New plants

Most popular new plants

Apple Red loveMy New Plants blog started on the Royal Horticultural Society’s website back in April 2008, over five and a half years ago, and since then I’ve written up well over four hundred new plants. Some, of course, have captured gardeners’ attention more than others so I thought it would be interesting to see how many times each write-up had been viewed – and come up with a top ten of the most popular. Of course, those I wrote up four or five years ago have been available much longer than those I posted more recently, so they’ve had a better chance of been seen.

One plant is way way ahead of all the others. Apple ‘Red Love’, from June 2010, has about 50% more views than the plant in second place which, surprisingly, is Coprosma ‘Pacific Sunset’ with its colourful foliage. The unusually dwarf Buddleja Buzz Series is third while the plant in fourth place is the 2011 Chelsea Flower Show Plant of The Year, Anemone ‘Wild Swan’.

The most viewed new plant from this last year was Impatiens ‘Sun Harmony’

Here’s the all time Top Ten, with links to the original posts. It’s a fascinating list.

1 Apple ‘Red Love’ (above, click to enlarge)
View the post on Apple 'Red Love'

2 Coprosma ‘Pacific Sunset’
View the post on Coprosma ‘Pacific Sunset’

3 Buddleja Buzz Series
View the post on Buddleja Buzz Series

Anemone 'Wild Swan'
4 Anemone ‘Wild Swan’
(above, click to enlarge)
View the post on Anemone ‘Wild Swan’

5 Choisya White Dazzler
View the post on Choisya 'White Dazzler'

6 Anemone Pretty Lady Series
View the post on Anemone Pretty Lady Series

7 Pennisetum x advena ‘Fireworks’
View the post on Pennisetum x advena ‘Fireworks’
Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow'
8 Euphorbia ‘Ascot Rainbow’ (left, click to enlarge)
View the post on Euphorbia ‘Ascot Rainbow’

9 Rudbeckia ‘Cherry Brandy’
View the post on Rudbeckia ‘Cherry Brandy’

10 Cordyline ‘Pink Passion’
View the post on Cordyline ‘Pink Passion’


And the most viewed of the 2013 newcomers was:
Impatiens ‘Sun Harmony’
View the post on Impatiens ‘Sun Harmony’




Best new plant of the year: Pink Trumpet Vine

Podranea ricasoliana ‘Pink Delight’. Image ©GardenPhotos.comGuest post from judywhite

This year the clear best new plant of the year winner is something we’d never even heard of before. At my favorite local garden center, Fair Acres Farms in Sussex County, NJ , there are always interesting and tempting unfamiliar plants amid the wonderful collection of more recognizable varieties. As the owner, Richard Kaweske, says, “If I can’t try something totally new every year, what’s the point of gardening!” He had brought in plants of Podranea ricasoliana ‘Pink Delight’ (aka Pandorea*) (left, click to enlarge) which he’d never seen or grown before either, but had heard great reports of the big pink trumpet-like flowers. So I bought one. A bargain at about $8. That was early May.

It was about 8in/20cm high at the time, and I planted it in an old cement urn in mostly sun, not realizing that this tropical South African plant was actually a tall, vigorous, rambling shrubby vine with strong long woody stems that arch all over the place. Despite its tight pot (or maybe because of it; Podranea apparently does best well-drained, which the cement planter definitely was), it immediately began to romp away, with beautiful glossy green compound foliage on gracefully open weeping branches. By early June the first of the spectacular candy-pink 3.5in/9cm flowers appeared, and I was hooked for life.

The papery flower buds appear at the very ends of the branches, and stay in bud a long time before the big pink trumpets start opening, which they do sequentially, then stay in bloom an even longer time. They’re supposed to be fragrant, but I never did discern any scent. Didn’t matter in the least.

Each of our branches eventually reached 10ft (3m) or so, and arched all over another wonderful vine, the variegated Ampelopsis brevipedunculata var. maximowiczii 'Elegans' (below, click to enlarge).

Flower color deepens as the weather gets colder. We left it outside until the temperatures dropped to about 36F/2C, which it tolerated fine, flowers and all, then dug it out of the planter, stuck it in a bigger plastic pot and brought it inside to drape all over the hot tub solarium. It’s still solidly in bloom, and didn’t seem to mind all the ruckus. Advice says to prune it back hard after flowering. Next year I think I’ll train it up a trellis against the house.

* In a strange twist, this plant has been known by two names - one of which is an anagram of the other: Podranea (the correct name) and Pandorea.

You can find more details of this fine plant on the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden website.
:
You can order Podranea ricasoliana ‘Pink Delight’ in North America from Stokes Tropicals.

