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1745 products
1745 products
Scarce selection in the US, these seedlings all flowered pink although they can also come in white and blue. But like a good species Rhododendron, foliage rules for most of the year. Lobed leaves whose margins are crenulate - scalloped or notched with small rounded dentition - hence 'Crenatiloba'. This is one of the parents of 'Cremar' and our plants are derived from Ashwood Nursery stock.
A fantastic small Thalictrum from a Darrell Probst collection in China - no surprise that it is a great plant coming from Darrell. This will make an impressive ball of fine foliage with too many to count small white flowers whose petals are reflexed to unashamedly or brazenly - your choice - display its plant junk with soft lavender filaments. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering. Eventually to almost 2 feet tall and as much around.
As perennials go, this Mexican Pea Tribe member is staggeringly impressive. From a woody base, there appears in spring stout stems reaching 8 feet.. On a mature plant, these stems are numerous and it becomes a dominant seasonal shrub. Pinnate leaves with 4 leaflets, large discoidal purple-veined stipules and big yellow flowers in fall. If we were completely honest with ourselves, it is a safe bet that we all love large discoidal purple-veined stipules but we might not mention that to our parents at the Thanksgiving dinner table.
One odd little plant from the Andes possessing neither flamboyance of flower, nor headiness of perfume, nevertheless, it's pretty damned cool. We've never noticed it blooming, the flowers being so small but the resultant edible but insipid white fruit are attractive as is the foliage and habit. Great in the rock garden.
One of those captivating Chinese species. This has a neat stoloniferous habit sending out runners and making new bulbs so you soon have a grove of Lilies. Flowers pink with dark spots with recurved petals in the classic "Turk's Cap" style. We love it.
An intricate floral array on this selection with broad snowflake flowers softly imbued with a frosted lavender pink. The center of each flower is a white starry eye and the fine edge of the petals sparkle with touches of icy nibs. An aptly named selection and our thanks to Jan and Marty for upgrading our sieboldii offering with this and others.
Heloniopsis is a genus we would be loathe to garden without and we are always ln acquisition mode for new ones. This is a Japanese selection which has flowers of a deeper pink-lavender versus the typical lavender-pink - a distinction apparent when grown side by side. We notice as well in our cool greenhouse, the foliage coloring in red tones in winter. A charming bit of exotica for the shade garden.
Our most vigorous clone of this species which we collected in Sichuan in 2006. This will fill out a pot in no time and will do equally well in the garden. The day we found this is memorable because that evening we stayed in a hotel where we had to sleep with the lights on because every time we turned off the lights, numerous rats would scurry out from their home in our built-in bed and rustle about through our gear. When we turned on the lights, they would all dash back under and into our bed. Fortunately they kept to their level of the bed and we kept to ours but it was not the best of nights. This is a good evergreen perennial with whitish flowers with light purplish interiors and best in shade that doesn't dry out.
We saw this inhabitant of high alpine meadows in Sichuan in May of 2006 and were blown away by the small carpet of large pink flowers. Did we ever want that bad but no seed to be had. Fortunately a Norwegian friend collected seed and we can offer this rarity. Goes brown the winter so don't freak out.
A distinctive Vaccinium (Blueberry) collected by Jens Nielsen in western Yunnan at 3000 meters. Large leaves of serious substance alternately flank the arching stems and take on red-bronze colors when young as well in winter on the least mature leaves. No surprises on the white urn-shaped flowers or with the purple-black fruit which add ornament to an already interesting plant. We can only guess as to mature size of the plant but would think 3'-4' tall with arching and trailing branches to 6' or more. This is likely epiphytic in the wild which means good drainage in the garden.
Extremely rare lily native to just a few sites in the southeastern US and discovered by Mary Henry in 1940. She found this growing in the Florida panhandle and it is known as the Panhandle Lily or as Mary described it, Pot of Gold Lily. This is virtually unobtainable, and we were lucky to receive ours from a botanist friend who is doing work on the genus. This is found growing along streams and particularly in association with pitcher plant bogs, so its habitat is threatened by human mismanagement. It is not all that common to find a lily species adapted to warm winters and high humidity but perhaps the moist conditions cools the bulbs.
