Oxydendrum arborumn.

Oxydendrum arborumn.

A small tree for growing Alpine plants underneath it's beautiful foliage, it belongs to the Ericaceae family so will only grow in an acid soil, Oxydendrum arborumn is from North America. When we first bought our garden we did not notice this small tree growing in a large raised bead, it was only in the spring we could hear all the buzzing in the garden above our heads, the bee's were just loving the lily of the valley flowers, goodness knows how they get their noses in the flowers, as the flowers, on large racemes are quite small. The whitish-grey racemes stay on the tree until the middle of winter, then fall off, but before they fall off  they create quite a contrast as the leaves change from green to all the red and burgundy colours of Autumn.
Stephen Ryan has a very good reference to this small tree in his book "100 Trees and Shrubs to give your garden the edge."

Androsace strigillosa from central Himalaya from Nepal to Bhutan, very easy in a deep trough, up against the edges, where it can use the peat in the cement to keep its self cool, This lovely seedling was on the Bunfight from Cynthia about 4 years ago.10-30cm in height with pure white flowers on the inside and lovely red buds and reverse on the flowers. It does not mind the warmth as long as it has shade in the summer months.

Antirrhinum hispanicum? seed collected in a rocky drain on the side of the road in Traveleleze, a beautiful village with white houses and terracotta flat roove's in the Mountains of Spain. With very interesting Tymes, Lavenders, Oregano and all manner of plants that would grow very well in Australia. If we could get seed. To see the flowers with all their markings properly, click on the picture.

Calceolaria fothergillii from seed VI from Czech in one of my troughs, not heavily marked by garnet -red, but they are so interesting Calceolaria flower's with all forms of their pouch's. From southern Chile, Argentina and the Falkland Islands. You need to watch out for aphis on these little treasures, as they will kill or weaken plants before you even see them, so spray regularly to kill the aphis.

Cimicifuga americana from SRG seed 1990, a beautiful woodland plant with white racemes of flowers.
Needing a deep soil with plenty of leaf mulch and moisture.

Epimedium seedling from David Kennedy that he nick named Big Mumma has not been Named properly yet and is not commercially available, as he will need time to propagate it. Just shows you what you can grow from seed doesn't it.

Maianthemum bifolium from Western Europe to Japan, a quite little woodlander that just spreads around gently, I also grow this in an old copper trough that has aged beautifully and is now mostly green, so that the slugs and snails leave it alone, they will not climb the copper to eat the plants. Penny used to sell this plant from her Nursery in Mt Macedon no longer there.