George's Current Ramblings and Readlings

No Winter “Wow,” but the 2022 Philadelphia Flower Show Will Happen

February 8th, 2022

   Cabin-fevered gardeners normally would be gearing up by now to visit the world’s biggest and oldest indoor flower show, which usually takes place in early March just two hours down the turnpike from Harrisburg.

This artist rendering shows the planned entrance to the 2022 Philadelphia Flower Show.
Credit: Pa. Horticultural Society

   But in case you’re wondering why you’re not hearing much about it, the Philadelphia Flower Show for the second straight year is taking place outside in June.

   To be specific, the 2022 show is scheduled for June 11 through 19 in the same place it was held last June – over 15 acres in south Philadelphia’s FDR Park.

   Lowee’s Group Tours and I will be offering five daily trips to the show June 13-17. Two of them will be show-only offerings, while three of them will include morning tours of three different Philadelphia-area public gardens before heading over to the Flower Show (Fairmount Park/Shofuso Japanese Garden, Morris Arboretum, and Chanticleer). See details on all of the trips here.

Read George’s PennLive.com report, with photos, from the 2021 first-time-outside Philadelphia Flower Show

   A lot of people (me included) were hoping the show would go back to its good, old, indoor, end-of-winter self after a year when COVID forced it outside for the first time in its 193-year history.

   But as people continued to get infected with COVID, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s show planners eventually had to make a decision. The continuing uncertainty carried the day.

   “The whole driving force is COVID and the unknowns from it,” Sam Lemheney, PHS’s chief of shows and events, told me when the show pulled the plug on the return-to-inside idea late last September. “We have to decide so far in advance to have everything ready and have plants growing in the greenhouses. There are still way too many unknowns and potential complexities with going back inside the Convention Center. We did it last year outside and figure we can do it again… and hopefully make it better.”

The Best New Trees and Shrubs of 2022

February 1st, 2022

   Five hydrangeas with new twists, a compact new native Virginia sweetspire, and a “baby brother” to the popular ‘Green Giant’ arborvitae are among the best new trees and shrubs hitting the market for the 2022 growing season.

Hydrangea Let’s Dance Can Do!
Credit: Proven Winners

   Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts picked the following dozen woody plants for the four-part, best-new-plants series I compile each year.

   Today’s best new trees and shrubs of 2022 is the final installment of this year’s series.

   Part one on best new edibles of 2022 appeared on Jan. 11, part two on best new annual flowers of 2022 appeared on Jan. 18, and part three on best new perennial flowers of 2022 posted last Tuesday, Jan. 25.

   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 Let’s Dance Can Do!

   Of all the many new hydrangeas introduced in the last few years, Proven Winners’ Natalie Carmolli says this one really stands out for its gobs of baseball-sized flowers that keep coming and coming – right to the end of the season.

   “It’s a reblooming machine,” she says. “We knew this plant was special when we released it, but it keeps surprising us with its outstanding ability to rebloom.”

   Carmolli says Can Do’s “secret” is that it sets flower buds along the entire length of each stem, not just at the tips.

   Although Let’s Dance Can Do looks like a common big-leaf hydrangea with rounded blue-violet or pink flowers (depending on soil acidity), it’s actually a type of mountain hydrangea. Mountain hydrangeas have winter-hardier flower buds than most big-leaf types, meaning less chance that winter will kill flower buds (a key answer to the question, “Why didn’t my hydrangeas flower?”)

   Let’s Dance Can Do plants grow three to four feet tall and almost as wide, its leaves turn a purplish shade in fall, and an ideal site is one with morning sun and afternoon shade.

Oakleaf hydrangea ‘Snowcicle’
Credit: Plants Nouveau

Oakleaf hydrangea ‘Snowcicle’

   Another new twist in hydrangeas is ‘Snowcicle,’ which is a native oakleaf type that’s unusual because it has double-flowering blooms.

   Angela Treadwell-Palmer, founder and co-owner of Alabama-based Plants Nouveau, picks this as her favorite new-for-2022 woody plant for its “incredibly long, double-flowered panicles and strong stems that set it apart from all of its predecessors.”

