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Tree ferns - 'nuff said 

Emphasis on the ferns and not the trees at least for the time being as these are gonna take some time to trunk up, but imagine the luddite, analog, bootstrap satisfaction you'll get from growing your own instead of shortcutting by way of sketchy imports.

Seedlings from a floriferous red-flowered selection from Russell Graham. Russell had one of the most beloved specialty nurseries in the Northwest and to say he knows a good plant is stating the obvious. The parent plant is a short, dense clumper with small red flowers that rule by their majority. This has pride of place in our garden, widely separated from our other Dierama, so hope is for similarity on these children.

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.

Wild collected tree dahlias via Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy board director Cody Hinchliff. Taken from cliffs alongside waterfalls in Oaxaca Cody's description of the progenitor group included the phrases "typical" and "nothing particularly unique", if this is the regular same-ol-same-ol for him then I need to reevaluate some things. For us not cavorting in the primeval lands South of the equator 10 foot Dahlias are pretty extraordinary. Pink flowers (small for their stalks but still quite nice) in the wild but these are seedlings so who knows maybe you'll get that special one that makes you a million dollars and leaves Kelly cursing that we should never have sold them.

Fricking taxonomists - we were so happy with Scilla scillioides. Choice and seldom offered Chines/Japan/Korean bulb that flowers in late summer with 10"-15" stems of Scilla-like pinkish-lavender flowers without the distraction of its grassy leaves. Pretty cool and easy naturalizer that we can finally offer.

By all appearances, a diminutive form of this indispensable species. Our friend Diana Reeck of the memorable Collector's Nursery, introduced this from her trip to Yunnan in 1996. Just 3"-4" tall and spreading commensurately slowly, this is a choice gem. We got this from Diana ages ago and have been loathe to sell any as we are far from having too much of this sweetie. It has occurred to us that this is likely very scarce in cultivation and we had best get some distributed to hedge against catastrophic loss of our plants.

This busy Lizzy is not the free-wheeling wild times tropical annual of your Grandma's time, this is the conservative backlash foliage over flowers, year round workhorse Impatiens. Hardy down to the warmer parts of Zone 6 this is a great plant to add some tropical flavor to your less-than-tropical perennial woodland garden. Plus happily spreading and easily dug to share with friends! Wheels of lime or silver-streaked dark green leaves centered in red with yellow balsamineous flowers in Summer. These are cutting grown from a particularly narrow form at the old Heronswood nursery. 

Small but rapidly clumping bulb from South Africa with dense grassy leaves and small white flowers, produced with some say reckless abandon during summer. Named after Ruth McConnell who was one of the foremost growers and hybridizers of the genus in the UK. These have been easy in the garden here.

An irregularly variegated form of wood anemone. Be not afraid of some green leaves, as is true of our great heaving masses, not all can be special. While not every leaf is variegated those that are, are quite fetching with pure white sections often near the leaf edge providing an eyecatching contrast and complement to the standard white flowers. A shade perennial classic with an added surprise, what's not to like!

Chinese Bleeding Heart. While we miss Dicentra, we do enjoy this new name and the "ichtyo" reference to the fishtail flowers. This clone probably hails from a Sichuan Mt Emei collection by Don Jacobs. This is a vigorous and impressive plant growing in shaded moist sites in the wild. Taking that into account, that is where we grow it here in our shade garden where it grows under an Ilex fargesii with the odd Lilium nepalense poking through. Broad leaflets on 20" tall foliage with large palest yellow flowers. In exceptionally rich moist soil this can really get a head of steam going and perhaps be too much of a good thing but in our shade garden we have been nothing but happy for the seven years it has been growing.

Maidenhair Spleenwort. We love common names. We must dig out our 15th century Herbal and read up on how to properly decoct this sweet little fern for afflicting humors of the spleen. Or we can just grow it in a gritty well-drained shaded rock garden and enjoy its evergreen delicate appearance which belies its rugged constitution. This little fern grows throughout the northern part of the northern hemisphere and just has a small foothold in our North Cascades. One of our favorite sights of this fern was when we did the Coast to Coast walk in northern England in the epic rainy summer of 2012 and we walked close to 200 miles through the Lakes District and Yorkshire Dales and Moors. We saw this growing everywhere naturalized on old stone walls, stone bridges and stone buildings. Very attractive and a clue to its drainage preferences.

A fine hardy hybrid from Deb and Ron Monnier whose nursery, Monnier's Country Gardens in Woodburn, OR closed in 2009. This knockout will keep the memory alive for years to come. Maroon tube and sepals embrace a corolla that is black velvet eggplant in color with an optical texture that is almost 3D. To 3' and hardy in the PNW. Mulch in winter.

An imposing selection fitting perfectly in the garden style of Big, Bold and Beautiful. it is not often one extols the merits of Crocosmia leaves but these wide blades with pleated ridges stand en garde against other substantive companions such as Canna or dark-leafed Ligularia. To 5' tall with narrow tubular orange-red flowers. This is one we brought to the US from a visit with the late Michael Wickenden of Cally Gardens in Scotland.

Sea Holly. One of the best of the lot with great marbled foliage and blue thistlely flowers which are great for drying. Likes a sunny poor soil and is known for laughing disdainfully at Port Townsend deer, the modern rats of the new Millenium. Let this self-sow for best results.

Eastern species with nodding flowers of pure deep red. These are nice, blooming seedlings from plants Sue brought from her old nursery in Vermont. Parted with reluctantly and Sue reserves the right to take them back if she deems it appropriate for the welfare of the Trillium. Personally we like Trilliums that clump up sufficiently to divide and this is one of those species.

A new name for this West Coast native that hangs out in moist shaded places especially loving mossy cliffs in the cooling mist of a nearby waterfall yet very easy in the garden. Nice black stems holding the fronds. The stems were flattened and used for imbrication in basketry by coastal tribes. Adiantum pedatum is now the East Coast version.

This collection is from nearly 6000' in San Miguel Co., New Mexico and hardy down to Zone 5. This yucca relative makes dense clumps of thin grassy leaves to 3' tall and holds the dense plumes of creamy flowers nestled in the uppermost leaves. The brown seed heads evoke fat cigars. Young plants for dry situations with good drainage.

Easy and hardy little bulbous plant from South Africa and a good pink in this selection. This makes dense tuffets of grassy foliage in spring and summer and covers itself in May/June with pink flowers. Increases well but never a problem making an easy to divide clump when dormant.

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.

A graceful Trillium native from Minnesota to Alabama and which has been a very good plant in our garden. White flowers in April above three broad green leaves and can be quite robust getting up to 2 feet tall and making multiple stems per bulb. And the darned thing is seeding itself around in the garden - lucky us! Our own slow propagations - not wild collected.