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Sporelings of the Mexican Chain Fern originally introduced from the mountains near Oaxaca. A rarely seen beautiful species surviving many years in a Seattle garden. The same garden has a glorious container of this which overwinters frost-free in the sunroom where it not only survives but thrives. Thanks to Jeanette Kunnen for sharing. These are young plants but if we wait, they will all be sold here at the nursery and they need to get out into broader distribution. Just a few.

Crazy fern that takes away the need to fuss of growing this from spore, as it makes a multitudinous panoply of ready-to-go plantlets on the leaves that will soon have you owning the corner in your 'hood dealing in fern babies. Remember, if it's a kid, the first one is free. Warmer gardens or indoors, mulch protect in zone 8 winters.This is often seen as W. orientalis in the trade but the pterido-prophets say the signs point to prolifer. 

It is not enough to just collect the Wulfenia species but one must have the hybrid as well. And this natural progression of the collector disorder is a very good thing indeed as this is both intriguing and lovely. In part to light shade, this will tweak expectations of spring bloom with 10'' spikes of blue flowers that carry the graceful effect of a Penstemon gone astray in the best possible way in the woodland.

From Guizhou Province comes this collection of Chain Fern where it grew in association with Rhododendron irroratum and Viburnum cylindricum among other goodies. An awesome fern in the garden with fronds that can be 4'-7' long which arch low over the ground and which are salmon colored as they are just unfurling. This is a rare wild collection and one we propagate quite slowly by the 1-3 bulbils that accompany each imposing frond and so have a very limited number each year. Semi-evergreen in zone 7 where mulching the crown well in winter is advised to evergreen in warmer zones. Likes it moist. Best one we ever saw was at Linda Cochran's famed old garden on Bainbridge Island where she had a huge specimen luxuriating in her rich moist compost at the foot of an imposing bamboo clump.

Our collection of this large species from Fanjinshan in China where we saw it growing in the open with mixed scrub. This was a leafless 10' rounded open shrub with seed capsules at the ends of the branches. We have not yet flowered this but Flora of China has this as the only species that grows in this area so that works for us. Expect white flowers tinged pink aging to red or some variation thereof and being fairly profuse in May. May is always a safe month to say when you have not flowered something. Gives you a little wiggle room. If you've got the room in a naturalistic wild garden or want something big summer screening, this could be the ticket. This would be excellent backing for tall Joe Pye Weed for example. Aside from appealing to hummingbirds with its broadly tubular flowers, this is the type of shrub that is begging to be nested in. Good branch angles, nice shell of exterior concealing foliage and relatively open interior. Channeling my inner bird.

Our China collection of this most remarkable species. Favoring rich, moist areas which is required to pump up the nearly 6' in length frond volume. These fronds extend out laxly horizontally which assists in their asexual reproduction from plantlets developing from the little furry balls - careful! - at frond's end. Mulch crown in cold winters.

Our China collection of this most remarkable species. Favoring rich, moist areas which is required to pump up the nearly 6' in length frond volume. These fronds extend out laxly horizontally which assists in their asexual reproduction from plantlets developing from the little furry balls - careful! - at frond's end. Mulch crown in cold winters.

This natural hybrid of one of the classic South African bulb genera is endemic to Cape Province, and you'd be hard pressed to find it much further than that native range even in cultivation, luckily we have excellent connections like Michael Wickenden who generously shared it with us. Bladelike foliage, while nice, is unlikely to wow. The flowers however can grow in great spikes of up to 6 1/2 ft tall! Individual florets can come in red or pink and look rather similar to a more trumpeted Hesperantha, corollas flaring out to a star shaped opening. Prefers a Mediterranean climate and very well draining soil, can be pot-grown in a similarly draining mixture for those not living the riviera lifestyle.

A must-have if you're Wulfenia obsessed. Endemic to the Carnic Alps, this has a limited range in the wild. Dense clusters of tubular, violet-blue flowers appear in mid-summer above glossy evergreen rosettes with scalloped-edged leaves. Needs a fertile, well-drained moisture-retentive soil but really, don't we all?

We have just a handful of this choice form of the species in which the pinnae are distinctly undulated adding yet another layer of tasteful complexity to a species already awash in attributes. It really isn't fair to be born with gorgeous 6'-7' fronds but do you have to flaunt undulation too? Well, yes.