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Serious business here on the Ligularia front. This Crug Farm collection from Jeju (Cheju) Island, Korea, is from our 2018 Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy UK trip. This makes a dense ground cover of weed-suppressive, overlapping large leaves and tall spikes of yellow flowers. A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering.

Sweet little groundcover whose double white flowers resemble fluffy bits of white popcorn strewn on the leaves. Perfect underplanting for other shade plants to pop up through and great between stepping stones. Gently spreading and not hard to keep in bounds. Darn near perfect.

A comparatively graceful species of Veratrum with broadly narrow leaves, if that makes any sense and sadly, it does to us. The 4'-5' flower stem has numerous lateral branchlets clad in lots of red-maroon flowers. To compare to the better-known V. nigrum, narrower leaves, flower stems much more open with flowers more red than purple-black. Excellent long-lived plant of outstanding hardiness best suited for the cool to cold zones. Deer resistant as well.

A lovely gold leafed sport of 'Cream da Mint' that Rick Sawyer found in his Fernwood Nursery in Maine. This truly glows particularly in spring when the gold coloration is at its best. The larger than usual white scented flowers are a fine accompaniment. Slower spreading than many selections.

Here in Port Townsend Coastal Californians are like the bogey man haunting the dreams of NIMBY types and work-a-day home searchers alike. However in our rain-shadow deertopia, plants resistant to roaming teeth and the occasional drought are like affordable multi-unit housing. Thus we come to be selling this Cali native, and a prostrate large-flowered form to boot. The thick evergreen (in mild winters) foliage forms a tough mat producing odd buds that secrete a sticky gum that transform into a carpet of large yellow daisies in Summer, providing an adaptable full-sun groundcover.

Yet another of diverse and headachingly difficult to identify genus that love but doesn't love us back (at least taxonomically). The dark, opaque, and serrately margined rhizome scales have led us to believe it belongs in the section pseudovittaria where the publication helpfully states species delimitation is particularly difficult. Whatever the species it is an attractive small evergreen species that grows epiphytically in the wild and while spreading by rhizome tends to form a nice tight clump overall. The fronds start off broader and slightly twisted but become thin and much more upright as the sori develop. This has proved hardy for us thus far in the tufa wall housed in our collector's garden and has drawn the particular admiration of a few very knowledgeable local fern fanatics.

A Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy Offering

Fabulous hybrid Hepatica that in time will form mats of great lobed foliage with loads of light medium blue flowers in early spring. A durable plant with few if any faults. Great with Ranunculus ficaria and Hellebores.

A royal fern whose lineage through fern royalty was unspoilt until it graced our worn proletariat hands. The original plant of this form with tripinnate leaves, meaning one extra degree of division resulting in a feathery look, was found in Kerry, Ireland but subsequently lost to cultivation. 90 years later British pterido-maniac Martin Rickard chanced upon another in a ditch in that same county. From there it passed to local fern celebrity Sue Olsen and through her Hardy Fern Foundation to the Elisabeth Miller garden where its current caretaker Richie Steffen graciously bestowed upon me one single frond from which come all of these spore-grown plants. Don't worry if the fronds are not yet fully feathered, its a trait that develops and strengthens with age.

This is the Japanese version of our native False Hellebore. Wonderful broad pleated leaves and when old enough, nice spikes of white starry flowers to 3' or more. This likes a rich moist soil, emerges early in spring and goes dormant by mid to late summer. Deer resistant and very hardy. Young plants.

This exceptionally large flowered selection is going to be a star in any sunny garden where it's unrivaled flower size leaves most other Crocosmias wishing they hadn't been mired in ethical dilemmas and just gone ahead and done the testosterone injections. Introduced in 1910 by George Davison and was a sensation at the time garnering every accolade and award available at the time. 100 years old and it is still showing the newcomers a thing or two as it has few rivals for size of flowers and stoutness of stem. Timeless excellence. Our plants came from NW icon Russell Graham some years back.

