Soldanella - Triosteum

Soldanella villosa £3 / £3.50
Perhaps the easiest of a famous genus, and certainly one of the most substantial. Rounded hairy leaves, frilled bell shaped violet-blue flowers on stems to 20cm in summer. For a moist but well-drained soil in a cool position.

Speirantha convallarioides £3.25 / £3.75
Dark green leaves and fragrant flowers, white as white, in late spring. Less spready than Lily of the Valley, but similar in scale, and quite closely related. For humusy shade.

Spigelia marilandica £3.25 / £3.75
Showy tubular red flowers, yellow inside, in early summer. 40cm herbaceous perennial for sun or light shade. Hummingbird pollinated in Eastern North America. Cultivated over here for 400 years and still rarely seen. Few.

Spiranthes cernua odorata 'Chadd's Ford' £3 / £3.50
An easy orchid, related to the Autumn Lady's Tresses. Tall, to 45cm, spikes of little white fragrant flowers in autumn. Gently spreading. Suits the rock garden or well drained front of border in sun.

Stachys balcanica £3 / £3.50
Very hairy grey-green leaves; white flowers with a hint of pink. 30cm tall. Sun, good drainage.

Stachys macrantha 'Robusta' AGM £3 / £4
An excellent, large flowered plant for near the front of the border. Pinky purple.

Stachys ossetica £3 / £3.50
Large, pale creamy yellow flowers; dark green textured leaves. 30cm. Different and good.

Stachys thunbergii £3 / £3.50
A useful and highly attractive plant - the name seems to have settled now (previously listed tentatively as ciliata). Low and spreading without rooting, rather in the manner of Diascia rigescens, it has dark green, shiny leaves and deep maroon flowers over a long season from early summer to autumn.

Sternbergia lutea Angustifolia Group £3 / £3.50
Narrow-leaved form of this easy bulb, bringing sunshine to the September rock garden.

Stipa gigantea 'Gold Fontaene' £3.25 / £4.50
Ordinary S. gigantea is a grand grass, with its airy, oaty flower heads lasting well into winter. This is just the same, but even taller and with slightly broader inflorescences. Has reached 2.5m with us. Sun and... space.

Strobilanthes all £3 / £4
For years only S. atropurpurea got a look in, either in gardens or books. Here are four really different species:
We have to thank Edward Needham for Strobilanthes nutans. It forms a nice dense weedproof clump in shade under large shrubs. In late summer, hanging inflorescences of pure white flowers appear. Found as an epiphyte in Nepalese cloud forest, it is vigorous and hardy in our coldest, wettest spot; untried in colder parts of the UK.
Strobilanthes wallichii is a dwarf, forming a dense clump of pale green foliage, only about 30cm high. It's highly floriferous: flowers are pale violet, in early autumn. Sun or light shade. Our well established clump of Strobilanthes rankanensis is huge and spectacular. Stems grow up steadily from a tough rootstock as the year progresses. By late summer it is a dome 1.8m in height and width. For several weeks in autumn, the dome is covered in a succession of large, light purple flowers. For rich soil in some shade. Strobilanthes flexicaulis has thin wiry stems to barely 50cm, with prettily marked and curved lavender flowers for a long autumn season.

Symphytum 'Rubrum' £3 / £3.50
Most symphytums are either monolithic, dangerously invasive, or cringeing weeds. This noble exception forms a neat little clump, around 30cm in height, with nodding, wine red flowers in early summer. A sweetie.

Symphytum x uplandicun 'Axminster Gold' £3 / £4
One of the monoliths, and in our opinion the very best of the variegated varieties. Very heavy sunproof gold variegation on a plant reaching 1.2m on our rich, moist soil. A real eyeful, yet stays within the bounds of good taste.

Syneilesis aconitifolia £3.50 / £4
Chinese woodland composite, tolerant of dry shade, and running quite freely. The leaves emerge cobwebby white, like half open umbrellas, flattening out with time, but remaining deeply cut. Who cares about the flowers? Set to become the growable Syneilesis! Thanks to the Wynn-Joneses.