You can order Podranea ricasoliana ‘Pink Delight’ in Britain from these Royal Horticultural Society Plant Finder nurseries.
Podranea ricasoliana ‘Pink Delight’Ampelopsis brevipedunculata var. maximowiczii 'Elegans' and perennials. Image ©GardenPhotos.com



Four, long season foliage plants

Impatiens omeiana, Hosta 'Maui Buttercups' and Brunnera 'Silver Heart'. Image ©GardenPhotos.com
One of the first plants we bought for our Pennsylvania garden, years ago now, was a hardy Chinese Impatiens species called Impatiens omeiana. It's a hardy perennial related to the colorful Impatiens seen in containers around the world. As you can see (above, click to enlarge), in summer it features these beautifully marked leaves and now we’re seeing clusters of yellow flowers in the tips of the shoots (blow, click to enlarge).

We’re in US hardiness zone 5 (-29C/-20F) which is off the cold end of the scale of the new British hardiness ratings system launched earlier this year by the RHS. The winters certainly get chilly and occasionally our Chinese Impatiens has taken a hard knock. Some years, in spring, just a few spindly shoots emerge but by summer those few stems are looking luxuriant and the following year there’s again a fat clump. This year, we have a couple of interesting perennials underneath, Hosta ‘Maui Buttercups’ and Brunnera ‘Silver Heart’.

Hosta ‘Maui Buttercups’ is one of the best yellow-leaved hostas and it’s also small, not much more than 25cm/10in in height – it’s a classic “sunshine in a shady place” plant and its coloring connects with the stripe in the Impatiens leaf and with its yellow flowers. A cross between two old favorites, 'Frances Williams' and 'August Moon’, the off-white flowers are, frankly, a distraction; I’d snip them off. This is a plant that suffered in our vole infestation but is now thriving again.

Impatiens omeiana with foliage of Ampelopsis brevipedunculata var. aximowiczii 'Elegans'. Image ©GardenPhotos.comAlso tucked under there is the brand new Brunnera ‘Silver Heart’ which is a new improved form of ‘Looking Glass’ with very heavy duty foliage and a brighter silver sheen – it really gleams.

The foliage shape of both these perennials contrasts attractively with the slender Impatiens leaves, and all are happy shaded from the east, and from the west late in the day.

Farther back, the leaves of a climber in a different shape have made their way over from a pot a few feet away. It’s a climber that goes by a rather heavy-handed name – Ampelopsis brevipedunculata var. maximowiczii ‘Elegans’ (left, click to enlarge), or is sometimes known as the variegated porcelain vine. As well as these very pretty variegated leaves, clusters of porcelain blue berries mature in the fall. The green-leaved version of this plant is invasive in some parts of North America, but here this variegated form has never produced a seedling.

But these four plants have made an appealing plant picture for months – and they’re still going strong at the end of September.

North American gardeners
You can order Impatiens omeiana from Burpee
You can order Hosta ‘Maui Buttercups’ from The Hosta Farm
You can order Brunnera ‘Silver Heart’ from Romence Gardens
You can order Ampelopsis brevipedunculata var. maximowiczii ‘Elegans’ from Digging Dog Nursery (though it may be considered invasive in some parts of North America)

British gardeners
You can order Impatiens omeiana from these RHS PlantFinder nurseries
You can order Hosta ‘Maui Buttercups’ from Mickfield Hostas
You can order Brunnera ‘Silver Heart’ from Coblands Nurseries
You can order Ampelopsis brevipedunculata var. maximowiczii ‘Elegans’ from these RHS PlantFinder Nurseries
Impatiens omeiana in flower in September. Image ©GardenPhotos.com


Unique British sweet pea - also available in the US

Sweet Pea 'Cherub Northern Lights', gorgeous colours on a dwarf plant. Image ©Mark Rowland

The dwarf ‘Cupid’ sweet pea, with white flowers, was first discovered in California in 1893 and, after a flurry of favor, and the addition of other colors, by 1914 interest had faded away.

In the 1950s enthusiasm revived, more colors were selected in the Cupid Series, the semi-tall Jet Set, Knee-Hi and Explorer series were created and more recently Mark Rowland of Owl’s Acre Sweet Peas (who send seed to North America as well as Britain) developed his own improved dwarf series, the Cherub Series.

