 |
| Wildflower of the Winter: |
| Abronia villosa |
| "Sand Verbena" |
| (begins blooming in February) |
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|
| "Little known", "rare",
"inaccessible", "hard to find", and "unavailable elsewhere", are some of
the terms that describe the |
| seeds in which we specialize. These are seeds of
the most attractive native plants--wildflowers, trees, shrubs, and
succulents, |
| of the Southwest and beyond. As we pass from our
37th year and 37th consecutive annual catalogue to our 38th, it becomes |
| apparent just how much more refined our seed lists have
become through all these years. These lists are the cumulative
result |
| of all our years of plant hunting experience in locating
and recording the best localities and ultimately at times even the best |
| form of a particular species, such as with Salvia
pinguifolia, Chilopsis linearis, Yucca schottii, Agastache wrightii, |
| Fendlera rupicola, Penstemon superbus, Cowania
mexicana, and more. Although our lists are far from complete,
they do |
| contain a representation of some of the most beautiful
and finest native ornamentals with a special emphasis on rare and hard |
| to find seeds, which are often not available anywhere
else. Each one is an individual with a story, strongly related to
the place |
| it's found in the wild, its habitat as well as its
flowers, scent, leaves, or whatever qualifies it for our catalogue.
All of our seeds |
| are hand picked by the two of us in the wild, so all are
true natives, and none are greenhouse grown, second generation, or |
| collected by others, so there is no possibility of
hybridization. We are also very careful to see that none are
invasive species. |
| These are seeds of potential garden or landscape plants,
which in some instances have never been brought into cultivation |
| from the wild. All are suitable for nurseries or
gardens--rock gardens, alpine gardens, butterfly gardens, hummingbird
gardens, |
| fragrance gardens, arboretums and botanical gardens,
specialty gardens of penstemons, salvias, or the like, or the gardens of |
| flower lovers anywhere. |
| |
| The Southwest is immense with a
huge diversity of plant life. Arizona alone has more than
3500 species of plants ranging |
| from the low desert near sea level to the alpine zone
above 11,000 or 12,000 feet. This is the only state with both
alpine and |
| tropical plants. Finding new candidates for our
catalogue has been a never-ending process. We're always finding
something |
| new and different. The collecting season is from
March to November, and this year we hit the road for the more distant
seeds |
| that had escaped last winter's drought. We were
able to find some really hard-to-get treasures, beginning with
Penstemon |
| albomarginatus, with white-margined leaves and
well known as a "rare relict". Then there was Salazaria
mexicana, with |
| beautiful dark violet and white flowers that become
surrounded by large, round, papery bubbles that eventually encase the |
| ripe seeds and go bouncing across the desert in the
wind. Then came the rare Salvia davidsoni, with bright red
flowers and |
| picturesque angular leaves. In southern Utah we
got the fabulous Aquilegia scopulorum, the ideal rock garden
plant, |
| diminutive with feathery blue-green leaves and large
blue-purple flowers. A new plant from southern California was |
| Aquilegia formosa truncata, sprawling with
numerous nodding red flowers, yellow tubular petals, unusual spreading
sepals, |
| and repeatedly dissected leaves with picturesque
prominent veins. Other new additions include Penstemon
comarrhenus, |
| a pink and white flowered form of Gilia aggregata,
Ipomoea leptotoma, Lonicera arizonica, Scutellaria tessellata,
and |
| Proboscidea parviflora. We try to keep
these up to date under "New Arrivals", which is where you can also find
out-of- |
| stock species, if there are any. We also offer
free desert wildflower growing instructions along with a list of useful
reading |
| material, available upon request with your order. |
| |
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