Sort by:
1758 products
1758 products
Our collection from Asia of this low growing - prostrate actually - creeping Cotoneaster. It is one we admired as it crept over a rock face along the trail and we kept going, not intending to collect seed. Looking back, we saw our friend and great plantsman Peter Cox collecting seed so we scampered back to do the same. Found in the range of C. dammeri but there are 111 species in China alone. White flowers, red fruit and evergreen.
A collection from the hills above Oaxaca by plantsman Chen Hao. A smaller upright shrubby species with very fine textured thin leaves and spires of small tubular pink flowers custom made for hummingbirds and other nectar feeders with enviably long tongues. This is evocative of P. kunthii except for the flower color which is paler. Something to key out this summer with chips, guac and several cold Negro Modelo.
We have seen this species in the wild on multiple occasions and it is variable but all are first-rate foliage plants. This particular collection is derived from the plant voted best broadleaf evergreen of the trip, excluding Rhododendrons. Umbels of small creamy flowers give way to small black fruit. While we can't recall every plant we have seen plant hunting, the memory of this is crystal clear.
Any and all Styrax appeal to us and this was a necessary collection as a result. A vigorous tree of good size widely distributed in southern China and into adjoining countries to the south. This will have a lot of small, white bells in spring followed by pale nutlets clasped by a somewhat swollen green calyx. A very few of these gallon-sized plants. We will have to flower this to ID it for sure as China alone has nearly 40 species. Hardiness unknown but from relatively low elevation. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering.
This is a remarkable species in the Theaceae or Camellia family, Native to Yunnan, Myanmar and Vietnam with this collection hailing from the latter. Evergreen trees rarely reaching 50' or more but doubt if you will have to contend with that eventuality! Large white flowers with yellow anthers occur in late winter and early spring. Suitable only for very mild gardens and worth trying on a wall.
A robust Eriogonum from shrub steppe habitat east of the Cascades
from WA to CA and east to ID. An awesome
plant for a larger spot in the rock garden, mounding to 18"x30". Arrow-shaped leaves are felty-green on top and
wooly-white beneath while white to pale-yellow umbels of flowers
appear late May to July. Like many other Eriogonum, this is an
important pollinator plant for butterflies. Lean and good drainage.
We have not keyed this Chinese species yet but it is on the docket. This was a small tree growing in bamboo and mixed forest at good elevation. The leaves are glossy and attractive but the almost lilac-like heads of white scented flowers are the thing. Small shiny black fruit. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering
A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering. Our collection of what we presume to be this species although given the distribution from Nepal into China and Vietnam, we wouldn't be shocked to see this species broken into varieties or subspecies. If it is this species, give it some room as it can hit 40' tall as a venerable old-growth specimen but expect much less in the garden. Upright evergreen with pale butter-white flowers and blue-black fruit. Young plants of this rarity and hardiness unknown at this point.
This is loving our crevice garden but might be better in our rock garden as the 20" mat of trailing stems clad in small rumpled leaves is a tad big for the crevice. A profusion a creamy, violet-striped erect flowers sporting a purple hooded upper petal. From the Himalaya & Everest National Park, to nearly 15000'.
A Tony Avent collection from Korea's Jeju (Cheju) island of this very floriferous form of this Solomon Seal species. Large green-tipped white bells walk down the aisle underneath the 2' arching stems making this one of the finest expressions of the species. Polygonatums are an integral part of the mix in the shade garden and are a great genus to collect as there are lots of species with new ones still being discovered in the wild.
A fine Chinese species which we have seen on several plant hunting trips to China from Guizhou Province to Hubei. So often we have seen the 24"-30" arching out provocatively from a slope alongside the trail with the yellow fall leaves scarcely sheltering the clusters of black fruit held beneath. Someday we will have to go in the spring to see the green-tipped white flowers. This is a species in some taxonomic flux at the moment so hard to say where this will eventually wind up but this is one of the Polygonatum cyrtoneuma found in cultivation.
Sea Kale. A prized vegetable of olden times, this still would be widely eaten if the leaves didn't bruise easily in transport. However, that is just a gastronomic aside because the ornamental qualities outweigh its tastiness. A seashore plant of Europe, this has ruffled blue-green leaves and white flowers.
We acquired this incredibly tough, tuberous, summer dormant Geranium in the 80's from East Lambrook in southern England which was home to Margery Fish and the original English Cottage Garden. Provenance alone is merit enough but good lavender blue flowers and drought tolerance carries the day.
Our selection of an exceptional seedling from a Vietnam collection. Typically green-leafed, this one has lustrous red new growth looking pretty amazing spring through fall and darned good in winter too since it is evergreen. We haven't flowered it yet but expect creamy yellow flowers in summer. Young plants, cutting propagated. A tip of the hat to our staff wit Yvonne for coming up with the perfect name.
It's difficult to talk eloquently let alone persuasively about a plant newly collected and how it will appear in the various seasons and how well it will perform in the garden. We don't know a lot about this November 2011 collection from a shrub at Lao Cai, Above Silver Waterfall, Vietnam at 2150 meters. We can say it won't grow in Des Moines, Iowa or Black Duck, Minnesota but it will likely be happy as a clam in Seattle. These are young but sturdy seedlings which will really need greenhouse overwintering this first winter.
At this young stage, they bear resemblance to Schefflera alpina and S. chapansis but since they were collected by Aaron Floden, we're smart enough to know that if he doesn't know than we don't know. It's kind of like that Donald Rumsfeld thing where there are known knowns and known unknowns and if we know we don't know than we know more than those who don't know but know they do. Generally I found little palatable about him but I did find myself defending him over this quote as it made perfect sense to me. Somehow seeing it in print makes it seem less defensible and my veracity more questionable.
A very good selection of Winter Iris - the species can start flowering in February here for us and at that time of the year, even the worst selection looks mighty fine but this one is truly worthy. Blue standards - the central upright petals - and blue falls - the large lower petals - that carry a broad white blotch with fine blue lines. Good drainage and moderate to less water in summer.
One of the best of the herbaceous Potentilla hands down, period. End of story. George Zimmer of Men's Wearhouse "I guarantee it". This is a "Quit talking, just do me, baby" Potentilla. Deep blood red flowers combined with the silver foliage are an exquisite pleasure verging on pain. Full sun.
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.