Originally from Maurice Foster who is one of the UK's great plantsmen who would not gladly brook an inferior form. This can hit 10'+ in height with a narrow aspect and generally deciduous willowish or bamboo-like leaves. Small purplish flowers and outrageous jester's cap fruit with dangling orange arils. This used to be the variety quinquecornutus but that has been sunk. We've seen this various times in China and Vietnam and always get the same pleasant rush.

Lily of the Valley. A good selection of this stalwart species with a yellow margin to the leaves and said leaves are larger than average as well. Typical scented white flowers. There are numerous spellings of the cultivar name but since this is an American introduction, we can only assume this is correct.

Western Shooting Star. A pleasing western wildflower California to Alaska that one can't help but enjoy with its showy pinkish flowers with its strongly backswept petals. Likes it moist in spring and goes summer dormant when it gets drier. The taxonomic move of Dodecatheon to Primula nearly made us give up on plants and take up studying something stable and predictable like Constitutional checks and balances. These from a Ron Ratko collection.

Typically a white-flowered Tasmanian native evergreen tree, this pink version was found in 1984 by Ken Gillanders. Must have been jaw-dropping as the plant was 65' tall although the tallest in cultivation is perhaps 25'. Serious authorities have it hardy zones 7-10 but we'll say Z 8-10 and best sheltered from freezing/drying wind. Bees love this, adding kinetic beauty plus the species accounts for the majority of honey production in Tasmania. These are small cutting grown trees.

Fantastic New Zealand tree-like Asparagaceae member, its cousin C. australis isn't uncommon as a houseplant or tropical, winter garage-dweller; but this rarer species features broader leaves and slightly more cold tolerance. Still relegated to summer-only or houseplant status for most of us, and a bit trickier to grow in exchange for its elevated appearance. Requires moist but very well drained soils and doesn't cope well with intense summer heat. For those looking for a rewarding challenge and a unique appearance not easily found elsewhere there is a lot to enjoy here.

We love this variety of nobilis - awesome foliage with very good marbling and equally fine pink flowers in early spring. The whole presentation is exquisite and obviously the result of judicious honing of extraneous elements over the course of untold millenia. Tom Hobbs - put this in your Jewelbox Garden!

Nice red-orange flowers really puts on a show later in August which comes at a time when some of the other reddish varieties have finished flowering. Named for Phillipa Browne who is a Crocosmia hybridizer in the UK. We're certain she didn't name this after herself and that a fellow nurseryman chose to honor her work in this way.

A unique Bergenia collected in Kashmir and later named by Beth Chatto after a close friend. It forms a neat rosette of highly unusual, bright green leaves that have a strongly tapered, or cuneate, base with a coarse ciliate margin, typical of B. stracheyi. In autumn, the leaves turn a brilliant shade of crimson, plum red. Heads of small white, drooping flowers appear in spring in tight clusters. An interesting foliage plant that may not be to everyone’s taste but is well worth growing for its winter colour and white flowers.

Thanks to our pal Scott Galloway curator of the best Bergenia collection around and creator of the incomparable info source the Bergenlist for the description and photos!

Our collection from Asia of what is likely the first introduction of this exceptional form of this equally exceptionally rare variety. Attractive leaves that are terminally cleft into bilateral lobes. The 12" long hanging panicles of white flowers are the finest in the genus, holding their own among the best of flowering trees. So much better than the straight species. Seed-grown younguns from the original plants. Who's your plant daddy!!!!! Photo credit to Steve Hootman. Proceeds from this offering go to support the mission of Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy.

Giant trillium, that's right I said giant trillium, like something from a waking dream that word combination is. California endemic and worthy of it's own star on the Hollywood walk of fame. A robust stalk lifting aloft a trinity of bracts and that classic sessile trillium flower reaching up to nearly 2ft tall at maturity, force majeure king of the shade woodland. These are seedlings from a population of variable color but we'd expect something along the spectrum of tints and shades of pink and red.