I used to have t hese in my garden. I do not know where they went. see my trade list thank you so much karen

I have a mostly shaded yard with huge oak and pine trees on all sides. I tend to choose plants for their foliage rather than their flowers. I especially like contrasting foliage colors, so many dark-leaved cimicifuga and ligularia varieties have followed me home from the nursery over the years. The problem I've found with both is their high moisture requirement. It's so easy to tell yourself when you're buying plants that you can just water these a bit more, but for me, keeping ahead of moisture loss requires more effort than is realistic. I have an irrigation system, strategically placed rain barrels and lots of free time, and I can't compete with the big oaks and pines. That said, of my ligularias, my favorite is Cafe au Lait. Of my cimicifugas, Hillside Black Beauty seems to be the most vigorous. If insect nibbling is an issue on the ligularias, try some systemic fertilizer/insecticide. If you go this route, you may want to remove the flowers to avoid poisoning your bees and hummingbirds. I think some ligularia flowers are kinda ugly, so for me, it's no loss.

Christin, They're definitely for sale in NH at this point. I picked one up last year and it was mis-labeled as an aruncus. I posted on the Name That Plant forum and they mentioned it was 'Cafe Noir'. I absolutely love it and I wish I had bought a few of them. This year I just picked up another one at a local nursery and it was labeled as possibly 'Fantasie'. I don't have the label handy. It looks a lot like what I though was 'Cafe Noir'. I love the leaves and especially the underside. I could do without the flowers actually but they're pretty nonetheless.

Help! My Farfugium japonica 'Giant Leopard Plant', doesn't seem to be coming back. Last year at this time, the leaves were larger and much greener. Our winter in Seattle was pretty mild, and I tried to protect it when I could, but probably didn't as much as I could have. Do you think it will come back? The leaves that have emerged look dead. Perhaps I should divide it?