A remarkable arborescent species endemic to the Sierra de la Laguna of Baja California where this grew on a shaded ridge in mixed oak-pine forest at 5800'. This can get over 20' tall with a 10' inflorescence with yellowish to white flowers but that height might be for your child's child's child's child to enjoy - it will take a while!

A very good evergreen fern native to Taiwan, China and Japan which we imported from a specialist in the UK.  Tidy and attractive species reaching 30" wide with fronds to 20" tall, this requires shade to part shade.  And brace yourself - it is tolerant of dry shade!  Happier of course with some water,  Spore-grown by us.

Rare plant found only in limited areas in central Honshu, Japan where it likes the forest fringes in the subalpine areas and is known as hiiragi-sou or holly tree-leafed weed.  Hiiragi-sou sounds better than the translation.  This selection has dark blue flowers and is a deciduous clumper to 16" tall - very nice!

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

Originally introduced by Cistus Nursery from a seed collection at 8000' in La Siberica, Mexico. These have been undamaged in brief nighttime drops to 10F and have formed new crowns after flowering so the show will continue. It is mandatory to have a series of parties when these bloom, btw.

This Spoon Yucca comes from a seed collection in Grant County, New Mexico at 6800'.  This is a full sun, drought tolerant impressive piece of work when it is mature.  The flower spike can reach 10'-15' with thousands of packed creamy florets arising from the center of the well-armored rosette of narrow, bluish, toothed leaves.

Riverine Tea Tree.  This uncommon to cultivation Tasmania endemic is often found along stream banks in its native setting so can take moister conditions than some other species.  White flowers on an evergreen shrub with good flaking bark and getting to 8'-10'.  Deer proof as well.

This collection is from nearly 6000' in San Miguel Co., New Mexico and hardy down to Zone 5.  This yucca relative makes dense clumps of thin grassy leaves to 3' tall and holds the dense plumes of creamy flowers nestled in the uppermost leaves.  The brown seed heads evoke fat cigars.

A Bee Balm native to the Ocoee River in Tennessee and formally described as a new species in 2015 thanks to the work being done by botanist Aaron Floden. Nice white flowers on what for us has been a shorter plant of 18" or so but we expect it to be a bit taller in the garden.  First introduced in the US as Monarda sp. nova by Far Reaches in 2014.

Got lots of sun and sandy or well-drained soil with average to low fertility in a dryish garden beset by rabbits and deer but still want lots of flowers for the bees and other pollinators? Look no further as this will nicely fill the bill. Mature plant has hundreds of pink papery bracted flowers in midsummer on drooping stems. Best displayed in a raised bed.

Named by plant guru John Flintoff who found this as an interesting seedling growing in plantswoman Loie Benedict's garden. Light green leaves with a spreading habit and flowers of a soft muted lavender which happily goes with most everything. As long as the soil is reasonably moist, this will be good in sun to light shade and is resistant to deer and rabbits.

A collection from Tibet by Daniel Winkler.  This is one of the Asian rhizomatous onions making a nice clump of broadly grassy foliage with leaves 12"-15" long.  The flowers are in shades of pink and are open rounded umbels whose drooping florets look a bit like some of the fireworks seen in a Fourth of July evening sky. Hardy to at least zone 6 and likely lower.

Plantsman and bulb expert Jim Fox was staying with friends in England and admiring their fine Nerine 'Quentin' in their border which had a few seed which he passed to us. Mere decades later and - Voila! - we have Quentinlettes. Quentin is highly regarded in England and the offspring are good too.

This is a seedling from one of the best clones of Darrell Probst's Spiny Leaf forms. The mama plant has luscious large bronzed new foliage with nice teeth on the margins and large creamy yellow flowers on low arching stems. The seedlings vary in flower color from light yellow to purplish flowers but all have seriously good foliage.

Crazy fern that takes away the need to fuss with 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.

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.

