George's Current Ramblings and Readlings

Better Naked

February 21st, 2023

   Traipsing through the winter landscape one day, it occurred to me that some plants are actually better looking with their leaves off.

I like the twisty bare branches of Harry Lauder’s walking stick in winter, top. The plant looks ordinary and even gangly to me in summer, below.

   Whether it’s bright color on the stems or just interesting branching habits that are much more visible in winter, some plants are at their best naked.

   The poster child of that is the shrub known as Harry Lauder’s walking stick (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’). This is a shrubby version of filbert grown mainly for its twisty, contorted branch structure.

   However, summer leaves hide or at least downplay that interest. When Japanese beetles show up to eat Harry’s leaves in July and when heat or all-too-common fungal disease attack, the plants look horrid.

   But when the plant finally has the good sense to shed its ratty leaves in fall, its nakedness unveils the plant’s hidden curiosity. You almost wish Harry would croak to keep it leafless for good.

   Another beauty unveiled in winter is the red-twig dogwood (Cornus sericea) and its sister, the yellow-twig dogwood.

A “Jolt of Floral Magic”

February 7th, 2023

   In just a month, a long-time blooming milestone will return to Pennsylvania for the first time in three years.

This rendering of the planned 2023 Philadelphia Flower Show main-entrance gardens shows how designers hope to immerse visitors in a natural setting.

   The Philadelphia Flower Show – the world’s biggest, oldest indoor flower show – is headed back inside March 4-12 to its end-of-winter “natural habitat” over 10 acres of the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

   I, for one, am glad to see this return to normalcy after the show was forced outside in June for the past two years because of the COVID pandemic.

   While some people actually preferred the FDR Park outdoor venue, it just couldn’t capture what I’ve always liked best about the Philly show – namely, how special it is to see instant spring unfold in full bloom while it’s still so cold and gray outside.

   The designers of this year’s show are seizing on that intangible to craft a 2023 theme that aims to “jolt” visitors with maximum color and give them some of the biggest display gardens in the show’s nearly two-century history.

   The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, which produces the Philadelphia Flower Show, recently unveiled details of what the 2023 show will look like.

A mesh scrim will function as a “grand reveal” at the entrance to the 2023 Philadelphia Flower Show.

   “The Garden Electric” theme will start right at show’s main entrance, where a large, web-like mesh scrim will partially obscure and “gray out” the blooming gardens on the other side. The idea is for the vibrant flower colors to suddenly come alive once visitors step inside this garden cocoon.

   PHS calls it a “jolt of floral magic” that will immerse visitors “in a 360-degree world of unique floral pairings, textures, light, fragrance, and vibrant colors.”

   “We’re working hard to create a cohesive and fully immersive experience for show attendees,” said PHS’s creative director, Seth Pearsoll. “Design choices are intentionally being made to mimic the feel of being outdoors in nature by creating larger displays that surround guests.”

   Some of the main-display gardens will cover 2,200 to 2,900 square feet – the largest sizes the show has ever presented.

The Best New Trees and Shrubs of 2023

January 31st, 2023

   The world’s first cascading hydrangea, a lime-and-black-leafed weigela, and a really skinny arborvitae are among the most interesting new trees and shrubs hitting the market for the 2023 growing season.

Hydrangea Fairytrail Bride, the first “cascading hydrangea.” (Credit: Proven Winners)

   Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts mentioned the following 14 choices for the Best New Trees and Shrubs installment of my annual four-part, best-new-plants series.

   In case you missed them, posts on the Best New Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits of 2023, the Best New Annual Flowers of 2023, and the Best New Perennial Flowers of 2023 appeared here in the past three weeks.

   Some of the following new tree and shrub varieties are available online and in some plant catalogs. Most also will be available in local garden centers beginning in April.

   The details:

Hydrangea Fairytrail Bride

   Japanese plant breeder Ushio Sakazaki married three different species of hydrangeas to create an all-new type of hydrangea that Proven Winners is introducing to the U.S. in 2023 – one with a cascading habit and flowers that keep coming throughout the season.

   Fairytrail Bride is the “No. 1 plant on my hit list,” says Dauphin County Master Gardener Kevin Kelly. “It’s a break-through, a whole different class of hydrangea.”

   Kelly says the variety, which won the Best Plant Award at the 2018 Chelsea Flower Show when it debuted in Britain, “has flowers at every node. There are so many flowers that the weight of them pulls the branches down, which gives the plant its trailing habit.”

   Fairytrail Bride’s lacecap flowers open white in June, taking on a pink blush as they age.

