Anchusa italica or azurea....I think. This plant isn't delicate or graceful, it's actually weedy and uncouth but those flowers are a beautiful color

I like the rosettes too. Stefan brought back seeds of this plant for the blue flowers. Who could blame him? I had assumed from the rosette that it was a biennial but the literature suggests perennial. Apparently it has weedy tendencies, but really, who would care? It's growing above the China Valley path at the top of the valley.

Myrcianthes fragrans, Simpson's Stopper

This is a wonderful plant, vase-shaped, Crape myrtelesque. Fragrant evergreen leaves cloak beautiful grayish exfoliating bark. Every fall it has orange fruits with a pleasant piquant taste. Bird love the berries and butterflies love the flowers. I only wish I had planted a larger plant 3 years ago. It was less than a foot tall when it went in; now it's right about 5 feet.