Over on my Royal Horticultural Society New Plants blog, I feature a plant which is newly available to British gardeners about every five days. I've featured some wonderful plants over the last few months - all new to British gardeners. Many are probably new to American gardeners too, but these are the plants featured over the last few months.

The new RHS Plantfinder is out today

Clematis Alaina: New in the 2012 Plantfinder

Rose Wollerton Old Hall: New in the RHS Plantfinder (picture right, click to enlarge)

Choisya ‘Aztec Gold’: New from Hillier

Daphne odora Marianni ('Rogbret'): New in the 2012/2013 Plantfinder

Pelargonium ‘Skyscraper’: New from Vernon Geranium Nursery

Geum ‘Fire Storm’: New in the 2012 Plantfinder

Chelsea Plant of The Year 2012: The Shortlist

Chelsea Plant of The Year 2012: The Winners

Dianthus Green Trick: New from Thompson & Morgan (picture right, click to enlarge)

Dianthus Memories: Plant of the Year runner-up

Heuchera ‘Circus’: Plant of The Year finalist

Aeonium 'Cornish Tribute' and ‘Logan Rock’: Plant Of The Year finalists

David Austin Roses: Five new varieties

Double laced polyanthus: New from Hayloft Plants

Five new roses from Peter Beales

New plants at the 2012 Hampton Court Show

Leucanthemum ‘Banana Cream': New for 2012 (picture right, click to enlarge)

New autumn and spring flowering wallflower

Strawberry ‘Sweetheart’: New from D T Brown

Six new roses from Harkness Roses

Two new heucheras from America

Blueberry 'Pink Lemonade': The first pink-fruited blueberry

New clematis from Raymond Evison

Aster oblongifolius 'Autumn Skies': new bushy aromatic autumn aster

Three new double-flowered echinaceas

My Royal Horticultural Society New Plants blog continues over on the Royal Horticultural Society website.

It's time for another update on my online appearances elsewhere over the last few weeks. Lots of posts on new plants, a bear in the garden, and the launch of my brand new gardening blog for Brits. You can check recent posts here at Transatlantic Gardener in the panel on the right.

Simply Blogging with Graham Rice
My brand new blog for British gardeners hosted by the good people at Simply Seeds and Plants, one of Britain’s most exciting young mail order nurseries. There are even discounts for blog readers… Better check it out.
Tips to Beat The Great British Drought
Grow sweet peas - from plants

The Plantsman (the Royal Horticultural Society’s magazine for serious plant nuts)
The Flowering of Symplocarpus (skunk cabbage) With a picture of a black bear eating skunk cabbage at the edge our American garden.

Find out more about The Plantsman

Daily Telegraph
Looking ahead to the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen this summer:
Red, white and blue floral tributes
Plant a tree in celebration
Plant for a sense of occasion

Royal Horticultural Society website
Ten award-winning cherry tomatoes
Latest Award of Garden Merit winner – Iris ‘Starwoman’

Royal Horticultural Society New Plants blog
Miscanthus ‘Starlight’: New from Knoll Gardens
Runner bean ‘Firestorm’: New self-fertile bean from Marshalls
Skimmia ‘Temptation': new self-fertile variety
Top plants in the new RHS Plantfinder
Courgette 'Sunstripe': New attractive yellow striped variety
Irish primroses: New from Cotswold Garden Flowers
Strawberry Toscana: Colourful flowers and tasty fruit
Hydrangea Beautensia™ Spike: New ruffled hydrangea from Crocus

The Guardian
The Guardian also published my Tips to Beat The Great British Drought which originally appeared on Simply Blogging with Graham Rice

Today, I start a completely new blog. The idea is to give British gardeners friendly, practical advice on growing and planting. It’s called Simply Blogging with Graham Rice and is hosted by my friends at the Norfolk mail order nursery Simply Seeds and Plants.

