Gold Medal Plants

February 15th, 2011

   Wouldn’t it be helpful if when you went to the garden center to pick out a new tree or shrub, 15 of the region’s top plant experts were there to tell you the best of the best?

   Actually, there is something very close to that.

   It’s called the Gold Medal Plant Awards, and it’s a program of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (the folks who bring us the Philadelphia Flower Show). Each year, PHS selects a handful of woody plants deserving greater use in home gardens.

   A committee of 15 has been picking the cream of the crop for some two decades now. The result is a list totaling 117 plants — some specific varieties, some straight species — that amounts to a mid-Atlantic All-Star team.

Fall foliage of Gold Medal-winner Korean stewartia.

   Consult the list, and you’d know about such high-octane beauties as the Korean stewartia — a small tree with camellia-like summer flowers, stunning gold/red fall foliage and flaky bark — and a low, spreading broadleaf evergreen called sweetbox that puts out a sweet fragrance better than lilac early each spring.

   The list ranges from fairly well-known and widely available plants as the ‘Limelight’ tree hydrangea and the American holly to hidden gems such as the weeping katsura tree (elegant habit, yellow fall foliage), the Japanese umbrella pine (pyramidal evergreen with straw-like needles) and the seven-son flower (a small tree with white flowers and unusual fall pods).

   The process of how plants get picked — and rejected — is fascinating.

   I got an inside look at it this winter by being invited to be a member of the Gold Medal committee.

   It was humbling to be at the same table with folks I respect as some of the most knowledgeable plant people in our region.

   Steve Mostardi, who owns one of the Philly area’s best garden centers (Mostardi Nursery near Newtown Square) is the chairman.

The unusual needles of Japanese umbrella pine.

   Top horticulture guns at Morris Arboretum (Paul Meyer), Chanticleer (Bill Thomas), Brookside Gardens (Phil Normandy) and Scott Arboretum (Rhoda Maurer) are on the panel.

   So is Jack Blandy, whose Stoney Bank Nurseries builds some of those spectacular main-entry gardens each year at the Philadelphia Flower Show. And so is Steve Hutton, the CEO of The Conard-Pyle Co. (Star Roses).

   Three others give a voice to central Pa. — Dr. Richard Bitner (author of two books on conifers and an instructor at Longwood Gardens), Erica Shaffer (who most of you no doubt know as the manager and chief plant geek at Highland Gardens in Lower Allen Twp.), and plant-hunter extraordinaire Barry Yinger, who’s found us such super plants as ‘Moonlight’ Japanese hydrangea vine, a variegated false holly called ‘Goshiki’ and one of my all-time favorites, the Mellow Yellow spirea, which has needle-like foliage in a brilliant gold all season long.

   This group nominates candidates, then meets twice a year to view plants and debate the fine points of each.

Early-spring flowers of spirea Mellow Yellow.

   These are people who seem to know every intricate detail of plants. If a vine is prone to getting a little too aggressive or a particular hydrangea cultivar is likely to bleach out in a hair too much sun, it’ll get rejected.

   In fact, over the years more nominees have been rejected (171) than awarded Gold Medals (117).

   To make the grade, a plant first has to be a superb performer that’s unlikely to run into any serious bug or disease problems.

   But it also has to be reasonably available on the market, hardy to mid-Atlantic winters, not invasive, growable by ordinary gardeners and deserving of greater notoriety. A plant that’s already very well known or extensively hyped (i.e. ‘Knock Out’ roses or ‘Endless Summer’ hydrangeas) wouldn’t get an award.

   For one or more of these reasons, these are some on the “reject” pile: ‘Forest Pansy’ redbud (canker possibility), burning bush (unwanted seeding), ornamental kiwi vine (too aggressive), skimmia (questionable cold hardiness), and ‘Roman Gold’ cedar (not widely available).

   The latest Gold Medal winners for 2011 are:

   * Bush honeysuckle Cool Splash (Diervilla sessilifolia ‘LPCD Podaras’). A low-growing flowering shrub with variegated leaves and small yellow flowers in summer. Grows 2½ feet tall by 4 feet wide in full sun to part shade.

Sweetgum 'Slender Silhouette'

   * Sweetgum ‘Slender Silhouette’ (Liquidambar styraciflua). A very narrow form of our native sweetgum, growing 50 feet tall but only 4 feet around. Produces very few of those spiky seed pods and turns reddish yellow in fall. Full sun to light shade.

   * Bald cypress Debonair ‘Morris’ (Taxodium distichum var. imbricarium). A conifer with soft, pendulous needles that turn bronze in fall before dropping. 60 feet tall, 20 feet wide and tolerates wet soil. Full sun to light shade.

   * Red-twig dogwood ‘Midwinter Fire’ (Cornus sanguinea). A multi-stemmed flowering shrub with white spring flowers but mainly grown for its yellow, orange and red stems in winter after the leaves drop. Grows 8 feet tall, 10 feet wide. Full sun to part shade.

   See more on those and all 117 Gold Medal plants at www.goldmedalplants.org. If you’re going to the Philadelphia Flower Show (March 5-12, www.theflowershow.com), look for a Gold Medal display garden in the PHS Village on the show floor.

   I’ve also got pictures and descriptions of many of these winners in the Plant-of-the-Week Profiles of this site at https://georgeweigel.net/plant-of-the-week-profiles.