Wax plant

Tricyrtis hirta is a hardy herbaceous perennial native to the shaded rocky cliffs and stream banks of central and southern Japan (Wikipedia), prized for its orchid-like, white-to-pale-purple flowers speckled with dark purple spots that bloom in late summer and autumn when little else flowers. It fills a genuine gap in the shade garden calendar, bringing unusual beauty to north-facing borders and woodland edges. The honest catch is twofold: it demands consistently moist, humus-rich soil and absolutely detests drought or waterlogging, and its late-emerging, hairy stems are magnets for slugs in spring - a lapse in mollusc control can shred a clump before it even flowers.

Farfugium japonicum is an evergreen rhizomatous perennial native to streamsides and rocky seashores of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and coastal China, where it is known as tsuwabuki (石蘗). In gardens it delivers bold, kidney-shaped leaves up to 10 inches across and cheerful yellow daisy flowers in autumn and winter - a genuinely useful combination for dark, damp corners. The honest catch is toxicity: the plant contains petasitenine, a carcinogenic pyrrolizidine alkaloid; it must be kept out of reach of children and pets and handled with care, and it is frost-tender above USDA zone 7b, dying back or suffering severe leaf scorch in hard freezes.

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.

Cushion haworthia is a tiny, choice, clump-forming succulent whose plump, soft, blue-green leaves end in translucent "windows" - in the wild the plant pulls itself down into the soil and lets light reach its inner tissues through these clear leaf tips, an adaptation to the bright, dry Karoo light. POWO (Kew) places it native to the Eastern Cape of South Africa (Cape Provinces). It is a jewel for a pot or a windowsill rather than a garden plant. Unusually for this group of succulents, it prefers BRIGHT INDIRECT light or part shade rather than harsh full sun, which scorches and reddens it; give it sharp drainage and water sparingly during growth, far less in winter. OVERWATERING - and cold, wet soil - is the main way it dies, and it is FROST-TENDER (RHS rates it tender, H1c-H2), so almost everywhere it is grown as a houseplant or in a frost-free greenhouse. It is grown for its jewel-like translucent foliage, not as a food plant, and it rarely flowers in cultivation.

A compact succulent perennial from Madagascar, grown as a flowering pot plant for its dense heads of small red, orange, yellow, pink or white flowers held above thick, glossy, scallop-edged leaves. It is toxic: the ASPCA lists Kalanchoe as toxic to dogs and cats, and NC State Extension warns that eating it can sicken people and can kill pets. The RHS calls it flaming Katy, and NC State Extension and UF/IFAS also know it as Christmas kalanchoe. It is a short-day plant: NC State and the Missouri Botanical Garden say it sets flower buds only after about six weeks of 14-hour nights, so a plant kept in a lit room may not bloom again. Outside USDA zones 10 and warmer it lives indoors.

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.