Deppea splendens is such a rare (previously almost extinct) plant that none of our standard sources have any cultural information. However, try this webpage and click on Deppea spendens for basic details about how to grow this plant.

If that doesn't help, you might want to click on the homepage for San Marcos Growers & contact the nursery directly.

Here is another webpage that gives some fairly exciting background.

Season All Season
Date 2007-12-06
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According to the Sunset Western Garden Book (2001), these plants are native to East Africa and are in the plant family Zamiaceae. (Other sources say they are in the family Araceae.) Many people refer to members of this family and to members of the Cycadaceae Family, loosely, as palms.

Generally considered a tough indoor plant (requiring low light and little fertilizer or water), this plant might survive outdoors if put in a very hot, dry spot. Even indoors it requires warm temperatures. Note that all parts of this plant are poisonous if ingested.

You can find more information about Zamioculcus zamiifolia (the ZZ plant) - including testimonials from people who have grown it here.

Season All Season
Date 2007-12-13
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I found some information about Hydrangea macrophylla 'Miss Belgium' in Glyn Church's book, Hydrangeas: An excellent pink in alkaline soil or in containers. The plant is ideally suited to pot and tub culture as it stays small and compact (3 ft.) and the rounded heads tend to be tiny, keeping the flowers in proportion to the bush. Its free-flowering habit and healthy nature are its good qualities. It is not the best plant for acid soils as the flowers will be a strident purple-blue.

There is a photograph of 'Miss Belgium' in Corinne Mallet's Hydrangeas: Species and Cultivars (vol .1).

On a website which sells this variety I find the following information:

This graceful, old-fashioned favorite is an ideal size for small gardens or pots. Sturdy stems and dark green glossy leaves support and frame beautiful deep purple flowers. Easy to grow and enjoy in your garden.

Details
USDA zones: 6 to 9
Mature height (feet): 3 to 4
Color in acidic soil: purple
Color in neutral soil: red
Bloom type: mophead
Bloom time: June through Fall
Bloom size (inches): 3 to 6
Sun tolerance: fair

And here is some more information about its growing requirements:
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/49296/index.html

Season All Season
Date 2008-01-10
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Leycesteria 'Red Shuttle' is the formosa species and should do well in any fertile soil, provided it is not highly alkaline (according to The Plant Care Manual by Stefan Buczacki (Crown Publishers, 1993).

Plants That Merit Attention, Vol. 2, Shrubs , (by the Garden Club of America, 1984, p. 172) states:

Needs sun for best bract and fruit color; prefers rich, moist loam; tolerates wind, drought, and air pollution...A handsome woodland shrub best in natural setting or shrub border. Needs sun for best flower and fruit color. May be pruned in spring. Partial dieback in winter not unusual; shrub rejuvenates the following growing season, often growing back successfully from roots....

Trees and Shrubs for Pacific Northwest Gardens (by J. Grant, 1990, p. 239) states:

...This shrub is easily grown in any good garden soil in full sun but prefers a rich, moist loam. It may achieve a height of as much as 15 ft. in a sheltered position. The rootstock is perfectly hardy, but the top is occasionally cut to the ground in exceptionally severe winters. If pruned almost to the ground every year, which is one method of treatment, it will send up lusty 6-ft. shoots and flower freely during the latter part of the summer....

Season All Season
Date 2006-03-04
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LYSIMACHIA PUNCTATA 'ALEXANDER'

The information below is quoted from the Big Dipper Farm website

This striking plant has golden flowers and brilliantly variegated gold foliage. Worth growing for the foliage alone! Lime green leaves with bold, ivory margins. In the spring, the new growth is tinged with pink, and as the season progresses, the green leaves may lighten up. The yellow, star-like flowers borne in the leaf axils in summer are an added bonus. Not as invasive as other Lysimachia.

Other sources provided this information about L. punctata 'Alexander':
** Likes full sun to partial shade
** From 1.5 to 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide
** Tolerates dryer conditions than the other species of Lysimachia (which like to be in moist areas)
** From East central and southern Europe

Other Sources:
davesgarden.com/pf/go/80418/index.html
Perennials for American Gardens, Ruth Rogers Clausen, 1989, p. 361-2
The Royal Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants (vol. 2), Christopher Brickell (ed), 1996, p.641

ERODIUM PELARGONIFLORUM

The information below is quoted from the Terrapin Gardens website

This is an undemanding plant from Anatolia with crinkly soft aromatic foliage and pink splotched white flowers that bloom on and off all summer. Very pretty and carefree. Self-seeds if happy, but not aggressively. Fully hardy.

