Top sellers from Plant Delights Nursery
April 15, 2007
Plant Delights Nursery is
one of the best on the country. Founded and run by plantsman and Tony
Avent, who peddles strong, often controversial, though well-respected
opinion along with his extraordinary plants, Tony’s just sent out a
list of his bestselling plants, a Top Thirty for this spring.
There are some great plants on this list – and some I’d never heard
of, perhaps
because his mail order catalog never came this year. I’ve
pasted in the full list at the end. The top seller is Colocasia
gigantea Thailand Giant Strain, a monstrous and dramatic tropical wonder for
warmer areas. It's straight from the wild in Thailand, and much larger
than the form usually seen.
There are no daylilies in their Top Thirty, only one hosta and one hardy geranium, none of the perhaps
expected mainstream perennials like phlox, echinaceas and heucheras – except for hellebores, of which there are three, two of which originate from the previous incarnation of Heronswood Nursery.
Others that I found especially intriguing are the first yellow-leaved clematis, two superb foliage euphorbias, a rare American trillium with exquisite foliage – plus some that have been around for ages like Canna ‘Phasion’ and Veronica umbrosa 'Georgia Blue'.
Here’s the list. Or go to his online list, and click-through to individual listings.
1 Colocasia gigantea Thailand Giant
2 Zantedeschia aethiopica 'White Giant'
3 Euphorbia 'Nothowlee' PPAF (better known as Blackbird)
4 Hosta 'Stitch in Time'
5 Clematis alpina 'Stolwijk Gold' PPAF
6 Geranium 'Pink Penny' PPAF
7 Helleborus x hybridus Heronswood Double Pink Strain
8 Alocasia 'Portodora'
9 Euphorbia x martinii 'Waleuphrud' (better know as Robin’s Red-nosed)
10 Syneilesis aconitifolia
11 Helleborus x hybridus 'Kingston Cardinal'
12 Yucca rostrata 'Sapphire Skies'
13 Helleborus x hybridus Brandywine Strain
14 Agave parryi ssp. truncata
15 Corydalis 'Berry Exciting' PPAF
16 Trillium foetidissimum
17 Gaillardia 'Fanfare'
18 Saccharum arundinaceum
19 Zephyranthes 'Krakatau'
20 Canna 'Phaison'
21 Thalictrum 'Black Stockings'
22 Veronica umbrosa 'Georgia Blue'
23 Dicliptera suberecta
24 Begonia grandis 'Heron's Pirouette'
25 Baptisia minor 'Blue Pearls'
26 Clematis addisonii
27 Zantedeschia 'Edge of Night'
28 Salvia chamaedryoides
29 Sabal minor 'McCurtain'
30 Nierembergia gracilis 'Starry Eyes'
I’d better get my modest order in soon, before these goodies are all sold out – and you should too. And I'm sorry for missing a few days this week, I've had a bit of trouble with my back - and just time for the delivery of four cubic yards of topsoil, too. Now, of course, we have sleet so can't get the new bed made.