Syneilesis palmata £3.50 / £4
The one that got everyone excited about the genus. Not quite as good-natured as the previous, but the dissected foliage is so beautiful.

Synthyris sp. (big) £3 / £3.50)
American Veronica relative. Rounded, dark evergreen leaves. Spikes of blue flowers to 30cm or more. For light shade.

Thalictrum cultratum £3 / £3.50
One of those minus types which you grow for the lovely, stiff, very finely divided foliage which is held with great poise. The flowers are a pleasant brown. 50cm.

Thalictrum delavayi var. decorum £3.25 / £3.75
Large violet flowers on a fairly tall plant. Straightforward and good.

Thalictrum 'Elin' £3.25 / £4.50
A spectacularly tall, and self-supporting Swedish hybrid which gets its purple tinted stems and violet flowers from rochebrunianum, and its glaucous leaves and height (3m+) from flavum var. glaucum.

Thalictrum flavum var. glaucum short form £3 / £3.50
Thanks to Jane Henry of the late lamented Churchills Garden Nursery at Chudleigh for this interesting plant. Glaucous and yellow flowered but under 1m in height. These are divisions of seedlings of her original find, which came true.

Thalictrum flavum 'Illuminator' £3 / £4
An old plant. The young foliage is a lovely light yellow, and much of this colouring persists for many weeks. These are divisions of our good plant. We think that most seedlings are inferior, although some nurserymen admit to doing it by seed.

Thalictrum kiusianum £3
The midget we first met as stunning panfulls on the AGS showbench. Lilac flowers on a very short (15cm) plant.

Thalictrum omeiense £3.25 / £3.75
Clouds of little white flowers in spring over unusually brown tinted (Sarah says chocolate) young foliage. 30cm, woodsy conditions.

Thalictrum sachalinense £3 / £3.50
Spready, 1m+ in height, pleasant leaves, greenish flowers (we guessed right!). Worth a try if you enjoy the diversity of Thalictrum foliage.

Thalictrum squarrosum £3.25 / £3.75
Prolific fluffy purplish flowers with striking yellow stamens over grey-green leave sin spring. 25cm, for shade. Slow to propagate.

Thalictrum tuberosum £3
A small tuberous species with very large creamy white flowers. Definitely a plant for a hot, sunny, well-drained place. Great in a sink, it seeds around with us in an alpiney raised bed, dressed with gravel.

Thalictrum uchiyamae £3 / £4
For us, a splendid tall (1.8m) upright thing with good sized lilac flowers and pretty green leaves with rounded leaflets.

Tinantia pringlei £3 / £3.75
This spectacularly odd plant is a high altitude Mexican, and is proving hardy. It is plainly a Tradescantia relative, but the purple flushed leaf sheaths and brown-purple spotted leaves on upward growing stems, with purple flowers over an impossibly long season, make it very distinctive. Cut back when it gets scruffy in later summer.

Tricyrtis
The Toad Lilies are autumn flowering plants for moist soil in some shade.
T. formosana 'Dark Beauty' (£3 / £3.50) is about as dark and as blue as they get. Our form of T. hirta (£3 / £3.50) which goes back to Washfield again is notably pale, so the spots stand out particularly well. T. ishiiana (£3 / £4) is utterly different: arching stems carry mustard yellow, nodding flowers which remain half closed and hence bell shaped. Great sprawling over a rock on a moist shady slope. T. puberula (£3 / £3.50) distinguished by big dark spots on young leaves, resembling a Dactylorhiza, at which time it's impressive; otherwise, rather insignificant latifolia relative.
T. 'Raspberry Mousse' (£3 / £3.50) is another of the upright, upfacing ones, whose name indicates the colouring.

Triosteum pinnatifidum £3.25 / £4.50
Grown for its fruits (clusters of big white berries in autumn) at the tips of the hairy shoots (60cm). The flowers (incredibly insignificant) are green-brown, but the leaves (interestingly lobed) are worthwhile. For woodsy conditions. A  parenthetic (and entirely herbaceous) genus in the Caprifoliaceae. Rare (and few).