Now in fourteen colors, ‘Cherub Northern Lights’ is the latest in the series and is unique in dwarf sweet peas. “The flowers open pale with a delicate crimson flare gracing the centre of the standard and a blue picotee edge to the wings,” writes Mark in the 2013 British National Sweet Pea Society Annual where he gives an interesting account of the development of ‘Cherub Northern Lights’. “The colours slowly spread to suffuse the petals and it was this ever changing effect that inspired the choice of name.” Bred from his unique modern Grandiflora sweet pea ‘Fire & Ice’, it brings the subtle colouring and outstanding fragrance of ‘Fire & Ice’ to a dwarf plant. By the end of the season plants form a mound about 30cm/12in high (below).

Sweet Pea 'Cherub Northern Lights' in a hanging basket in the UK in June. Image ©GardenPhtos.comMark’s Cherub Series, launched at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2006, and now available in fourteen colors and a mixture, has proved an excellent series for containers. “To give of their best they need plenty of sunlight, good drainage and plenty of air movement,” Mark says on his website. “This makes them ideal for container growing, and three or four plants in an 45cm/18in tub will give a spectacular display.”

Mark also has the first two varieties in a completely new dwarf series, the Sprite Series, which flowers much earlier than plants in the Cherub Series or Cupid Series. ‘Dark Sprite’ is a maroon and violet bicolor, while ‘Lavender Sprite’ is clear lavender and won an Award of Garden Merit in this year’s Royal Horticultural Society sweet pea trial. I saw it in baskets (left, click to enlarge) and it was lovely. Both reach about 25cm and should be begin to flower in late May in Britain.

Gardeners on both sides of the Atlantic can order these and many other sweet peas from Owl’s Acre Sweet Peas. Dwarf types can be tough to find in North America.

You can read more about sweet peas in my recent piece in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper and I’ve brought together news of all the new sweet peas introduced in Britain this season on my Royal Horticultural Society New Plants blog.

The natural spread of Sweet Pea 'Cherub Northern Lights'. Image ©Mark Rowland


Thanks to Mark Rowland for the images at the top and bottom of this piece.


Black Tuscan kale in the garden (and the oven)

Tuscan Kale set against Weigela French Lace (‘Brigela’) also known as Moulin Rouge. Image © GardenPhotos.com
I still get skeptical looks when I point out that this Tuscan kale is a great ornamental plant. I think many people are still worried even about eating kale – which they still think of some sort of punishment – let alone growing it as an ornamental.

So here’s the kale variously known as ‘Nero di Toscano’, Tuscan kale, ‘Lacinato’ and cavolo nero (and also known, according to Wikipedia, as Tuscan cabbage, Italian kale, Dinosaur kale, black kale, flat back cabbage, palm tree kale, and black Tuscan palm)… here it is growing in our Pennsylvania garden. Looks great, doesn’t it?

Behind it is one of the more recent variegated weigela introductions French Lace (‘Brigela’) also known as Moulin Rouge whose splendid variegations ensure that the structure and colour of the kale really stands out. A little ‘Bright Yellow’ chard and variegated Masquerade ('Notbud') buddleia peep into the picture.

‘Nero di Toscano’ kale, or whatever you like to call it, has been grown for centuries. This not only makes clear its resilience and its lasting value, but over the years it has also become rather variable; sometimes, when you grow it, no two plants are quite the same.

Now, a new selection from Britain called ‘Black Magic’ (below, click to enlarge) is becoming available which is much more dependably uniform, and also comes with shorter stems so it's less likely to fall over. As I said when I wrote it up for my Royal Horticultural Society New Plans blog: “As well being uniform in colour, the foliage of ‘Black Magic’ is darker than earlier forms and with more intense puckering. The leaves are a little narrower, it’s much less likely to bolt, and its frost resistance is even better than before.” So why not try it?

And if you’re still skeptical about eating it, try homemade baked kale chips – The Huff Post will tell you how to make them.

In North America, kale ‘Black Magic’ is available from Veseys.

In Britain, kale ‘Black Magic’ is available from Suttons.

Kale 'Black Magic': more uniform, shorter stems, and even tougher. Image ©Tozer Seeds


A new colour in a thuggish perennial

Pentaglottis sempervirens (Green Alkanet) in its usual blue, and a new form. Image © GardenPhotos.comGreen alkanet, Pentaglottis sempervirens, is robust evergreen perennial in the borage family (left, click to enlarge). “Robust” is perhaps being kind; frankly, it can be a bit of thug. But in wilder parts of the garden in poor soil it can be very useful, squeezing out less attractive thugs like ground elder. It carries its pretty bright blue flowers on 2-3ft/60-90cm stems above rough and rather bristly green leaves.

Green alkanet originates in south west Europe, was first grown in British gardens in 1700 but had already spread into the wild by 1724. It has since spread over much of England and Wales, but is seen less often in Scotland and Ireland.