Other sources provided this information about E. pelargoniflorum:
** Likes full sun but will tolerate some shade
** Likes sandy, well-drained soils
** To 1 foot tall and 1.5 feet wide
** A shrubby branching plant
** From Asia Minor

Other sources:
davesgarden.com/pf/go/70137/index.html
The Royal Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants (vol.1), Christopher Brickell (ed), 1996, pp.413, 414

Season All Season
Date 2006-12-08
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The American Horticulture Society's A to Z Plant Encyclopedia reports that Common Jasmine (Jasminum officinale) is only hardy to zone 9. (Seattle is zone 8, Langley may be a touch cooler)

However, local author (I believe she lives in BC) Christine Allen reports that Jasminum officinale aka poet's jasmine is hardy in our climate if protected from cold, drying winter winds. I think if you move your pot against a wall out of the wind you should be ok.

Season All Season
Date 2006-05-26
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When growing an avocado (Persea species) indoors, you will need to be sure it is getting enough light. It is normal for the plant to drop older leaves. You should also keep the plant in a cool spot. According to The Houseplant Expert by D. G. Hessayon (Expert Books, 2001), your plant will do best if you repot it annually and pinch the tips to encourage bushy growth. Lee Reich discusses growing avocados indoors in an article for California Rare Fruit Growers. Here is an excerpt:

"Indoors, avocado plants are often gangly and sparse with leaves. One reason for the plant's gawky appearance indoors is light. Lack of sufficient light causes stems to stretch for it. Another reason is that avocados shed many buds along their stems, buds that might have grown into side branches. The result is a plant stretching out for light, sending out new growth mostly from the tips of the branches and shedding old leaves.
There are several things indoor gardeners can do to keep their plants more attractive. Most obvious is to give an avocado tree bright light. Also, the stretch for light is exaggerated when warmth stimulates growth, so the ideal spot for the plant is at the brightest window in the coolest room. Beyond that pruning back a stem or pinching out its growing tip stimulates branching by awaking dormant buds (not all are shed) further down the stem. There is nothing that can be done about the shedding of older leaves."

Grown outdoors in an agricultural setting, avocado plants sometimes get leaf tip burn from salt accumulation, as this article from California Rare Fruit Growers explains. If you are using especially salty tap water or overfertilizing your plant, that might be causing the burnt leaf tips. Other causes could be lack of water, too frequent light watering, or poorly draining soil.

Season All Season
Date 2008-01-24
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GROWING CONDITIONS = Give avocado direct light; insufficient light will cause spindly growth. Provide a warm temperature and medium humidity. Keep the soil evenly moist but not wet and soggy. Fertilize once a month throughout the year... Use an all-purpose soil mix for repotting... Avocado is vulnerable to aphids, mealybugs, scale insects and thrips.
Source: The Time-Life Gardener’s Guide; Foliage Houseplants, 1988, p. 125

GROWTH HABIT = The avocado is a dense, evergreen tree, shedding many leaves in early spring….Growth is in frequent flushes during warm weather in southern regions with only one long flush per year in cooler areas…

FOLIAGE = Avocado leaves… normally remain on the tree for 2 to 3 years.
Source: California Rare Fruit Growers Association website

Season All Season
Date 2008-01-24
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Peppers are tricky in our climate. Quoting from Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades by Steve Solomon: These heat-loving plants do not readily adapt to climatic conditions north of the Yoncalla Valley…..they are often irreversibly shocked by outdoor night-time temperatures below 55 F….Many gardeners make the mistake of setting peppers out at the same time as tomatoes—right after there is no frost danger. This, however, will almost certainly expose them to overnight temperatures of 45 F or even worse. Any surprisingly cool night during June can shock peppers sufficiently to stop their growth for a time…. North of Longview, Washington, and along the coast, only ther hardiest pepper varieties will grow in cloches or greenhouses…
Source: Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, by S. Solomon, 2000, p. 210, 236.

Oregon State University has a great website about growing peppers.

Season All Season
Date 2008-01-24
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We found a helpful article from the American Daffodil Society. Potential causes for a lack of flowers include lack of fertilizer, too much nitrogen fertilizer, shade, competition with other plants, poor drainage, virus, foliage cut off too soon, need to be divided, or weather stress (such as early extreme heat) in the spring.

The cold weather should not have been a problem provided the bulbs were planted deep enough.

