Eyelash begonia

Bolivian begonia is a tuberous begonia from the eastern Andes of Bolivia and northwest Argentina, where it grows in montane cloud forest, in rock crevices and on slopes near streams. From a tuberous rootstock it sends up stems about 12 to 18 inches tall with narrow, lance-shaped, toothed leaves and drooping scarlet to orange flowers of four pointed segments, carried in pairs or threes. The plant collector Richard Pearce brought it to Europe in 1864, and it became one of the wild parents of the tuberous begonias (Begonia × tuberhybrida); its own selections and hybrids, such as 'Bonfire' and the Million Kisses series, are sold today for hanging baskets and pots. It is frost-tender: it can stay outdoors all year only in frost-free gardens around zones 10 and 11, so elsewhere it is grown as a summer container or bedding plant, with the tuber lifted before the first frost and stored over winter, or the plant replaced each year.

A tropical aroid from the Philippines and northeastern Sulawesi, grown almost everywhere as a houseplant for its thick, lance-shaped, dark green leaves marked with silver-gray blotches and bands. The Missouri Botanical Garden lists it as Philippine evergreen, Chinese evergreen and poison dart plant, and notes that it looks much like dumb cane (Dieffenbachia). It is one of the most shade-tolerant houseplants: the Missouri Botanical Garden lists heavy shade and dry room air among what it tolerates, and NC State Extension calls the genus an excellent plant for low-light indoor spots. Outside USDA zone 10 and warmer it lives indoors. NC State Extension warns that the genus contains calcium oxalate crystals, harmful to people and pets if chewed and irritating to skin.

Common houseleek, or hens-and-chicks (Sempervivum tectorum), is an evergreen alpine succulent that forms tight rosettes of fleshy, pointed leaves, each rosette (the "hen") ringed by smaller offset rosettes (the "chicks") on short runners. Barely a few inches tall, it spreads into a low mat and thrives in the harshest hot, dry, sharply drained spots: gravel, walls, sink gardens, and the tiled roofs it was once planted on. In summer a mature rosette sends up a stout stalk of star-shaped reddish-purple flowers, then that rosette dies, leaving its chicks to carry on. It is one of the toughest, most cold-hardy, most forgiving plants there is, asking only for sun and drainage and resenting nothing so much as wet, rich soil.

Bergenia cordifolia (often treated by botanists as a synonym within B. crassifolia) is a tough, evergreen perennial native to the Altai Mountains, southern Siberia and Mongolia, grown for its bold, heart-shaped leathery leaves that flush red-bronze through winter and its deep pink flower spikes in early-to-mid spring. It is one of the most tolerant groundcovers in cultivation - enduring deep shade, poor soil, drought, and hard continental cold (commonly rated to USDA Zone 3 in US horticulture; RHS rates it H7, hardy below -4°F). The honest catch is its shallowly creeping rhizomes: in mild, moist climates they can colonise well beyond the intended planting, and the large, persistent leaves trap fallen debris and are notoriously attractive to slugs and vine weevils.

A shade-tolerant hosta with glossy foliage and fragrant white late-summer flowers for paths, containers, and woodland edges.

Chionodoxa forbesii (syn. Scilla forbesii) is a small bulbous perennial native to western Turkey - botanically recorded only from Babadağ Mountain in Muğla Province - producing loose racemes of up to 12 star-shaped, sky-blue flowers with white centers on 4 to 6 inches stems in early to mid-spring. It naturalises freely under deciduous trees and in lawns, filling gaps with carpets of colour before most other plants wake from winter, which is its genuine garden gift. The honest catch is its eagerness to spread: it seeds prolifically and the bulbs multiply quickly, so in a small garden or a formal bed it can crowd out neighbours and become hard to contain once established. All parts are toxic if eaten, and the bulbs need a dry summer dormancy or they rot.