It is also found in along the American west coast from California to British Columbia as well as in Maine; in North America it’s as often known as evergreen bugloss. I’m surprised it’s not established itself more widely… and more notoriously.

I’ve been fortunate enough to find plants with flowers in two other colours in addition to the usual bright blue, the latest just a couple of days ago. I’d parked the car in a car park near a large demolition site just a few miles from the RHS Garden at Wisley, just south of London (in the village where the former singer and guitarist from The Jam, Paul Weller, lives as it happens). I got out of the car to go to the post office to post a card to my lovely wife back home in Pennsylvania and I spotted the plant you see in the picture – instead of bright blue flowers, the flowers are white with a ring of blue flashes around the centre. Lovely. But not the time of year to dig it up, unfortunately.

Decades ago I found a form with lovely pale blue flowers, which the owner of the garden where I spotted it called ‘Morley China Blue’; it was available from a nursery for a year or two, but has now vanished.

And about as long ago, photographer and plant breeder John Fielding found a stable variegated version which never self sowed so was very well behaved. He passed it to a large nursery for propagation – and they lost it.

The point of all this, I suppose, is to make the point that even amongst the most familiar (and not universally admired) plants, are interesting and attractive new forms. We just have to keep our eyes open.

UPDATE: Went back yesterday for another look - someone's been in with the weed whacker, just a pile of dried up stems is left. And the marker I'd left so I could go back and dig up the plant in the autumn has gone too...

Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’ – why the unsuitable name?

Nepeta (catmint) 'Walker's Low' - not really low at all. Image ©Walters GardensWorking on an article about catmints, Nepeta, recently it suddenly struck me: Why does Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’ (left, click to enlarge) have such an unsuitable name? You’d never describe it as “low” growing.

Checking what I said in my own book – my big fat Encyclopedia of Perennials – I see that I gave the height as 24in/60cm. When the Chicago Botanic Garden reported on their trial of nepetas back in 2007, they gave it 30in/75cm. America’s Perennial Plant Association, when it gave ‘Walker’s Low’ its Perennial Plant Of The Year award in 2007 gave its height as 24-36in/60-90cm.

Of course it tends to flop, rather elegantly in fact, and if trussed up to keep the stems vertical would be even taller – though perhaps less appealing. But how did a plant that can reach 3ft/90cm in height come to be called “low”?

I’ve been rooting around trying to find out for the last few weeks – and have not come up with a definite answer. Can anyone help?

It’s often said to have been raised in Ireland or named for an Irish garden, but the leads turn out to be dead ends. The garden writer Jane Taylor (author of The Shady Garden, Fragrant Gardens and of the very useful Drought Tolerant Plants) has been cited as having discovered the plant – but I’ve been unable to contact her. [If anyone has contact details, please email me privately.]

Just to emphasize the fact that ‘Walker’s Low’ is not a short plant – we now have a dwarf version, reaching just 15in/38cm. It’s called Junior Walker (‘Novanepjun’) and was created by “gamma-ray mutagenesis” – tissue-cultured plants of ‘Walker’s Low’ were treated with gamma radiation, then grown on, planted out and assessed. One neat, bushy and prolific plant was chosen, give the code name ‘Novanepjun’ and the selling name of Junior Walker – acknowledging the saxophonist of that name, leader of the Tamla Motown band Junior Walker and the All Stars. It’s just starting to appear in the US, not yet in the UK.

So – does anyone have any ideas - or better still facts! - about how ‘Walker’s Low’ got its name?

* My article on nepats appeares in the May issue of the Royal Horticultural Society's magazine, The Garden.

‘Erewhon’ - a breakthrough new sweet pea

Sweet pea ‘Erewhon’ : a unique bicolour with vivid blue colouring. Image ©GardenPhotos.com (all rights reserved)
[This is an update on a post which first appeared on my Simply Gardening blog which is for British gardeners. But this is such a great plant I thought that readers around the world would also like to hear about it.]

Perhaps the most stunning new sweet pea to emerge in recent years has been ‘Erewhon’ (above, click to enlarge). Developed in New Zealand by Dr Keith Hammett, ‘Erewhon’ is what is known as a reverse bicolour. Most bicoloured sweet peas have the standards (the upper petals) darker than the wings (the lower petals) – but not the other way round. But in ‘Erewhon’ the wings are darker than the standards. In addition, the vivid and penetrating blue colouring of the wings is exceptional. So, how did it happen?

