

Primo little collector's Iris with charming white flowers - smaller than the more frequently encountered 'Alba' - over dense mounds of fine-bladed foliage. It's graceful appearance hides a tough core and an implacable perseverance that has kept it in our collection for over two decades. A Japanese deciduous species preferring light shade or part sun. This is a good one.