I guess I forgot to play the game. These three are in the 'buy immediately if found" category:

Agave ovatifolia 'Frosty Blue'

Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Filip's Golden Tears'

Viburnum cinnamomifolium

They're at the top of the list because I have spots waiting for them right now. Dozens of others would require some head scratching, but I'm up for it!

I must have very plebeian plant tastes as there have been few, if any, hard to obtain plants ever on my plant wish list. And now as I garden only in containers, that wish list as shrunk even further. I will say that all 3 could be obtained by mail order if I tried hard enough but I can count on the fingers of my hands how many times I have resorted to mail order. It is just not the way I prefer to plant shop.

• Colletia paradoxa - Anchor plant
• Pelargonium sidoides - grew this before in an old garden but was pushing the hardiness boundaries.....haven't seen it available since.
• Acer palmatum 'Mayday' - a Japanese maple seems very commonplace but this cultivar is proving very hard to find. Almost always out of stock everywhere.

I guess the most unusual/hard to come by plant in my current collection is Lagarostrobus franklinii, followed by Corokia cotoneaster.

Klark, did you take the tetrapanax when you moved south?

Gardengal - interesting list. Also keep your eyes peeled for Pelargonium transvaalense and Pelargonium luridum. Both have survived mild winters here, and seemed about as hardy as P. sidoides.

GardenGal - I haven’t forgotten about the Colletia, just haven’t found a small seedling yet.

P. sidoides is not scarce here. Geraniaceae Nursery sells it mail order:

https://www.geraniaceae.com/plant/pelargoniums_species-and-primary-hybrids_p-sidoides/

Pam, I didn't bring the Tetrapanax you gave me but I easily could have, pups all over the place! I would probably still grow it, even with the spreading tendency, if it weren't for the troublesome airborne fuzz coming off the foliage. I dreaded tidying up each spring. I do have Fatsia Camouflage, which I love, and is easier to live with, and of course Schefflera delavayi, to keep it tropical.

iochroma, I know I am getting old but I do not remember a Colletia discussion with you! And you offered me a seedling (in the fullness of time)?? I'm delighted and will continue to keep my fingers crossed. My nursery buyer has all of these on her special request/hunt for list but has for several years. So far, no luck.

Be nice if one or two showed up before I kick the bucket.........🤩

I think it is common in the UK, but for some reason I’ve never been able to locate a Betula ermanii in the US. I admit to a bit of collector’s mentality, but its grip has lessoned with time.

Why not grow both parent species and try to hybridize them yourself?

Ah, I have been down this rabbithole (the search for novel, challenging, rare and difficult) more times than I care to recall. I have spent years, it seems, whining on this very forum, of the many frustrations involved in bending nature to my will (because all gardens are 100% artifice...and indeed, most 'wild' spaces where humans have had their sticky fingers in the mix). A few years ago, a combination of age, climate, location and, of course £££, began to suggest a way round the almost continual dissatisfaction with my various gardens...and it came from the least gardened space I have - my woodland. The concept of genius loci arrived gently, over a decade of observation...and has, I think, some analogies with native plants movement... but mostly with my natural indolence.

I think I have posted on here (under my various noms de guerre) about east anglian/fen country, and the need to garden sympathetically and locally in a land of big skies, open spaces, waterlands (fen and broads) and our calcareous bedrock but it was still all a bit fuzzy and vague until...I came under the influence of a system of gardening which is almost totally perfect for a slacker such as my own negligent self - Black Box gardening theory. Comes from some techie thing - systems theory, and means a closed system of inputs and outputs (transfer mechanisms), allowing data to propagate, change and multiply in an opaque (black box) with no outside interference. Can apply to computers, governments, neural systems and, of course, gardens.

