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Great Plant Pick: Osmanthus x burkwoodii, Burkwood’s sweet olive
This hybrid Asian shrub is tougher and more beautiful than its parents.
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Great Plant Pick: Epimedium grandiflorum ‘Queen Esta,’ fairy wings
This epimedium gets its common names fairy wings and bishop’s hat for its dainty spring flowers.
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Great Plant Pick: Smilacina racemosa, false Solomon’s seal
A native of the Pacific Northwest, this clump-forming perennial looks great in the garden.
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Great Plant Pick: Erythronium revolutum, coast fawn lily
This lily-like pink flower, with mottling reminiscent of a fawn’s coloring, is a native plant.
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Great Plant Pick: Abies balsamea ‘Nana,’ dwarf balsam fir
The needles of this dwarf conifer emerge bright green in spring and turn dark green over the summer.
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Great Plant Pick: Corylopsis pauciflora, buttercup winterhazel
Winterhazels pair wonderfully with early spring perennials such as snowdrops or hellebores.
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Great Plant Pick: Narcissus ‘Tete-a-tete,’ miniature daffodil
These delightful golden-yellow flowers positively glow in the late-winter garden.
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Great Plant Pick: Helleborus foetidus, stinking hellebore
The plant gets its nickname from the stinky smell you get when the leaves are crushed.
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Great Plant Pick: Cryptomeria japonica ‘Spiralis,’ granny’s ringlets
This semi-dwarf Japanese cedar, bright apple green in color, is especially attractive in the winter.
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Great Plant Pick: Pieris japonica ‘Brookside Miniature’
This dwarf columnar lily-of-the-valley shrub has clusters of urn-shaped white flowers.
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Great Plant Pick: Sedum kamtschaticum ‘Variegatum’
Varigated kamtschaticum stonecrop is well suited for the rock garden or edging in a dry border.
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Great Plant Pick: Osmanthus heterophyllus ‘Variegatus’
Variegated false holly produces tiny — but powerfully fragrant — flowers in the fall.
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Great Plant Pick: Thujopsis dolobrata, hiba cedar
With its bold foliage, this refined evergreen warrants more plantings in the Northwest.
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Great Plant Pick: Mahonia x media ‘Arthur Menzies,’ hybrid mahonia
The shrub is named for the late Arthur Menzies, who was assistant director of the Seattle arboretum.
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Great Plant Pick: Rhodiola pachyclados, Afghani sedum
This sedum is an excellent groundcover that forms a flat, dense mound of glossy blue-green leaves.
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Great Plant Pick: Pinus contorta ‘Chief Joseph,’ golden lodgepole pine
This golden lodgepole pine sports intense golden-yellow foliage in the winter.
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Great Plant Pick: Abelia x grandiflora ‘Kaleidoscope’
This gold-variegated abelia is transformed by a kaleidoscope of colors over the course of the year.
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Great Plant Pick: Erica carnea ‘Rubinteppich,’ winter heath
This spreading shrub covers itself with hundreds of small urn-shaped, purple-red flowers in winter.
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Great Plant Pick: Euonymus fortunei ‘Emerald Gaiety’
This evergreen shrub, commonly called winter creeper, sports year-round variegated foliage.
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Great Plant Pick: Picea orientalis ‘Skylands,’ golden Caucasian spruce
This tree’s needles emerge vivid yellow; then, gradually, the striking conifer becomes softly gilded.