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Fragrant Dwarf False Indigo. An excellent plant for the xeric garden although not the best in sandy soils since it hails from good prairie soil in the midwest from central Canada down to Texas. Nice small woody shrub with erect small spikes of clustered small tubular flowes of violet blue petals and red stamens - whoa!

You don't have to sell your soul to have this in your garden but once you see it, you would be more than willing. New selection from the UK that has to be Lucifer's love child. This is so much better than that old devil. Stout dark sooty stems holding deep burning red flowers with a wide flared corolla that lacks only the smell of brimstone and the wail of sinners. We do get involuntary high-pitched keening from people who see our big display plant so maybe we're just missing the brimstone. Quite difficult to come by, these are single large corms we would typically put into a gallon pot for sale here at the nursery.

Second generation plants from our collection of this Solomon's Seal from the Cangshan in Yunnan. This has narrow leaflets arrayed in tiers with small bell-shaped pale white flowers overlaid in a dusky wash and which are clustered near the leaf bases which later become red-orange fruit bunched like small grapes. Surprisingly sun tolerant given enough water. In our lath house shade garden which is fairly bright, this has become quite impressive in the last few years making a bamboo-like clump of herbaceous stems to 7'-8' which makes us very happy.

Perfect fine texture with a silver sheen all year long. This is a gorgeous evergreen that further delights in the summer with small white flowers. Pinch it if you want it bushy and don't treat it too nice - it prefers a leaner soil that drains well. Tolerant of dry when established and likes full sun.

Twisted Stalk. One of our favorite natives (the list spans several pages of small print) of our woodlands is this Solomon's Seal relative. These are seed-grown from a collection near Easton WA. Branched stems bear dangling white flowers followed by showy red-orange fruit.

Black Mondo Grass. One of the classiest ornamentals and maybe the best for providing color and textural contrast, this can find a home in any garden. Fairly drought tolerant but thriving in more moist situations, this has evergreen (or everblack) leaves with pink flowers and shiny black pearl seeds. The cultivar names 'Nigrescens', 'Niger', and 'Black Dragon' have been very recently subsumed into 'Kokuryu'.

Did we mean to infer that this is a PINK Gillenia???? Why yes, we did. And it is. Pink, definitely pink. An exciting offering of a dandy variant on a choice eastern native. Pink Bowman's Root will get 24"-30" tall with multiple stems sporting an airy array of pink flowers. The leaf color will be improved and intensified with some sun and great fall color to boot. This can take full sun in our cool-sun maritime Northwest but part sun to shade in hotter areas.These are hefty plants field-grown for two years from the plug size one sees generally offered and are a cut above. Bringing the action on this one.

Pewter Moon Evening Primrose. A fine very large flowered form with green to gray leaves and reddish stems. Big rounded golden yellow flowers open at dusk and carry on well into the next day. A good hardy and drought tolerant plant that works it in the rock garden or Garden of Neglect. Worth growing just to watch the Sphinx Moths go delirious in the gloaming. Good drainage.

Dwarf Meadow Rue. One of the best of the smaller Thalictrums, this slowly creeps to create a small mat of attractive foliage topped by violet blue flowers. Yet another nice plant from Japan. Half sun is ideal but will take full sun with more moisture.

Our collection from Yunnan of this intriguing hardy Geranium. Nice foliage faintly mottled in spring and copious sprays of small pink flowers infused with lavender. The petals are reflexed strongly back like the flowers of a Dodecatheon and the nose of the flower is whiskered in white..

This choice Chinese perennial is related to our native Ginger or Asarum and Saruma being an anagram of Asarum shows that even taxonomists are not above the occasional botanical hijink.. Felty heart shaped foliage bronze when young and half inch yellow flowers right away in spring continues to bloom through the summer. These succeeds nicely in Chicago which seems like Siberia to us softies here in the PNW. This is easy..

Odd Fuchsia hybrid which we got as cuttings from an old Heronswood employee. Actually she's not very old but we were referring to the original Heronswood. It appears to be a procumbens x excorticata cross with small reddish leaves on a low mounding plant. The narrow flowers are a metallic red and while not especially showy, gets credit for being structurally interesting. The foliage alone makes this very worthy of growing. This came with the name of 'Ruby Wedding' but that seems to be already in use with another Fuchsia cultivar so who knows. Probably someone in New Zealand.

Leatherflower Clematis. This infrequently encountered southeastern US native is just a gem. Rambling small vines to 8' at the most with fuchsia-purple closed bells which turn to white at the flared sepal (petal) tips. This blooms in late spring but continues to flower sporadically into fall. Perfect for clambering into shrubs or that small trellis which would get eaten by a Clematis armandii or Wisteria. For those of you to whom provenance matters as much as it does to us, this is a collection from Humphreys County Tennessee. Young sturdy plants which may or may not flower this year but we're thinking they will.

This is a fine winter-blooming deciduous Viburnum named after Charles Lamont of Edinburgh Botanic Gardens who made the first cross using the parents Viburnum grandiflorum and V. farreri. Charles didn't cherish the seedlings and chucked them which may be where we got the verb "chuck." I love fanciful etymologies. Bodnant Gardens soon duplicated the cross and named some seedlings including the extremely popular pink flowered 'Dawn' and one white flowered selection which was named in honor of Charles Lamont. It is light pink in bud and then ages white and the scented flowers can be seen in November through to March or April depending on your climate.

There are a lot of bogus Charles Lamont being offered by very reputable nurseries which are pink. These are wrong. Charles Lamont is white, pinkish in bud. Ours came from a very uppity and serious English nursery in the mid 80's with the grave pronouncement that this was the genuine Charles Lamont. Being younger and a simple Yank, I'm sure I replied with an enthusiatic "Dude! This is righteous!" I remember not being shown any other special plants that resided behind the rope. These are small but very sturdy plants which will take off for you.