I will do another thread on this because I feel it is a bit disrespectful to hijack David's...but at least, in the spirit of his post, I have a dreadful confession as to why I am listing the main plant in my 'really, really want' category. I almost had it...I had the seed packet at least, and that only through the kindness of a forum member here, but it arrived in the mail at the same time as my grand-daughter...and in the inevitable chaos...the small, brown paper packet somehow vanished, never to be seen again (although I did, at least manage to keep, sow and grow the other plant variety (baileya multiradiata), So, step up (again) - the craving for tagetes lemmonii continues unabated...and even more so since it would be perfect to fit in with Black Box gardening systems.

Well, rosa, better to have misplaced a seed packet than misplaced your new granddaughter! :)

I too have never really had a truly hard time to find something, so my tastes must be common lol. I did have some trouble just last year finding a pagoda dogwood Golden Shadows but that only took me a year, maybe 18 months to obtain.

Oh, and last year or so I did try to find some Robin Hill azaleas. I had some eons ago which I lost due to neglect of that particular garden, and I thought I would try them again, as the blooms were huge and beautiful. Can't find them, although after my initial, few-week-long search I haven't looked again.

But again, neither of these are very exotic!

I do have this nagging thought that there was something I was (am?) always looking for but for the life of me I can't think of what it was, so I guess it wasn't THAT desirous of a plant to me - perhaps more of a casual (and failed) search for it every time my memory was jogged.

:)

Dee

" I feel it is a bit disrespectful to hijack David's "

Absolutely none taken. One of the strengths of GW/houzz is the meandering discussions, it's great that we don't have the heavily 'moderating' nattering nabobs/schoolmarms/whatever who enforce "on topic"-ness as found on some other WWW discussion forums. In terms of time spent online discussing things, believe it or not, Houzz has never been more than 1/3 of my time! I'm willing to say classical music is something I used to spend a lot of time discussing online, but not so much anymore. Still listen to it, just not into the discussion of it. OTOH, Gardenweb, I CAN'T QUIT YOU! bwahaha.

Jay - that's a fair question - but it's so much hassle and they might not easily cross. If they are as challenging to merely grow as plants as their rarity suggest, I can't imagine raising them from seed is the proverbial 'walk in the park'. Honestly I've stepped away from growing anything from seed unless there's an absolutely compelling case to do so. So, for example, if I collected a seed of Phormium from the coldest town in New Zealand...uhhhh...heck yeah I was going to raise that myself. (ONE made it and the plant is proving to be quite a trouper so far, resisting both heat and cold. However, it remains to be seen if it will mature enough here to flower)

Another example...I have some Larix principis-rupprechtii seedlings RN, one of which I'm about to finally plant in the garden. Why grow from seed? 1) they were actually available and collected in CN - and legally imported via Sheffield seed 2) no nursery was doing so anyhow! 3) made sense to grow a few to select for adoptability to the local climate. Already about 30% of them showed signs of possible root rot and were culled. One of my super long term horticultural projects is to become a seed source for uncommon, underutilized plants with ornamental potential, the parent trees having proven they can grow well in my climate. Larch is one I want to focus on. Mind you I'm not against native deciduous conifers at all, and look forward to crossing the 2 clones of pond cypress I have with Taxodium T406 and T502 from China (well, from North America, but enhanced in China haha). But variety is the spice of life!

Btw the Mexican marigold looks to have a laid back charm https://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=1530

Good look on your search, campanula. (right?)

And diggerdee, suddenly I remember you posting somewhere about Robin Hill azaleas. I'm curious which you want, or do you just like the idea of them, generally? It seems you should be able to find them somewhere in southern New England...have you tried Broken Arrow? The two that I can remember looking very distinctive are'Olga Niblett' and 'Gillie'. Was there another one you wanted? White's Nursery in Maryland has several of them.