   Proven Winners is billing the new introduction as the “world’s first cascading hydrangea” and says it’ll grow three to four feet tall and slightly wider, in full sun or part shade, and in pots or the ground.

Hydrangea Endless Summer Pop Star (Credit: Tracy Walsh/Bailey Nurseries)

Hydrangea Pop Star

   The biggest issue with common bigleaf hydrangeas is that cold winters often kill the flower buds, meaning the plants bloom poorly or not at all.

   Pop Star is a new variety coming to Bailey Nurseries’ Endless Summer line that’s exceptionally bud-hardy as well as being compact (three feet tall and wide). It’s also a rebloomer.

   “Pop Star is an amazing advancement in the crowded space of bigleaf hydrangeas,” says Bailey’s marketing and communications manager Ryan McEnaney, who rates the variety as his favorite new plant of 2023. “I’ve had this plant in my yard for three years, and it continues to keep its compact size and bloom like crazy, even in my Zone 4 landscape.” (That’s two zones colder than the Harrisburg area.)

   Pop Star also won the Retailer’s Choice award at the 2022 AmericanHort Cultivate industry show as the best new shrub with the potential to become a garden-center best-seller.

   Like all bigleaf hydrangeas, Pop Star does best in sites with morning sun and afternoon shade.

Hydrangea Seaside Serenade Glacier Bay (Credit: Monrovia)

Hydrangea Seaside Serenade Glacier Bay and Fire Island

   A second new bigleaf hydrangea debuting in 2023 is another compact rebloomer called Glacier Bay that sports pure-white lacecap blooms with nicely contrasting black stems.

   “Glacier Bay doesn’t look like a traditional hydrangea,” says Monrovia Nurseries’ chief marketing officer Katie Tamony, who rates the variety as her favorite new shrub. “The dramatic black stems and lovely star-shaped white blooms make this an elegant specimen for more modern gardens.”

   Glacier Bay blooms in early summer and again in fall on plants that grow about three feet tall and wide.

   Newly retired Penn State Master Gardener coordinator Nancy Knauss likes another new Seaside Serenade entry called Fire Island.

   It’s a reblooming bigleaf/mophead-type but has flowers that are “white with a frilly, rosy-pink edge when they emerge, slowly maturing to deep pink with age,” as Knauss describes it.

   She adds that Fire Island’s foliage takes on an attractive maroon color in spring and fall.

   Ideal siting for both of these varieties is morning sun and afternoon shade.

The Best New Perennial Flowers of 2023

January 24th, 2023

   The first dark-leafed astilbe with purple flowers, a red-blooming delphinium, and a native alternative to salvia and lavender top the list of interesting new perennials debuting in the 2023 growing season.

Coneflower Artisan Yellow Ombre, one of 2023’s top new perennial-flower introductions. (Credit: All-America Selections)

   Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts picked the following 14 choices for the Best New Perennials installment of my annual four-part, best-new-plants series.

   The post on Best New Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits of 2023 appeared two weeks ago, and the one on Best New Annual Flowers of 2023 appeared last week. The series finishes next week with a look at the Best New Trees and Shrubs of 2023.

   The following new perennial flowers are available online and in some plant catalogs. They’ll start showing up in local garden centers in April.

   The details:

Coneflower Artisan Yellow Ombre

   This compact, disease-resistant, gold-yellow coneflower is the favorite new-for-2023 perennial of Penn State Flower Trials Director Sinclair Adam.

   Adam says Artisan Yellow Ombre blooms from June to September on plants that grew only 10 inches tall in the Penn State trials – significantly shorter than the projected 24-inch height.

   “The lovely yellow color makes a nice new addition to the Artisan series,” he says, adding that all of the Artisan Collection coneflowers have scored very well in Penn State trials.

   Yellow Ombre also was a strong enough performer in nationwide trials that it won 2023 All America Selections honors in the Southeast and Northwest regions of the U.S.

   I test-grew two Yellow Ombres last summer and also found the variety to have big and vibrant flowers on short, stocky plants that my resident deer didn’t touch.

   Being a native species, this plant is also attractive to birds and butterflies. It does best in full sun and is drought-tough once established.

Astilbe ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ (Credit: Walters Gardens)

Astilbe ‘Dark Side of the Moon’

   Fanciers of dark-leafed plants will love this new shade-tolerant perennial that’s the market’s first dark-leafed astilbe with purple flowers.

   The leaves of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ emerge yellow with a glossy, dark margin and then morph to a uniform, deep-chocolate/burgundy, says Nicole Hoonhurst, spokesperson for Michigan-based Walters Gardens, which is introducing the plant under the Proven Winners brand.