A unique evergreen member of the Myrtaceae family native to moist, rocky areas within alpine and subalpine regions of Australia. This forms a dense mound with arching branches, 3ft by 4ft with early summer small white flowers en masse. Diminutive leaves become coppery in winter, smelling lovely when crushed.

Fine South American evergreen shrub to 20" or more when grown richly or half that grown rock garden lean. Wiry red stems bristle with small stiff leaves that pair well to the plentiful small white bells and reddish fruit later. From Simon Bond in England who had some obscure treasures when we visited his Thuja Alpine Nursery.

Plant Addict Alert!  If you have problems coping with uncontrollable acquisition, step away from this plant.  Take a few minutes, walk through the garden and if you are still besotted, know that it is ok because this is totally cool!  Crazy Ethiopian species for a hot sunny spot with red flowers late summer into fall.

Pretty awesome evergreen fern because not only is it cool but it increases fast enough to make a statement in the garden before you are in your dotage and have forgotten why you bought this yet not in that rampaging acreage-eating Borg-assimilating manner that is sometimes described as "a good nursery plant".

Formerly in the genus Cheilanthes, this dryland fern is found in Mexico, Central America and Argentina and just recently, one site in Brazil.  Evergraygreen fronds of fine texture are densely vertical on this smaller fern.  Perfect candidate for the rock garden or container for milder gardens - doing well at Berkeley Botanic Garden

Our collection from near the 100 Li Rhododendron Area in Guizhou Province in China.  This is a fantastic fern and quietly imposing in the garden lending some tropicalissimo punch.  Long lowrider fronds lean low over the ground and can exceed 6' long.  Usually evergreen, mulch well in zone 7 or arctic blasts,  Likes it moist.

A shrub very rare in this country (we might be the first to introduce this) and one we are pretty excited about. This has some pretty good cold tolerance and will be an evergreen shrub to 2' high and wider. White flowers like a Leptospermum but long anthers so looks like a small bottlebrush. Good drainage, Zone 8-9 and might be worth trying in warmer parts of zone 7.

We briefly offered this as Plectranthus but Cody, our taxonomist fixed that.  From a meadow area at 10,000' in Sichuan with companions of Reineckea, Paris, Roscoea, Aconitum and Salvia. This mysterious beguiler will have small rounded hairy leaves with many stems and myriad motes of lavender-white flowers.

A floriferous and perhaps hardier selection with a bit larger flowers than usual by the late Don Jacobs of Eco-Gardens in Georgia.  Don was one of the first nurserymen to get into China in 1983 as the bamboo curtain was lifting.  It is hard not to like the soft lavender-blue flowers with darker spotting around the white band surrounding the yellow thumbprint.  Light shade.

One gold leafed seedling among thousands from seed sown of our Blue Poppies. The leaves are most intense in spring and the flowers are a lovely amethyst. Like most, some are perennial and some are not.  Save seed! Cannot be grown anywhere it gets hot and/or humid in the summer.

Fabulous hybrid ornamental Oregano (O. rotundifolium x O. scabrum) which is both heat and drought tolerant and a perfect choice for the sunny rock garden or top edge of rockery wall.  This really does need sharp drainage to perform its best.  In the Midwest, it is used as an annual in window boxes.  Light pink flowers all summer long.

Fern fans we are, fern experts we are not, but we continue to chip away at the imposing taxonomic massif of Pteridphyta. This is a creeping fern with long, thin rhizomes ideally suited for weaving through shallow moss on shaded rock faces with small orbicular-ovate evergreen leaves.

Jim Fox brought us seeds of this rare Chinese Hypericum from Roy Lancaster's garden where it is one of the many stars.  A shrub of some refined habit with arching branchlets to perhaps 3 feet or a little more with very nice yellow flowers in mid summer.  Roy is one of best plantsmen ever and we're well pleased.

Mint Bush. We love the genus with the aromatic, deer-proof evergreen foliage and in this case, white flowers tinged lavender. A Welsh nuseryman describes it as "a cracking plant tolerant of heavy frost and sells on sight".