Clematis viorna x crispa 'Odoriba' and Clematis and Clematis x 'Duchess of Albany' (C. texensis x C. 'Star of India'

I walked down to the sunny cultivar bed in the Fern Valley Meadow this afternoon and found that the clematis had grown tenfold over the past year. In the bottom picture, C. x 'Duchess of Albany' is resting amongst flower spikes of baptisia. They seem to be getting along.

Castanea henryi

What! another species named for Augustine Henry. China Valley is full of them. I could stand touching this chestnut and hit 5 other species with a rock. If I was accurate enough; I know I've got the range.

There are 3 species of chesnut native to China and at least two of them smell horrible when they flower. This is a young small tree, but I picked up the distinctive odor of fermenting underwear as soon as I rounded the corner 100+ feet from it. The flowers are nice though and it is being tried in crosses with our native chestnut in an attempt to slip genetic resistance to chestnut blight into C. dentata as gently as possible.