Mahonia gracilipes

I photographed this "relaxed," "sprawly" shrub, native to the western Chinese province of Sichuan, on July 7, in Chapel Hill. That's a hosta to the lower right.

I fell in love with mahonias a few years ago when I saw a row of them in all their bloom and glory on the Carolina campus (the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). My wife shortly thereafter discovered that we seemed to have a native mahonia growing down in the drainage easement in back. Since then she has planted six or eight mahonias in our yard—including this gracilipes, the newest.