FWIW I have 'Gillie' in my 'bed of rhodies and azaleas in deliberately uncharacteristic colors planted in a position of visibility from the road/driveway', next to a Rhododendron 'Old Copper', that hasn't bloomed yet, but when they do, they should compliment nicely. One of the points of my garden is to show people things they don't normally see, so, I didn't want the most prominent planting of Ericaceaous plants to be in what I (respectfully?) have called 'funeral home landscaping' colors of purple and mauve! Although I have a few purple rhododendrons elsewhere. 'True Blue' elepidote, in spite of the name, really isn't so different from various other mauvy purple rhododendrons in this climate at least. The foliage IS prettier, so there's that!

I understand there are difficulties in obtaining seeds, but it'd be good if some Florida yew seeds (Taxus floridana) were offered to help this endangered species. Of course, if the seeds are few, there'd have to be alot of consideration on who could obtain them.

david, you have gotten me off my butt and re-invigorated my azalea search lol! Thank you for that! Unfortunately White's doesn't ship, but in my search last evening I went down quite the rabbit hole lol, and I found a nursery that has a couple of Robin Hills. I had been considering Olga Niblett, but really wanted a pink. I could have sworn there was another Niblett out there that was pink but I guess I was imagining things.

In my search, though, I had a mini-education on azaleas - and honestly I know nothing about them, so was looking for the RHs mainly because that's what I once had and that was what I knew. So I see there are others (many others lol) that might fit my bill. I have an email into a nursery and hopefully they will give me some more info on a choice. They are kind of old school - no online ordering so you contact them and tell them what you want. I could not find them on Garden Watchdog so I don't know how reputable they are, but they have been in business since the 70's and their plants are FOUR dollars - lol I had to keep going back to check that! They are small but for that price I'm willing to take a chance! I am looking at Robin Hill Elsa and Watchet, which they carry, and also inquired about some of the Satsuki azaleas that looked nice.

(I actually really like RH Gwenda and/or Wendy, but as with Hilda, most places I found them, they were out of stock.)

Gillie is a bit too orange for me - at least for the spots I am looking to plant. But I do have an orange/yellow/red bed so perhaps down the road...

Thank you!

:)

Dee

You might have been thinking of this one: https://www.wilsonbrosgardens.com/hilda-niblett-azalea.html

No, Hilda was what I had years ago. It's more of a coral-salmon color. Beautiful blooms but the color just wasn't my cup of tea!

:)

Dee

I grew up with fabulous parks and recreation spaces - the last hurrah of Victorian philanthropy (to civilise hoi polloi and proles). Along with boating lakes and glorious glasshouses, the public gardens were gorgeous. Many garden careers began with an apprenticeship in municipal parks...and in the moist and peaty industrial north of England, rhododendrons and azaleas were supreme. I have always been grateful for planting limitations...as I would be absolutely helpless to resist the pull of these seminal plants. I didn't escape the lure of rambling roses though.

Tagetes lemonni seeds are winging their way across the Atlantic...my cup runneth over. Sending hopeful vibes to my fellow, frustrated gardeners.

Corylus fargesii is almost impossible to get in Europe. Is this Corylus available in the USA?

Two years ago I could buy one but I found the quality insufficient.

Sometimes I dream of going to China and collect seeds myself!

Dutch - After reading Dirr & Warrens comments in The Tree Book (The next great...tree) I started searching for Corylus fargesii. I found some at a nursery very near me (Oregon, USA), but the plants looked terrible. The owners of this nursery told me the trees just wont grow in containers for them, and that's exactly what they looked like, stunted shrubs with very little growth. I have since filled up my garden with many other trees so I stopped searching.

I bought a Corylus fargesii several years ago from Rare Find Nursery. It grew beautifully for many years and I was convinced I had pulled off a z4 miracle. Ah, wrong. A nasty z3 winter, like we get every twenty years or so, took it out. There’s a nice specimen growing at Morton Arb in Chicago, so z5 is a safe bet.

Hi Pam! I was at Dancing Oaks today, looking around their extensive Arctostaphylos plots and I spotted a stunning little silver number. Turns out it was Pelargonium sidoides! I added one to my cart and here it is tucked into my front garden with some companions. I definitely see the allure, great foliage and extremely unusual flower color. They had more if you feel like giving mail order a try.