   Hoonhurst rates it as her favorite new perennial of 2023. The variety also earned a 2023 National Garden Bureau Green Thumb award as the year’s best new perennial.

   ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ reaches 20 to 22 inches tall, including the late-summer rosy-purple flower spikes. It’ll do well in shade or part shade and even full sun if the soil is kept damp.

Loosestrife ‘Burgundy Mist’

   ‘Burgundy Mist’ is another new dark-leafed plant that Bryan Benner, the head perennial grower at wholesale Quality Greenhouses near Dillsburg, rates as his favorite new perennial of 2023.

   Benner likes how the burgundy foliage contrasts with the star-shaped yellow flowers. He says ‘Burgundy Mist’ grows quickly and densely to make a colorful, weed-choking groundcover. And he points out it’s a native form of loosestrife (Lysimachia lanceolata) that’s attractive to native bees.

   ‘Burgundy Mist’ has lance-like leaves, grows about 20 to 24 inches tall, and is resistant to heat, drought, and deer. The flowers open in July and persist through summer.

The Best New Annual Flowers of 2023

January 17th, 2023

   One of the best-blooming petunias yet, four striking new begonias, and a pair of disease-resistant impatiens are among a slew of interesting new annual flowers debuting in the 2023 growing season.

Petunia Itsy Magenta (Credit: Penn State Flower Trials)

   Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts picked those and more for the four-part, best-new-plants series that I compile each January – a good month for gardeners to plan what to plant in the coming season.

   I focus on the Best New Annual Flowers of 2023 in today’s installment. In case you missed it, last week’s post covered the Best New Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits of 2023. I’ll write posts the next two weeks on the Best New Perennial Flowers of 2023 and the Best New Trees and Shrubs of 2023.

   Some of the following new annual flowers are available in seeds or plants online and in some plant catalogs. Most also will show up in plant form in local garden centers beginning in late April to early May.

   The details:

Petunia Itsy Magenta

   Lots of petunias are super-bloomers these days, so it says something when a new variety outscores the field in side-by-side trials.

   That was the case last summer at the Penn State Flower Trials in Lancaster County where Director Sinclair Adam says Itsy Magenta clocked in as the best-scoring petunia out of nearly 90 competitors.

   Adam picks Itsy Magenta as one of his top new flowers of 2023, citing the variety’s “great blooming ability, compact habit, and clean foliage all season.”

   He says the trial plants bloomed non-stop from June to September in a deep-magenta shade.

   As the series name suggests, Itsy petunias are smaller-flowered than most petunias and also are mounding, trailing low-growers that are ideal in baskets and pots.

   Petunias do best in full sun to light shade.

Rudbeckia Sunbeckia ‘Carla’ (Credit: Penn State Flower Trials)

Rudbeckia Sunbeckia ‘Carla’

   Adam was also impressed with this new rudbeckia in the German-bred Sunbeckia series.

Sunbeckia ‘Carla’ has large three- to four-inch flowers that are bright gold with tinges of burgundy-red.

   Adams says that ‘Carla’ is not only showy (it scored a perfect 5 for blooms in the 2022 Penn State trials), it has a uniform habit and strong stems as well.

   It’s also fairly cold-hardy and could survive a milder central-Pennsylvania winter, so don’t yank these at season’s end. Wait to see if new growth appears the following spring.

   Plants grow about 32 inches tall, ideally in full sun or light shade.

Begonia Lunar Lights ‘Sterling Moon’ (Credit: Plants Nouveau)

Begonia Lunar Lights ‘Sterling Moon’

   One of the most striking foliage annuals hitting the market in 2023 is this first entry in a new showy-leafed, cold-tolerant begonia series called Lunar Lights.

   ‘Sterling Moon’ has big, textural, puckered mint-green leaves that are heavily variegated in silvery-white, making it look like the plant has been nearly covered in snow.

   “I love this new begonia,” says Plants Nouveau co-owner Angelina Treadwell-Palmer, who rates ‘Sterling Moon’ as her favorite 2023 new annual. “It makes a lovely patio plant in summer and an indoor plant in winter. The foliage is amazing.”

   Similar to Sunbeckia ‘Carla,’ ‘Sterling Moon’ is also cold-hardy enough to survive a mild central-Pennsylvania winter – or a warm microclimate. It’ll be sold as an annual, although another option is potting and growing them inside as houseplants over the winter.

   Outside, ‘Sterling Moon’ will do best in part shade, especially in a pot. Plants grow about 30 inches tall and 24 inches wide. Summer flowers are salmon-pink.