Season Spring
Date 2008-01-24
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According to the Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses, Schizachyrium scoparium requires full sun, prefers good drainage or sloping ground. Does not persist on highly fertile soils or in excessively moist conditions, and suffers if the crowns are crowded by mulch….
Propagate by seed or by division in spring.
Grasses are sensitive to soil level, especially when young. Ideally, the crown of the grass should sit just slightly above the soil surface. Planting too low can rot grasses and planting to high can cause them to dry out and die.
…mulch of all sorts can be an efficient method of controlling weeds and conserving soil moisture. Many species, such as Schizachyrium scoparium, cannot tolerate having mulch pushed up around their crowns, a practice that often promotes rot and disease at the base of the plant.

Source: Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses,” by R. Darke, 1999, pp. 121, 276.

Season All Season
Date 2006-10-05
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At this time of the year, corn lilies (Ixia) have already done their flowering, and I do not know of any place to send you to see them.

Regarding how to grow these bulbs, the following is quoted from Sunset Garden Book (2001), pp. 406-407:

African Corn Lily:
Clump of narrow, almost grasslike leaves sends up wiry, 18-20 inch stems topped by short spikes of 2 inch flowers in late spring. Each six-petaled blossom opens out nearly flat in full sun but remains cup-shaped or closed on overcast days. Colors include cream, yellow, red, orange, and pink, typically with dark centers. Most Ixias sold are hybrids of the South African species Ixia maculata.

Grow in well-drained soil. Where winter lows usually stay above 20 degrees F, plant corms in early fall, setting them 2 inches deep and about 3 inches apart. ... Let soil go dry when foliage yellows after bloom. Where corms will not be subject to rainfall or irrigation during dormant period, they can be left undisturbed until the planting becomes crowded or flowering declines. When this occurs, dig corms in summer and store as for gladiolus until recommended planting time in your area (the nursery can tell you this). Where corms will receive summer moisture, dig and store them after foliage dies back; or treat as annuals. Potted corms (planted close together and about 1 inch deep) can be stored in pots of dry soil.

Season All Season
Date 2006-10-10
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The plant you ask about is Coleus forskohlii (also known as 'Plectranthus barbatus') in the family of plants called Lamiaceae. It actually grows wild in parts of West Bengal. The article referenced below, entitled "Development of Coleus forskohlii as a medicinal crop", from the Food and Agriculture Orgainization Document Repository, should give you much information of interest. The website is listed below:
www.fao.org

Here is an excerpt from the above web document:
Coleus forskohlii grows wild on sun-exposed arid and semi-arid hill slopes of the Himalayas from Simla eastward to Sikkim and Bhutan, Deccan Plateau, Eastern Ghats, Eastern Plateau and rainshadow regions of the Western Ghats in India. Latitudinal and altitudinal range for the occurrence of the species is between 8 degrees and 31 degrees N and 600-800 m respectively. The species was studied for its ecological preferences in its native habitats throughout its distribution range excluding Eastern Plateau, Sikkim and Bhutan. Before the botanical studies were undertaken, the species was studied in the regional floras and herbarium specimens were examined in seven zonal herbaria of the botanical survey of India at Dehra Dun (Himalayan flora), Allahabad (Central India flora), Shillong (northeastern India flora), Jodhpur (Rajasthan flora), Pune (western India flora), Coimbatore (southern India flora) and Port Blair (Andaman and Nicobar group of islands flora), as well as at the Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun and the Blatter Herbarium in Bombay. Eleven representative ecogeographic areas were selected for habitat and population studies; between 1982 and 1985, 27 botanical trips were made for the purpose. Coleus-growing areas in the Himalayas in Uttar Pradesh were visited every month from April to December, and the other areas were visited at least twice during the blooming period. The following is the summary of the observations made on different populations and habitats of C. forskohlii (Shah 1989).
• C. forskohlii is a subtropical and warm temperate species naturally growing at 600-1800 m elevation
• The species grows on sun-exposed hill slopes and plateaus in arid and semi-arid climatic zones
• The species inhabits loamy or sandy-loam soil with 6.4 to 7.9 pH
• The species is herbaceous with annual stems and perennial rootstock

The market for the substance taken from this plant, a diterpene called forskolin, is large, judging from the number of results I got when I put "coleus forskohlii" into the search engine, Google. Most of them were to sites that offer herbal remedies, vitamins, that sort of thing. And the fact that the above-quoted and referenced article even exists, demonstrates that there is a market for the plant due to its derivative, forskolin.

New York University's Langone Medical Center has information about the plant's medicinal uses, as well as some words of caution about drug interactions (with anti-coagulants and anti-hypertensives). The medicinal uses of this plant have not been evaluated fully for safety. Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center also has useful information about Coleus forskohlii. Here is a brief excerpt: "Very limited data are available concerning the efficacy of forskolin. Most studies performed with forskolin have been human trials; those performed on heart failure and glaucoma are inconclusive."

