Next Year’s Plants

September 6th, 2011

   Growers gave us garden writers a sneak peek at some of the new plants coming out next year at the recent annual Garden Writers Association conference.

   Five in particular caught my eye…

   ‘Mighty ‘Mato.’You’re going to hear a lot about grafted tomatoes and probably this brand of them next spring.

Two of these tomatoes are grafted, two are not. Can you tell the difference?

   Grafted tomatoes are similar to grafted fruits in that a durable root is attached to a tasty top. The result is supposed to be a plant that’s more resistant to disease and with higher yields.

   The first few came out this year, primarily in catalogs and on-line. I’m trying two varieties in comparison to the same non-grafted varieties in my garden, and while the results aren’t quite miraculous, the improvement is noticeable.

   Local garden centers are likely to start carrying grafted tomatoes next spring. Oregon-based Territorial Seed (www.territorialseed.com), where I got my test grafted tomatoes, plans to sell 15 varieties of them next year.

   I talked to John Bagnasco, host of the California radio show Garden Life, about ‘Mighty ‘Matos,’ and he’s so sold on the concept that he joined with an Oregon grower to sell a new line of “Super Naturals Grafted Vegetables” (including ‘Mighty ‘Mato.’)

   Grafting not only works for tomatoes but also for eggplants, peppers and others. So if interest goes as well as I think it will for ‘Mighty ‘Mato,’ get ready for all sorts of grafted offerings in the coming years.

   “People are saying they could never grow tomatoes, and now they’re getting a good crop,” Bagnasco says. “We’re hearing people say they’re getting double and triple the yield.”

   I also like Mighty ‘Mato’s promo line: “Leaps tall cages in a single season!”

   Hardy colocasia. This is the plant with the huge leaves that most people call “elephant ears” and sometimes “taro” when it’s grown as a water-garden plant.

   Either way, colocasia has always been a tender plant that we either have to take inside to overwinter or buy new each spring. Until now.

   Plants Nouveau is introducing three new colocasias next year that are cold-hardy down to Zone 6, which is us.

   Colocasia ‘Bikini-tini’ is a 5- to 6-foot-tall, green/blue-leaf type with nearly black stems and leaf veins. The leaves face upward and cup, so they catch water in rain. Kids will like dumping them.

   Colocasia ‘Madeira’ is a more compact variety at about 3 feet tall with velvety and nearly black leaves.

   And colocasia ‘Sangria’ is a 4- to 6-footer with green leaves and pinkish-red stems.

   It’ll be interesting to see if we can grow these tropical-looking plants year after year with no more care than hostas.

   Rudbeckia ‘Little Goldstar.’ Almost everybody who grows black-eyed susans is using the ‘Goldsturm’ variety, but I’ve seen a fair amount of two problems. One is that it gets a leaf-spot disease. The other is that it flops whenever a strong wind comes along.

   ‘Little Goldstar’ is a new, dwarf black-eyed susan. It grows to only 14 inches tall – about half the size of ‘Goldsturm.’

   I don’t know yet about the disease-resistance, but this compact size and heavy bloom is a nice improvement. If you can’t find it at your favorite garden center, it’ll sell online at www.greatgardenplants.com.

Blueberry 'Pink Champagne' from Briggs Nursery.

   A frosted pink blueberry. This spring brought us the debut of the pink blueberry in ‘Pink Lemonade’ and ‘Pink-a-Blu.’ Now comes a plant that fruits in a beautiful (and tasty) frosty pink.

   ‘Pink Champagne’ is Briggs Nursery’s new intro for 2012, and it’s similar to ‘Pink Lemonade’ in size and ripening, only the color is a soft, silvery-tinged pink.

   It’s also a zone hardier than ‘Pink Lemonade,’ although both are well within in our growing range.

   ‘Storybook’ roses. The fifth cool new plant that impressed me was this new series of compact roses. It’s actually a new category of roses – somewhere between a ‘Knock-Out’ type shrub rose and a miniature.

   The plants are almost half the size of ‘Knock Outs’ (about 2 feet), and they have a shrubby habit and long bloom time.

   Each of the varieties is named after a book.

   ‘Moby Dick’ is white with a yellow center. ‘Showboat’ has double petals of coral-orange. ‘Little Women’ is pale pink, and ‘Sundance Kid’ has coral buds that open to yellow flowers.