Scilla nataliensis from South Africa. My second one. Lost it last year in a larger pot wrapped and under the roof. Basement this year. That’s Xanthosoma ‘Lime Zinger’ in the background…dug and stored.

Fuchsia ‘Clashing Beauty’ with its big fat saturated flowers doesn’t photograph well, but is hardy. Got hammered, but it’s still ticking.

Gloxinia nematanthodes ‘Evita’. Gorgeous saturated red flowers with puckered parallel veined leaves. Very late to emerge. Crisp, brittle white stolons. Started blooming for me earlier this month. I put them in pots so I can keep track of them. Here growing with a large unnamed Bromeliad.

Hibiscus x ‘Summer Storm’. One of the Fleming hybrids that are hardy to the northern mid-west. Big flowers, 6″ diameter for me and 6’+ tall, with bronzy red trident shaped leaves. Weirdly with very limited availability. That’s Mahonia gracillipes next to it about to bloom.  Just planted ‘Kopper King’ at home this spring.

Salvia chiapensis. I know a little floppy but it blooms all summer in fuchsia pink well into October. The foliage is dark green and glossy. I dig this and pot it for the basement, watering it just enough to keep it from dessicating.

Strobilanthes dyerianus, Persian Shield, or, as the kids learned it, Beetle Back. One of those plants I dig and store rudely in the basement. They are never available until late into the summer!  It’s a little too bright to shoot. The sun washed out its iridescence.