Nancy Heckler, whose Hood Canal garden is famous for an extravagantly luscious vegetable plot as well as stunning borders, was thoughtful when I asked her to come up with her 10 most favorite plants. Prizing the unusual, Heckler pondered the question of rarity (all selections need to be available for purchase). What about emotional attachment to valiant survivors of bad weather, or plants that stir fond memories of whose garden they came from? Heckler worked her way through these harrowing questions to come up with a varied group of plants she relies on most for impact, continuity and points of interest.

This is the fourth group of indispensable plants chosen by noteworthy local gardeners over the past year or so. Heckler chose the first peony to make the list, and the second rose (the first was R. glauca selected by Steve Antonow.) She also chose two plants that have made the list before — the hardy banana Musa basjoo and the smoke bush Cotinus coggygria 'Velvet Cloak.' Only two other plants have been named more than once: Melianthus major and Euphorbia charachias subsp. wulfenii.)

Several of Heckler's favorites feature dark foliage. The stiff, sword-shaped blades of Phormium 'Dark Delight' are unsurpassed for architectural value and structural emphasis, and it is one of the most deeply colored of the New Zealand flaxes. Because of its uncertain hardiness, Heckler uses 'Dark Delight' in containers nestled in the garden or in pots buried in the ground, making it easier to move them to a protected spot if a severe cold spell threatens.

Heckler grows her Cotinus coggygria 'Velvet Cloak' near the front of the border, cutting it back to 18 inches in the early spring. With this treatment, the new, rounded leaves glow deep burgundy, and the plant stays compact and bushy. She makes the most of its color and shape by mingling with a lacy silver artemisia or an upright golden ornamental grass.

Dark-leafed dahlias are a glory of Heckler's garden, where she grows them mixed in with rows of vegetables or filling huge pots. D. 'Yellow Hammer' is a favorite because it doesn't need staking, blooms continuously from July until frost, and the near-black leaves show to perfection the single, clear, primrose-yellow flower.

Lilium 'Scheherazade' grows to 5 feet in the first season and up to 8 feet after a couple of years. Intense fragrance, deep-red flowers edged in cream, and sturdy stems over an inch in diameter won this lily its spot on the top 10 list.

Rosa chinensis 'Mutabilis' has shiny, disease-free foliage and blooms from February to November. It is an old-fashioned shrub rose with single flowers in varied shades of creamy-pink, apricot, orange and vivid scarlet, all at the same time. In Heckler's garden it creates a centerpiece bouquet 8 feet wide and as tall, sometimes blooming until Christmas.

Senecio greyi (pesky taxonomists changed its name to Brachyglottis greyi) is a silvery-gray shrub that Heckler has found to fare better in our wet climate than many of the Mediterranean plants. She relies on its year-round, pale foliage as a dense backdrop for the many deep and intensely colored flowers she grows.

Paeonia suffruticosa 'Joseph Rock' is an especially showy tree peony. Its single white flowers are huge and decorated with dramatic purple flares. Heckler selects peonies for foliage as much as for bloom, and 'Joseph Rock' has airy, bamboo-like leaves that turn shades of yellow in autumn.

Because Heckler has seamlessly integrated flamboyant plants with Northwest naturalism, her garden is a mastery of both subtlety and drama. Some of her favorite tropicalesque plants include Musa basjoo, which is the hardiest banana tree in our climate. A superb foliage plant, it grows 15 feet high, forming a multi-stemmed clump of long, exotic-looking leaves.

Dicksonia antarctica is a tree fern that resembles a frilly, soft palm tree. Plant it in a warm but not too sunny spot, or in a container, and provide winter protection.

Hosta 'Sum and Substance' is one of those reliably hardy plants that have the impact of a tropical giant. Huge, thick, cupped oval leaves in limey-yellow are more resistant to slug damage than most hostas. Pale lavender flower spikes bloom in July, but the point is the spectacular chartreuse clumps that reach 6 feet across.

For links to previous "Indispensables" lists, see this story on www.seattletimes.com/pacificnw.

Valerie Easton is manager at the Miller Horticultural Library. Her new book, "Plant Life: Growing a Garden in the Pacific Northwest" (Sasquatch Books, 2002) is an updated selection of her magazine columns. Her e-mail address is vjeaston@aol.com.