Season All Season
Date 2006-10-17
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Here is what I found about the culture of flowering crabapples from the book Flowering Crabapples, the Genus Malus, by Fr. John L. Fiala (1994), p. 45:

Crabapple trees luxuriate in full sunlight in deep rich soils that are well drained. Soils with a pH range of 5.0 to 7.5 suit crabapples well, but the ideal pH range is from 5.5 to 6.5. Even if gardeners are fortunate to have ideal soil conditions, they may not be able to allocate the best part of the garden to crabapples. Flowering crabapples, however, are not greedy and will accept almost any soil that is not waterlogged or overly dry. As long as the soil has a reasonable amount of nutrients and water, crabapples manage to do very well.

“Like most plants, crabapples prefer rich sandy loams, but even in heavier clay soils they do better than many other trees and shrubs and seem to bloom well once they are established. They will accept slightly wetter soils than lilacs, for example, but in these heavier soils they should have excellent drainage as they will not grow in waterlogged, swampy areas nor in soils inundated for long periods of time.”

Regarding particular trees you might like that would be disease-free, I found a couple of crabapples that were listed in The Pacific Northwest Gardener's Book of Lists,by Ray and Jan McNeilan (1997). This is from page 24:

1. Malus 'Prairiefire' has red foliage when young that matures to deep green, has bright pink/red blossoms and deep purple-red fruit. It grows to 20 ft x 20 ft and has excellent resistance to scab and mildew (Pacific NW scourges).

2. From the book Flowering Crabapples, the Genus Malus, by Fr. John L. Fiala (1994), p. 147: Malus sieboldii 'Calocarpa' (trade name, Redbud crabapple) is a dense, upright to spreading tree, 15 ft high and as wide... buds deep red, opening to single, white to pink-white flowers 1.4 in across; fruit 0.4 in diameter, bright red to red-orange... A reliable, abundant, annual bloomer... One of the most beautiful of all the ornamental crabapples both in bloom and in fruit. Birds relish the small fruit which never is messy.
From The Pacific Northwest Gardener's Book of Lists, p. 25, I found that this tree is rated “excellent” in terms of resistance to both mildew and scab.

3. Malus 'Strawberry Parfait' is a "vase-shaped, spreading tree 18 ft high and 20 ft wide; leaves red-purple, turning green with maturity; buds red, opening to single, pink flowers in clusters; fruit yellow with red blush, 0.4 inch in diameter. Excellent disease rating but not rated for fire blight [bacterial disease]. Not very ornamental."
From The Pacific Northwest Gardener's Book of Lists, p. 25, I found that this tree is rated “excellent” in terms of resistance to both mildew and scab.

[Note: fire blight appears to be more the issue in the midwest and eastern U.S.]

Season All Season
Date 2006-10-23
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The following is a list of vegetables that can tolerate partial shade. While productions may be greater in the sun, these plants will produce an edible crop when grown in a shady location.

VEGETABLES
Arugula
Beans
Beets
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Celery
Cress
Endive
Kale
Kohlrabi
Leeks
Parsnips
Peas
Potatoes
Radish
Rhubarb
Rutabagas
Salad Burnet
Sorrel
Spinach
Summer Squash
Turnips

HERBS
Garlic
Angelica
Borage
Caraway
Chervil
Coriander
Parsley
Lemon Balm
Lovage
Mint
Tarragon
Thyme

Remember that most of these plants do not grow in complete shade. Plants will need some morning, evening or filtered sun; a total of two to six hours of direct sun is the minimum.

Season All Season
Date 2006-10-17
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I wonder if you have information about the particular species of Echeveria you are growing. Usually, 'hens and chicks' is the common name for Echeveria glauca. The larger growing Echeveria are the ones with "loose, cabbage-like rosettes which reach a foot or more in diameter on heavy stems" (from The Book of Cacti and Other Succulents by Claude Chidamian, Timber Press, 1984).

I consulted Victor Graham's book, Growing Succulent Plants (Timber Press, 1987) for some general guidelines on the best growing practices for Echeveria. He says that the soil you provide should be gritty and on the poor side (for good drainage), and they should not be overfed. In The Succulent Garden: A Practical Gardening Guide by Yvonne Cave (Timber Press, 1997), the recommendation for areas with wet winters such as ours is to grow them in containers on a covered porch or in any sunny spot with overhead cover. In the warmer, drier months they can be placed or planted in the garden without cover. Your sun room sounds like a fine place to grow them during the winter here, although they may prefer morning sunlight and afternoon shade to bring out the best color in their leaves.

The Brooklyn Botanical Garden has a page on growing succulents that may be useful.

Season All Season
Date 2007-01-11
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