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Cascades Penstemon. Easy native Penstemon that grows from the subalpine to almost the coast from oregon to British Columbia and is one we find in our own Olympic Mts. This will grow in rocky areas but is often found in moist areas along streams and in meadows. 10"-30" tall with upright stems topped by blue-tinged purplish flowers.

Heart-leafed Globe Daisy. This is a pleasing little alpine from the mountains of southern Europe and over to Turkey. Low and slowly spreading domes like a small overturned pie with evergreen leaves and lavender-blue pom-pom flowers on short stems. Easy and tough enough for a beginner, sweet enough for the rock gardener who has grown it all. Give this a sunny spot in the rock garden or trough. Takes dry or a good bit of water if given really good drainage.

A white flowered form with purple stripes of of our native Grass Widow. Like all of our Olsynium selections, this has been a long process of a decade or so to get this to a size where division is possible and we feel like we can safely release a few. Early flowering in Feb-Mar and fully dormant by summer. Myriad variants can be found in flower shape, color, size, time of bloom etc. and it would be easy to go Galanthus on this species in terms of collecting mania. We speak from first-hand experience on our Olsynium descent into madness. Multiple shoots which may or may not flower as it is hard to tell when dormant during potting. This is a fall-winter-spring moist plant which goes dry in summer in the wild where it grows in fairly heavy soil.

Robust Salvia from a Hinkley collection at high elevation in Sichuan. This is a tough perennial which will increase in width with the large leaves acting as a weed suppressing shield. Rosy-purple flowers, at least as I remember them, are held nicely above the leaves in mid summer. Prefers light shade to a little sun.

We're smitten by gesneriads - the African Violet family - and especially those with some hardiness, which can be grown outside in our area with some consideration to siting and winter protection. This was shared with us by Peckerwood Gardens in Texas where it is very happy. White flowers red inside in the fall are bit of flora exotica. This Taiwan native can take dips into the teens especially with some mulch.

Rarely does a first glance at a plant so completely peel off the veneer of civility with such an instantaneous upwelling of lust, greed, larceny and deceit as this one: "OMG! I gotta have this - I need at least three - damn - only 2 left - I'll pinch one out of that person's box - who, me?" Black purple leaves and ruby pink flowers in August-October.

The best seedling from a cross Robin White made between Daphne acutiloba and Daphne sericea 'Collina' with acutiloba as the seed parent although the pollen parent dominates the characteristics. Robin authored a monograph on Daphne and is a genius breeder and nurseryman with impossibly high standards. Goodson is his mothers maiden name so quality is a given in the low, open domed plant with fragrant, dusky pink flowers.

First introduction to cultivation! Our collection of this rare species in a genus of excellent foliage perennials. Sue spotted this on an evening plant reccy while Kelly took to bed nursing a rib fracture incurred earlier while collecting fruit on a Photinia. A Photinia of all things! A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering.

We have become unaccountably smitten by Reineckea ever since discovering a plant of this species in the Gangheba in Yunnan in 1997 which looked quite different from this form which is the one typically found in cultivation. So of course we are now actively seeking all the forms we can including subsequent collections from different areas in China but we still have a soft spot for this "original" form. This no doubt hails from Japan and has low, grassy evergreen foliage with small candles of pink-backed white flowers in June followed by little red fruits. A nice little easy slow carpeter and very good under larger Rhododendrons or as a small-scale groundcover.

Near red selection of this cheerful little plant. Rhodohypoxis fill a pot with flowers like few other plants their size and 'Albrighton' is no exception. Ideally suited for container culture, these are easily overwintered in a cool frost-free spot indoors when they are dormant. If growing outside, give them good drainage as prolonged winter wet can be a terminal annoyance. Fortunately in our Port Townsend rain shadow, not a big consideration.

Japanese Turtlehead. This light shade loving perennial has late season pink flowers shaped like a foxglove but for us, it is most evocative of an erect Nothochelone nemerosa which is a familiar native wildflower if you are a hiker in the Olympic or Cascade Mts. This makes a nice clump giving a valuable late show.

Whipple's Penstemon. Broadly distributed on both sides of the Rockies down the US, this should be more widely available. Most commonly with clustered down-turned trumpets of a rich burgundy to purple, different population can also be white or lavender. Very pleasing in all of its forms, this is a good garden plant taking more moisture than a lot of the rock garden Penstemons.

We love this variety of nobilis - awesome foliage with very good marbling and equally fine pink flowers in early spring. The whole presentation is exquisite and obviously the result of judicious honing of extraneous elements over the course of untold millenia. Tom Hobbs - put this in your Jewelbox Garden!

A pink flowered selection of this cold hardy evergreen vining Jasmine introduced by Ted Stephens from Japan. Vigorous but well-behaved, this likes a bit of shade and would prefer to not be in hot sun. The pink flowers are fragrant as well - always a bonus - with the main flush in spring and sporadic flowers during the summer. Certainly good in zones 8-10 and likely favored spots in warmer 7b.

Hummingbird Sage. A California native perennial Sage that can take sun or some dry shade as this will grow under California live oaks. California shade is notably brighter than our Washington shade. This will get 16"-28" tall with rose-pink flowers appearing out of prominent dark calyces and will creep rhizomatously to 4' or so across. Hummingbird banquet and deer proof.

An extremely difficult day on one of the highest (9,793') mountains in Vietnam. A 9 mile hike with a 2 mile motorcycle ride to the trailhead and then all-day steepness climbing up red clay landslides then rocky scrub in rain arriving at dark to collapse in collapsing tent on wind-blasted ridge. These should be a thousand dollars each. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering

This climbing evergreen Jasmine vine has foliage richly variegated in creams, whites and yellows in an expressive free-form, I-gotta-be-me style which fits in well with our general philosophy. The leaves take on pink to purple coloration in winter's cold which is something to plan for as siting with that in mind could make you look like the Genius of Nuanced Design. Fragrant white flowers spring to early summer.

A collection from China by Olsen & Floden of this well-known ornamental pink or carnation. Very nice to have a documented collection as the cultivated material can get a little diluted via unintentional hybridization in the garden. I know that is some of the most fun we have in the garden. Crazy lacy hot tomato/fuchsia-pink flowers that are scented. I'm wondering just what exactly that color is myself but know that it is very vibrant and will not be ignored.

From the Yunnan-Vietnam borderlands, this small-leafed evergreen dogwood makes an attractive tree. Flowers not seen but if anything like the red fruit when ripe, then boom-shaka-laka! Even if the flowers are not as hoped, what a gift to focus on its many attributes and the modern plague of unrealistic expectation. Gallon pots. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Plant

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.