Pearce's begonia

Hippeastrum x hybridum is a complex garden hybrid derived from six or more wild Hippeastrum species native to tropical and subtropical South America, developed through intensive breeding since the late 18th century and now the dominant "amaryllis" sold worldwide as a holiday bulb. It produces spectacular trumpet-shaped flowers - 5 to 8 inches across - on stout leafless scapes in red, pink, white, orange, salmon, or bicolour, making it one of the most dramatic winter-flowering houseplants available. The honest catch is toxicity: the entire plant, especially the bulb, contains lycorine and related alkaloids at concentrations that cause vomiting, salivation, tremors, and hypotension in pets and children, so it must be placed out of reach and handled with care.

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.

Also called coral bells, this is the wild, red-flowered species of rocky canyons and cliffs in the mountains of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico: a low mound of rounded, scalloped green leaves with slender, nearly leafless stems of small, bright red to pink bells from late spring into summer. This record is the species itself. The colored-leaf plants sold as coral bells are garden hybrids, many with Heuchera sanguinea in their ancestry, and have their own Coral bells (Heuchera spp.) record.

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.

Veltheimia bracteata, the forest lily, is a winter-growing bulbous perennial from the forest margins and coastal scrub of South Africa's Eastern Cape, grown for its glossy rosette of wavy-edged strap leaves and a tall, dense raceme of pendent tubular flowers in shades of pink to rose, blooming in late winter through spring when little else is in flower. It is frost-tender (RHS H2): it tolerates cool conditions but not freezing, so outside roughly USDA zone 9b-11 it is grown as a container or conservatory bulb, dormant and dry through summer. It thrives in semi-shade with humus-rich, well-drained soil and makes an excellent pot specimen. The bird-pollinated flowers attract sunbirds. As a member of Asparagaceae (subfamily Scilloideae), it is grown for ornament only; the bulb is toxic and must not be eaten. It is well-behaved and not reported as invasive.

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