I’m starting off with some tips on how to deal with the Great British Drought – the use of sprinklers and hand held hosepipes is banned across the southern and eastern England from 5 April. Of course, it turned out that posting a blog about drought instantly produced a deluge. But I’ll also be talking about growing plants, suggesting planting ideas and occasionally sounding off about things that get me excited or drive me mad.

Simply Seeds and Plants are expert growers of sweet peas – they grow 30 million sweet pea plants a year… 30 million! - but they also grow patio and vegetable plants, chrysanthemums, fuchsias, and perennials. So hosting my new blog on the Simply Seeds and Plants site allows their customers find on-the-spot advice.

And let’s be clear – I’ll be blogging about what I think will help, interest and entertain gardeners. And the nursery will be offering discounts to blog readers. Sounds like a good deal to me.

So please take a look at Simply Blogging with Graham Rice. Why not subscribe to its feed, or you can sign up to get the posts by email.

* By the way... Owing to the wonders of online communication I was able to switch on the new blog at 9.45am from the back room of Joe's Bar in Union, New Jersey - just before taking my place as an extra in my nephew's latest movie...

The British Garden Media Guild held its awards lunch this week and I'm delighted to say that Transatlantic Gardener was a finalist in the Blog of The Year category for the second time. The winner was Mark Diacono for his Otter Farm Blog (left, click to enlarge). Congratulations Mark. Here's what the judges had to say:

"Mark Diacono’s blog from Otter Farm is highly personal, entertaining, beautifully written and full of diverse elements – some educational, some just plain funny. Most recently these include Mark attempting to play cricket with pigs to a description of him trapped sweating in a tractor cab after having run over a wasps’ nest. He fully exploits the medium using not only timely, well-wrought words, but also beautiful photography and video clips. The site is easily negotiated and packed with interest."

Quite right.

The other worthy finalists were:

James Alexander-Sinclair for Blogging from Blackpitts
Dawn Isaac for Little Green Fingers
Lia Leendertz for Midnight Brambling

All are well worth reading - whichever side of the Atlantic you're on. Interestingly, apart from the loss of often entertaining but sometimes excruciating Mathew Appleby's Gardening Blog, the list of finalists was almost the same as last year. All these blogs combine good writing with smart ideas.

I was also especially pleased to see Nigel Colborn receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, be sure to check out his Silvertreedaze blog, and Which? Gardening (for US readers, this magazine is like a horticultural Consumer Reports) won the award for Garden Publication of The Year.

Lots of worthy winners, all examples of good horticultural communication. You can check out all the winners on the Garden Media Guild Awards page.

Here’s another update of my work that has appeared online in the last month. Just click the links to go to the pages.

Royal Horticultural Society New Plants blog
Scaevola Suntastic: New from Jersey Plants Direct
Actaea pachypoda 'Misty Blue': New for 2011
Zinnia ‘Queen Red Lime’: New from Plants of Distinction
Iris sibirica ‘Scramble’: New from Cotswold Garden Flowers
Uncinia rubra Everflame: New ornamental sedge
Canna Tropicanna Black: New for 2011

Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit plants
Continuing my choices from plants awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit (AGM):
Ten Easy Alpines which have received the AGM.
Be sure to take a look at all my selections of AGM plants.

And continuing my choices of plants recently award the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit (AGM).
Amaranthus cruentus 'Oeschberg'
Be sure to take a look at all the recent AGM winners I've written up.

Transatlantic Plantsman blog
Newly redigned and upgraded this month , in new colours and with more posts.
February’s flowers
"Green" gardens can be modern and stylish
Hellebores and snowdrops at East Lambook Manor
Amazing new hellebore hybrid
Our bird count results
Transatlantic Plantsman is now Transatlantic Gardener
Hellebores and snowdrops on Pennylvania
Hellebore season
Gertrude Jekyll’s primroses live on
Growing food is not weird
Is this new iris good enough?
Virus free foliage pelargoniums
Classic geranium disease-fre at last
The ice flows
My apples are treated with beetle goo!
Who mangled my bird feeder?
Hellebore slide show – 168 pictures
Christopher Lloyd: His Life at Great Dixter
Snowdrop bulb sold for world record £357 ($576)

Plantsman? Gardener? Change is good, right? Well the Transatlantic Plantsman blog is now Transatlantic Gardener. I hope you enjoy both the blog and its new look.