For a truly truly great pelargonium,Art, if you ever come across p.ardens, buy it. It is breathakingly elegant, perfectly proportioned and deeply, velvety scarlet. An absolute beauty.

Klark, thanks so much for thinking of me and providing this update! I do covet this pellie but I am concentrating on adding very much more needed BLE's, dwarf conifers and other shrubs so the container garden doesn't look quite so sparse and empty, especially during the winter months. And my new plant budget is limited so can only bring them in piecemeal. I'll definitely be on the lookout for it next spring!

I am also more than a tad jealous you have such easy access to all those great Oregon growing nurseries........😐

FWIW Pelargonium luridum has generally been found to be the hardiest by people in cold climates! (of the South African ones; it goes without saying the very hardiest is the Turkish P. endlicherianum, but it prefers true alpine conditions and does better in say, Colorado, than the east coast. I'm not sure about how it does in the PNW.) But it was a very shy bloomer here, as are borderline hardy Dieramas, because we don't have the cool nights needed for vernalization. Mine lasted for a few years from the late 2000s to the first polar vortex winter in 2013, that took it out and caused a bunch of other tragic carnage LOL.

P. sidoides generally only survived mild winters for me in VA or MD, although it survived a normally cold one, with temps in the single digits, that was anomalously bone dry. Which would make sense because it's from the winter dry side of South Africa.

P. transvaalense is probably the next hardiest. It had no trouble blooming here but again, only survived mild winters. Its seeds are oddly adorable, with a little spirally twisting rachis (?) attached. It overall looks the most like a conventional window box Geranium.

At any rate all 3 of those are generally fine in the zone 8 PNW.

I wish someone would work on hybrids of these 3 or 4 species, since hybrids often have hybrid vigor! Alas it's one of my gardening ideas I will probably never have time for - I'm focusing on hybridizing other things in the meantime, like rhododendrons, camellias, and larch trees!

davidrt28 - Thanks for the hardy Pelargonium roundup! Unfortunately, like Pam, I am afflicted with an allergy to pink, so I probably wont be looking for those species. But I fell hard for the near black flowers of P. sidoides, hovering over that impossibly luminous silver foliage...I'm a sucker for bold contrasts like that. (For others reading, my plant in the above photo was in a greenhouse, and is nowhere near as silver as the plant out in the super-hot, dry garden at Dancing Oaks)

No worries I completely understand! About a decade ago I bought a rhododendron at Rarefind (or possibly was gifted as sometimes happened) with some very compelling parentage. It looked like a 'pinnacle' of several east coast breeding lines. I asked Ron Rabideau what color it was and he said he couldn't remember. I planted it in a position of prominence but away from my other rhododendrons because this was a time I was starting ot run out of room in my original rhodie beds. Well, lo and behold it turned out to be a bog standard pink, with maybe only a slight shading of something more interesting, at some *brief* moment in the life of the truss. As is the case with so many rhododendrons, I said to myself "why did someone bother to name this?" In one of the dry last spells that required some watering around the garden of semi-established plants* I said, "I don't have time to drag a hose over there, that sucker is going to have to fend for itself". Well, it didn't, and so that rhodie with a fancy pedigree joined the great list of rhododendrons formerly in my garden!

* though not nearly as bad as what this year has been - alas - the worst ever! I feel like this was either fall 2017 or fall 2018.

FWIW, though, the clone of P. luridum I had was a pale yellow. It did bloom once when there was a prolonged, chillier, wetter, late spring, early summer period with more nights in the 50s than usual. It came from the late, great, Seneca Hill Perennials. Ohhh, if I could go back in time and order more plants from Ellen. You don't know what you had until it's gone. I have been trying to sort and tag my thousands of digital pics, there's a small chance I can scrounge up a pic of it in the next few weeks and if so I'll bump this thread.