Keith worked on reverse bicolours for twenty five years before his first, ‘Leading Light’, in pink and lilac, appeared in 2006. (This is no longer available.) But with the impact of genes from the relatively recently discovered Lathyrus belinensis, from Turkey, (right, click to enlarge) he was able to intensify the colours. This development was a by product of using L. belinensis to help develop a true yellow sweet pea; that quest for that continues… Lathyrus belinensis: a charming species recently discovered in Turkey. Image © Simply Seeds and Plants

The result is ‘Erewhon’. Erewhon is the classic Samuel Butler novel of 1872, pronounced E–Re-Whon (not Air-One); the first part of the book features a fictional account of Butler’s travels in New Zealand. The name is an anagram of nowhere. 

In this captivating sweet pea the standards are pinkish lilac, with darker veins, and the wings are an amazing piercing blue. This is a Grandiflora type, like the old heirloom sweet peas which we always grow for their unsurpassed fragrance. In developing this completely new variety Keith ensured that the classic sweet pea scent is retained. And it has all the usual sweet pea qualities, reaching about 6ft/1.8m in height and with three or four flowers per stem.

I saw ‘Erewhon’ in a number of different places around the country this summer, and it always looked and smelled amazing. Better order it before stocks of seed run out. And why not try the pretty little Lathyrus belinensis as well?

Seed of sweet pea ‘Erewhon’ is available in North America from Annie's Annuals and from Burpee

Plants and seed of sweet pea ‘Erewhon’ is available in Britain from Simply Seeds and Plants.

Plants of of sweet pea ‘Erewhon’ is available in Britain from Hayloft Plants

Seed of sweet pea ‘Erewhon’ is available in Britain from English Sweet Peas, Owl’s Acre, and from Thompson & Morgan

Seed of Lathyrus belinensis is available in North America from Thompson & Morgan

Seed of Lathyrus belinensis is available in Briatin from Owl's Acre and from Simply Seeds and Plants.


Summer's favorite flowers

Calibrachoa Cabaret™ Bright Red and Cabaret™ Deep Yellow. Images ©Ball Colegrave
During its season of summer open days Ball Colegrave, the British branch of the Ball Horticultural Company, invites its visitors (over 2000 this year) to choose their favorite plants from the huge range on display. It’s simple, each visitor marks their choice with a blue flag. The focus is on patio plants and colorful summer annuals, with plenty of perennials as well. At the end of every day the count is made and the flags collected in preparation for the next day’s voting. Then at the end of the season there’s a grand reckoning.

So, which variety came out top? Well, the overall winner for 2012 was Calibrachoa Cabaret™ Bright Red, with Calibrachoa Cabaret™ Deep Yellow in second place (above, click to enlarge). Both these new colors in the Cabaret Series are vivid in color, prolific and have a mounded, semi-trailing habit. They also tolerate cool conditions and being watered with “hard” (alkaline) water better than other calibrachoas.

I have to say, impressive though these were, I didn’t vote for either. My vote went to a geranium (Pelargonium), ‘Angel Eyes Randy’ (below, click to enlarge) which was colorful, prolific and very prettily patterned.

Last year’s top two, by the way, were a very different pairing. The winner was an ornamental grass, Panicum ‘Frosted Explosion’, and the runner up was the foliage begonia ‘Gryphon’.

Geranium (Pelargonium) ‘Angel Eyes Randy’. Image ©GardenPhotos.com


Petunias fail at the red, white and blue

Red, white and blue Petunia 'Easy Wave' (right) and Phlox '21st Century' planted in a Union Jack pattern! Images ©GardenPhotos.com
Back in a British summer dominated by the London Olympics and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, red-white-and-blue planting schemes - especially in the pattern of the British Union Jack flag - were everywhere and petunias were the favorite plants to use. But a visit to the UK headquarters of the Ball Horticultural Company, Ball Colegrave in Oxfordshire, which always reveals plenty of interesting plants and plant stories, showed how disappointing petunias can be if the weather is poor – and also showed an unexpected plant thriving in a red-white-and-blue flag planting.

On the day I was there, a day of both sunshine and downpour, Petunia ‘Easy Wave Union Flag’ (above, click to elnarge) was a disaster. Not one flower was open on the flag – not one! Not much of a celebration. “Powerful weather tolerance” it says in the catalogue. Hmmm…

But right alongside was a bright and sparkling flag – of annual phlox... Phlox drummondii ‘21st Century’ in the same red-white-and-blue (above, click to elnarge). It looked absolutely wonderful - before, during, and after the rain..

In dependably sunny climates, of course, Wave petunias are splendid. But in less predictable conditions these ‘21st Century’ phlox, the first F1 hybrid annual phlox and new last year, are well worth growing.