Over on my Royal Horticultural Society New Plants blog, I’ve just posted about a new two-tone, bright yellow form of Iris sibirica. Called ‘Scramble’, it’s introduced in Britain for the new season by Cotswold Garden Flowers. It’s really lovely, well worth taking a look.

‘Scramble’ was selected by John Grimshaw, one of  Britain’s foremost plantspeople with interests in a wide diversity of plants including snowdrops, trees and kniphofias as well as irises.

And he has another, as yet unnamed, form of Iris sibirica he thinks is very promising, and I do too. At the moment it’s just known informally as “pastel blue” (above, click to enlarge).

This is what John told to me about it: “There is a gorgeous pastelly blue one as well that I think is outstanding for floriferousness, longevity of flowering and charming colouring, though the flowers are not large: it is fertile & the pods are held on very stiff stems all winter - one of the few perennials I can bear to leave uncut. I doubt the Iris aficionados would like it but I think it’s an excellent garden plant. I've selected a few others, including one with peachy flowers, because I like them, but they're probably not worth distributing - "pastel blue" is.”

So do you think this new blue iris is worth passing on to a nursery for them to introduce? Looks good to me, I love the broad falls with the intricate patterning. And what about the peachy one John mentions? That sounds tempting too.

Be sure to check out John Grimshaw’s blog as well as the site for his snowdrop garden at Colesbourne Park.

Thanks to John Grimshaw for the image.

Here’s another update of my work that has appeared online in the last month. Just click the links to go to the pages.

The Guardian newspaper
Plants for clay soil (left, click to go to the page)

The Daily Telegraph newspaper
10 new and improved fruit, veg and flowers

Royal Horticultural Society New Plants blog
Yucca Bright Star: New from Notcutts
Hemerocallis ‘Vanilla Fluff’: New double daylily
Astilbe ‘Mighty Pip': New for 2011
Lobelia ‘Superstar’: New for 2011
Twelve new irises: From Cayeux Iris
Verbascum 'Blue Lagoon': First ever blue verbascum

Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit plants
Continuing my choices from plants awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit (AGM):
Plants to grow with hellebores which have received the AGM..
Be sure to take a look at all my selections of AGM plants.

And continuing my choices of plants recently award the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit (AGM).
Bergenia 'Eric Smith'

Be sure to take a look at all the recent AGM winners I've written up.

Transatlantic Plantsman blog
Shooting in the snow
Quiet color in the snowy garden
Amazing acer for winter stems
Fishy catch is no longer served
New series on plant combinations
Garden bird counts coming up soon
Winter color - and not from flowers
Two new lectures on the way
Thinking about chrysanthemums - in January?
World's first blue verbascum
Where does our bird seed come from?

Here’s another update of my work that has appeared online in the last month. Just click the link to go to the page.

Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit plants
Continuing my choices from plants awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit (AGM):

Ten traditional winter vegetables which have received the AGM..

Be sure to take a look at all my selections of AGM plants.

And continuing my choices of plants recently award the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.

Sweet pea ‘Cherub Crimson’

Ipomoea lobata (above, click to go to the page)

Be sure to take a look at all the recent AGM winners I've written up.

Royal Horticultural Society NewPlants blog
Over on my Royal Horticultural Society New Plants blog I’ve posted about these new plants:

Tradescantia ‘Sunshine Charm’

Sweet pea ‘Villa Roma Scarlet’

Hemerocallis ‘Black Stockings’

Malus (crab apple) Jelly King (‘Mattfru’)

Delphinium Highlander Series

Rose Pomponella (‘Korpompan’)

Transatlantic Plantsman blog
And here on my Transatlantic Plantsman blog, these are my recent posts:

Choisya Sundance - origins and abuses

Summer and fall meet winter and spring

Was the lobelia washed away?

Britain's top garden media folks get their awards