This striking Turk's cap lily will be 3'-6' at maturity and have from 1-4 flowers in late July through August. The bulbs are very rhizomatous and will make a nice little colony when happy. Speaking of happy, these have a reputation for being finicky but we wonder if this was not a fault of tissue culture as most experience with this species were with tissue-cultured bulbs, a process which has since been discontinued. These are not from TC and obviously our friend grew these quite well in containers, in a mix of 50-50 peat moss and sand, as he sent us nice blooming size divisions. Mary Henry grew and flowered this from seed in a pot on her porch in Philadelphia and then to further douse this notion of being a persnickety bulb, our friend reports these being grown in an Ann Arbor Michigan garden quite successfully for several years. These are allied to Lilium superbum and apparently no more difficult to grow. The bulbs are naturally very small but increase well. An absolute must for the lily collector.
Codonopsis are usually twining members of the Bellflower or Campanula family and the range of color and shapes in the flowers of the various species keeps our interest in this genus at a sharp edge. We are very keen on this one as it not only has intriguing flowers but a non-vining growth habit. This makes a low clump of leaves from which long, stiff flower stems emerge to 18" tall. The flowers are held several per stem and while not large, overcome this size deficiency with exceptional detail. The small ivory bells are heavily netted in vivid maroon veins inside and out. These stems are surely adapted to growing through grass or other low plants in Yunnan and Sichuan. Hardy to zone 6 and likely lower.
This collection is from what we regard as the southern form of this populous Asian species. What makes this special is that this was from the 10000' summit of this virtually unknown mountain and surely must be the highest elevation that this form grows. That, plus being one of the toughest days we have had in the field. This makes a good show with likely white flowers followed by heads of red fruit that matures to blue-black and the evergreen leaves are more attractive than the northern populations. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering
A good dark flowered form of Allium wallichii from China. Although the individual florets are fewer in number in the flower heads, the rich dark purple color more than compensates. This species is eaten by the local indigenous peoples although that wild crafting is becoming less frequent as grocery stores are awfully convenient. An easy species for the garden.
A tough perennial from the southern Caucasus which has steadfastly refused to die despite some of our unintentional best efforts. This will, in time, make an impressive small clump of numerous upright stems to 12" or so which are tipped in late July to September with multiple blue flowers with pale whitish throats. This is happy in limestone conditions and is happy here in neutral to moderately acid. It wants to please. Does well in Denver Botanic Gardens as well as gardens in Sweden.
An evergreen shrub we collected in 1997 on the slopes of the Cangshan Range above the town of Dali in Yunnan. Very attractive species whose glossy leaves are more than adequate ornament but when combined with the clustered small curved creamy flowers, it verges on the sublime. Best for milder gardens. Even though it was 20 years ago, the memory of finding this is like a snapshot. This was growing along the dirt single track road that wound up the mountain where it was mingling in a thicket of Myrica, Rhododendron edgeworthii and R. sulphureum, Hypericum, Tripterygium and Nomocharis pardanthina. The view down to the far plain below revealed the city of Dali to the right of gleaming Lake Erhai and just to the left, the famed Three Pagodas of Dali were scarcely visible as tiny pale scratches set in a triangle within the landscape. Writing this, we are transported back and can feel the breeze on our cheeks as it blows uphill carrying the faint "Pink-Pink-Pink" of hammer on chisel from a stone mason shaping a large marble boulder he had found among the scrub and rocky jumble of the lower slope.
Let's talk drought tolerance. This is one step up from cactus. We always marvel at this growing out of cracks in sheer basalt cliffs on the dry Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge and looking oh so good despite the most rigorous of conditions. Great for the rock garden. Good drainage. Purple-pink flowers on this evergreen subshrub.
From a Crug Farm collection comes this rare woodlander. We are smitten by all the members of this genus as well as it's kith and kin in other genera. This has the pendulous greenish white flowers so familiar yet so intriguing. A shade garden bereft Convallariaceae quietly weeps.
Adorable dwarf Chinese Solomon's Seal to just 4 or 5 inches tall. This has lovely light purple flowers which often causes Polygonatophiles to swoon leaving them prone in the garden where they awaken to smell the delightful vanilla fragrance emanating from these small jewel-like flowers which induces further swooning. This is simply a clever pollination mechanism involving repetitive nose transferal of pollen but be prepared and don't wear your best clothes. These are divisions originally from a Diana Reeck 1996 collection in China.
Monkshood. This is a fine wildflower from Japan making attractive clumps with cowled dusky lavender flowers. This has been an easy doer increasing easily and the clumps are a snap to divide if you want more. And we always do. This not one for the sunny garden but best in morning sun or light shade. This doesn't get tall staying under 3' and isn't anything to worry about staking. Just a quietly lovely plant except for the unfortunate derisive comments it hurls at passing deer as it is completely unpalatable. Fortunately this commentary lies outside the range of human hearing so there is little chance of offending invited guests.