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!

One can collect hundreds of named cultivars of this Japanese primrose and not have two that are identical. This is an ideal plant for the OCD plant collector who wants to take a long deep dive - just make sure when trying to have them all that money remains to buy groceries and keep the lights on. White flowers flushed fuchsia with a reverse that is solidly soft fuchsia.  This will bring felicity to your garden.

Good full heads of large white flowers whose petals align flatly in a single plane.  An excellent selection of this Japanese species.

This is easily the best disappointing plant we have.  This is one we imported from Japan - at some significant coast - 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.

The pure white flowers are shaped like Amazon took its frightening AI algorithm capabilities and looked into everyone's hearts and minds to find the universal constant of snowflake conceptualization and then went to its secret biological modification lab and 3-D printed the snowflake gene and went all CRISPR gene splicing happy to make the perfect primrose for the snowflake market. Putting on my tinfoil hat now.

Another excellent selection shared with us by Jan and Marty, this has flowers with a reverse of rich purplish-pink and faces of lavender pink that are washed in white.  Each petal is gently heart-shaped which is very fortunate when one considers the possibilities offered by other organs. And we will stop right there.

A very good and stable selection from Japan of this little woodland creeper.  Dark green leaves are well-marked with feathered yellow tips and in spring this has pendant white starry flowers.  This will increase to create a definite bit of visual velcro in the garden because as your eye roams the plants, it will stop abruptly on this one.

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.

Three-year old bulbs of this exquisitely choice red-flowered variant of this shorter species.  Saturated red interior with a white and red exterior - dang! This normally flowers 5-6 years from seed and these are a good age to get established for maximum oomph when flowering.  You will be forgiven for any horticultural braggadocio!

This was one of those "Holy shit - lookit that fern!" moments when we first spotted this species growing at the base of soaring pinnacles of vertical peaks in Guizhou, China where it was not intimidated in the least and perfectly in scale.  Massive 4'-6' wide fronds 6'-8' tall in the wild and clumping.  Likely smaller in cultivation but still BIG!  Zone 7b-9.

Our own flowering divisions from a plant bequeathed us from the former garden of plant-obsessed Marian Raitz.   This Japanese selection is a fully pink double and double means the flowers last longer than the typical single fertile flowers.  Ideal for cool greenhouse pot culture or mild gardens.

Broad petals with an intricate dendritic margin that provides a bit of wonderment.  The backs of the petals are a gentle amethyst which bleeds through to the white face of the petals infusing them with the color of sun-tinted old glass.  This is easy to accommodate in the garden as it is not coldly distant with a petulant haughtiness but it does like to be admired which will come easily.

Luscious variegated selection out of Japan of this small evergreen shrub.  The leaves are heavily frothed and patterned in creamy whites which can take on some pink depending on the season and exposure.  No two leaves are alike on this new wave plant canvas.  Small white flowers under the branches.

Star light star bright, first primrose I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, Have this primrose I wish tonight.  Nothing subliminal here.  The five petals are shaped like a heart and are love-pink on the reverse while the face of the flower is white feathering to pink on the edges.  Good, big flowers in quantity on each stem puts on a show.

Threadleaf Dwarf Mulberry.  A curiosity found and named in Japan, this has long, crazy thread-like leaves on thin stems and will make a spreading, small mound which would hang over an edge if so sited.  It can be staked up to get a bit of height which we like.  No fruit or flowers on this Mulberry and don't grow this clone for silk production - the poor silkworms would starve!

A new dwarf form of this popular Black Mondo Grass.  We have not yet grown these to maturity but have had them them for some time now and can say they are very slow so we do believe they are going to be smaller than typical.  Perfect in troughs, bonsai containers, edging along stones, model railway gardens, etc etc.

One of the better selections of Aucuba and very rare in the nursery trade. This was brought to the US by the now defunct Asiatica Nursery and shared with us by Lance Reiners. Narrow leaves consistently freckled in gold presents as major pizzazz with unmistakable elegance.  A tough evergreen tolerant of dry shade once established.  Zones 7-9.

A fine little dwarf Astilbe native to Japan and one that has proved to be very enduring as well as endearing. Low mounds of dense and finely cut foliage with short spikes of soft pink fluff in early summer. We grow this out in the full sun with ample water.

Blackberry Lily. Our collection of this extremely widespread Asian species which not only has attractive deep orange flowers that are overlaid in a plethora of red spots but also the seed is curiously attractive looking for all the world like a large blackberry. This has wide application in traditional Chinese medicine and our collection is likely an escapee from the local mountain village.

Gorgeous little gem out of Japan with a rich yellow center to the leaf  surrounded by green with some nice feathering details.  This will increase quickly but not aggressively and adds a nice splash of color in the shade garden.  The white flowers go well with the whole package.

Pink flowers with a hint of violet that elevates this on the societal color palette preventing it from slipping down to the campy plastic flamingo. The broad petals have a small, white distant star for an eye and are nearly imperceptibly dusted with what could be airborne suspended particles of confectioners sugar lightly settling to rest. In our house, it would be a delicate white tracery as if from floating dog hair.

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. Excellent long-lived plant of outstanding hardiness best suited for the cool to cold zones.

Lespedeza bicolor can be an invasive pest but this dwarf version from Japan is a non-invasive pixie.  Small blue green leaflets in 3's on a many-stemmed 12" tall deciduous bush to twice as wide or a bit more.  Cute reddish purple pea-like flowers are perfectly in keeping with the tidy presentation.  From a friend on Cape Cod.

NeGolden yellow are its hallmark in spring to mid summer after which they become a light yellow-green but still an element of light brightness in the shade.  Late in Oct/Nov, this defies conventional wisdom by producing  yellow bottlebrush flowers.

A very robust selection in one of our favorite genera, this is one we brought in from Japan some while back and at last have some to offer. Wider and longer leaves than other Heloniopsis, making larger evergreen rosettes. Early spring  sees the elongation of the flowering stem to 10" and  a full head of creamy flowers aging to a clear white.

Tongue Ferns are widespread in China and Japan where they can be epiphytic as well as lithophytic on rocks.  Fantastic variants are being selected by the cult followers of Pyrrosia in Japan and "Tachiba Koryu' is one with evergreen blade-like leaves sporting rounded lobes along the margins.  Does fantastic at Peckerwood Gardens near Houston.

A white flowered version of the normally pink Japanese which we never have enough of as it sells immediately.  One of our customers tells us how it well does under the trees in dry shade and we grow it in the dry end of our shade garden.  This has large fuzzy leaves and spreads rapidly by rhizomes if moist or slowly if dry or just right if in-between.

Large flowers with appropriate heart-shaped petals that are light pink on the backside and pale white-pink on the front.  This is a comfortable plant with no surprises and you will have a sense of easy familiarity each spring when this flowers.  No drama, no challenging colors, just a solid beauty of the sort that if it could smooch, it would.

A collection from Japan by Quarry Hill Botanic Garden of this indispensable summer-flowering, beefy perennial. This is a rare opportunity to obtain this species with wild-origin provenance. Yellow flowers of substance like small shuttlecocks are held well above the leaves on upright stems in midsummer. Still remember being awestruck by a superb specimen at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum years ago.