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1703 products
1703 products
Large green leaves in summer becoming muted somber puce in winter. This either heightens or lessens Seasonal Affective Disorder depending on how much you like puce. We do, so when we struggle emotionally with the unrelenting gray, a stroll by Ballawley keeps us briefly but firmly tethered. Tall rich pink flowers.
This uncommon wood anemone clone offers pale pink flowers to bring light to the dark of the shade garden. One of our Scottish acquisitions of which we have a scant few to share. Will live up to its name in time.
Our collection from southern China in an area little botanized by westerners. Green palmata-type leaves are admittedly unremarkable but the leggy red stems which bear these leaves and pink flowers aloft, lissome limbs gleaming like Chihuly glass. This has handled a hard Seattle winter with a bit of bark mulch.
A collection by Philip MacDougall from Taiwan of this predominantly Chinese species. The pale flowers spring from the leaf axils of the arching stems and are just touched in pink and purple and will never be accoladed as showy but are charming. The reddish fruit are quite nice and dangle as showy little orbs. We have come to quite enjoy it's understated charms. This was once placed in the genus Pratia.
An unusual member of this New Zealand endemic genus, shrubby evergreen with extremely fine needle-like foliage that varies in color from dark green to russet tones of gold and brown. The fascinating fruit are sheeny, translucent, pale purple to dark blue berries. Can grow to a dense and yet airily architectural mass of 5ft. Fairly hardy as it hails from sub-alpine zones, should manage alright in Zone 8 and up.
Ahh the beach, sun, salt, spray and....botanizing? What can we say we can't help ourselves, and locally when doing some beachside botanizing what is likely to draw you in is that perfect beach body, hairy and bigheaded, that's right we're talking Carex macrocephala, the big-headed sedge. Normal grassy sedges have edges leaves but with far more flower power than your average Carex. Rare in cultivation so sandy and well-draining if you want to be safe, but will likely tolerate a wide range of conditions like its brethren.
Nice native bulb surprisingly seldom available. Mottled leaves and multiple pale yellow to creamy yellow flowers in multiples hang above the foliage. Very good naturalizer from seed and one of the most requested plants in our shade garden aside from the fact that it is the first plant they see entering the garden.
Himalayan Maidenhair Fern. Evergreen to semi-evergreen creeping fern making the the most textural groundcover imaginable. Salmon pink new growth goes to light olive and finally green leaflets on black wiry stems just 8"-12" high. Likes a loose moist soil but will tolerate dry when established.
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.
Seed collected at 3200 meters in Sichuan in an open grazed small meadow area adjoining low scrub. Tightly clumping, deciduous and allied to Iris japonica but is something totally new. Small blue flowers are laddered down the stems in the leaf axils. This has baffled some of the top authorities on Chinese Iris both here in the US and in the UK which quite honestly makes us very happy. Nothing like introducing a species nova to quicken the pulse! We expect this to be hardier than the zone 6 we are giving it but are being our usual conservative selves until we learn differently from those of you who will try this in colder zones.
From our breeding work with Podophyllum, comes a very vigorous hybrid between a good form of pleianthum and a robust delavayi hybrid. These have large, rather olive-green leaves touched in mottled light bronze especially when young and has red flowers that are well-displayed. This is not flamboyant but has a redoubtable solemnity of purpose and inherent courtliness which has earned our respect.
A hybrid Gesneriad between Briggsia aurantiaca (syn. Oreocharis bilburtii) and Opithandra primuloides (Syn. Oreocharis primuloides) which we succumbed to at Aberconwy Nursery in Wales. White, bilaterally symmetric flowers touched in faint pink with throats patterned in pink lines. Easy in cool greenhouse but can tolerate some frost, so mild gardens are maybe okay.
Nice plants of one of the best of the mossy saxifrages. This is one of the first to flower of this group in the spring with buds showing quite early. Tight darkly evergreen green mats of closely packed needle-leafed rosettes which can be obscured with the unabashed profusion of red flowers with yellow centers. A easy plant for sun to half sun as long as it has a moisture retentive yet well drained soil - the classic soil condition so it seems! Great in the rock garden, edging along a path, nice in containers. It's main bugaboos are drought, lengthy hot sun/reflected heat and too much shade. Hardy to zone 4.
A fun Primrose that, when settled in and enjoying a rich crumbly soil, can really make a nice patch. This spreads by underground rhizomes and is a good colonizer. With some plants, when you say 'colonizer' it rightly sounds an alarm much like a submarine klaxon on an emergency dive. Not so this. Rich tomato-pink flowers above season-interest-extending, felty foliage.
A variegated cultivar via Japanese nurserymen of this uncommon Disporum species. Pleated evergreen leaves marked by a yellow center lend the plant a continued interest even without the joyous, white, bell-shaped flowers. A nice source of contrast in the shade garden!
Our mama plants were collected by Panayoti Kelaidis of the Denver Botanic Garden and it is truly one of the finest Red Hot Pokers. If we had to choose just one Poker, this would be among the ten or 15 we would have to have. Stout gray-green leaves and chunky often reblooming salmon and yellow flowers. The leaves gives this a bold look which is perfect in those gardens wanting a tropical feel. One thing that we really like about this is that it is a deciduous species so a quick cutback and you are good to go in the spring. Panayoti remembers the plants in the wild being a solid color so the bicolor is curious. The seedlings come true so it is one of those things that makes plants interesting.
We believe Rhett, this Crocosmia is no lady. Really, are you looking for some refined creature when you buy a Crocosmia? I think not - it's hussies, hotties, tramps and trollops that get's it done in the garden during the dog days of summer when we need some over the top flamboyance - save the demure for spring 'cause it clashes with Mojitos! This has big heads of bright red flowers which are spaced closely together amplifying the floral impact. Nicely compact just 24" tall at best and remains in a tight clump. This is from David Tristram of Walberton Nursery in the UK.
A jolly plant indeed introduced by Heronswood from Sichuan. This has evergreen foliage springing from new growth that looks to be a bamboo until it leafs out. Small creamy white flowers in early summer and blue-black fruit held well into winter if the cold doesn't knock back the 6' + stems. Cut back old stems in spring if you were lucky enough to have a mild winter and it remained evergreen.
This is easily the best disappointing plant we have. This is one we imported from Japan - at some significant cost - as a Gold Leaf cultivar. The first year was magic with leaves like pure sunlight but never again. The best part is that it is an exceptionally good, vigorous clone with big flower heads and superb foliage.
We found this as a raggedy half-dormant plant in the midst of snow on Jinfoshan in 2010. It has taken us a long time since to both offer it and to appreciate its full-green growing season appearance. Staying quite small, only about 8 inches, and with adorably rounded leaves this isn't going to wow anybody but is an absolutely perfect negative space or filler plant carrying on the solomon's seal tradition of playing nice with everything while not taking up quite so much vertical room as the more traditional offerings.