   ‘Snowcicle’s’ summer-long blooms are 12 to 14 inches long and age from creamy-white to a showy combination of rose-red, olive-green, and cream. The strong stems eliminate flopping, which is common on most oakleaf hydrangea varieties.

   ‘Snowcicle’ plants grow four to six feet tall in full sun to part shade and develop a fall foliage color that ranges from deep wine to burnt orange.

The Best New Perennial Flowers of 2022

January 25th, 2022

   Compact versions of two popular native plants, three new ornamental grasses with golden blades, and two new dark-leafed flowers top the list of interesting new perennials debuting in the 2022 growing season.

Amsonia ‘String Theory’
Credit: Walters Gardens

   Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts picked the following 14 perennial-flower choices for the annual four-part, best-new-plants series I compile at the beginning of each year.

   The article on best new edibles of 2022 appeared Tuesday, Jan. 11, while the rundown on best new annual flowers posted last Tuesday, Jan. 18. The series ends next Tuesday, Feb. 1, with a look at the best new trees and shrubs of 2022.

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

   The details:

Amsonia ‘String Theory’

   Amsonia hubrichtii, commonly called “bluestar,” is an under-used native perennial with blue spring flowers and showy fine-textured foliage that turns gold in fall. The main rap against it is that some people think it gets a little tall and floppy with its three-foot height.

   New for 2022 is ‘String Theory,’ a compact version that knocks a foot off of amsonia’s usual height.

   “It’s more compact than the species, plus the leaves don’t turn chlorotic (yellowish) in summer,” says Chris Ruger, a grower for the wholesale Quality Greenhouses near Dillsburg who picks ‘String Theory’ as his favorite new perennial of 2022.

   The variety blooms a little later in spring than the species but still retains the periwinkle-blue flower color as well as the brilliant golden fall-foliage color.

   Plants grow just under two feet tall, ideally in full sun. Amsonia is also heat-tolerant and not a favorite of deer.

Pennisetum ‘Yellow Ribbons’
Credit: Penn State Trial Gardens

Golden/yellow fountain grasses

   This must be the year of the golden fountain grass, which is a compact, deer-resistant type of ornamental grass. Three different experts picked three different new gold-bladed fountain grasses as their favorite perennials of 2022.

   Bucks County author, speaker, and “Perennial Diva” Stephanie Cohen likes the new Lumen Gold variety for both its growing habit and rich golden color.

   “It’s short, fine-textured, grows in a clump, and looks good all season long,” she says. “I’m growing it, and I love it.”

   Lumen Gold’s brightest golden foliage color comes in spring. Plants then soften to lemon in early summer, then more to lime-green the rest of the year with a touch of orange in fall.

   Sinclair Adam, director of Penn State’s Trial Gardens in Lancaster County, likes the new ‘Yellow Ribbons’ fountain grass.

   “It starts out with yellow foliage in early season, then turns greener in midsummer, and in fall the yellow comes back,” Adam says, adding that it has “spotless foliage” and a uniform habit when several are grown in a group.

   Both Lumen Gold and ‘Yellow Ribbons’ grow about two feet tall with a slightly wider spread.

   And one that Walters Gardens’ Laura Robles likes is Prairie Winds ‘Lemon Squeeze.’

   Robles says ‘Lemon Squeeze’ has chartreuse-gold leaves and is “one of the best for vigor that we’ve seen in gold-leafed (fountain grasses) with absolutely no burning in the sun.”

   This one grows a bit larger at about three  tall and wide.

   All three of the above varieties produce tan plumes in mid to late summer in addition to the golden foliage and grow best in full sun and good drainage.

The Best New Annual Flowers of 2022

January 18th, 2022

   A new heavy-blooming petunia with petite white flowers, two new flowers you’ve probably never seen before, and the world’s first trailing salvia are among a banner slate of interesting new annual flowers debuting in the 2022 growing season.

Texas primrose Ladybird Sunglow
Credit: Proven Winners

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

   The article on best new edibles of 2022 appeared last Tuesday, Jan. 11. The best new perennial flowers of 2022 will post next Tuesday, Jan. 25, and the best new trees and shrubs of 2022 is scheduled for Feb. 1.

   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:

Texas primrose Ladybird Sunglow

   Looking for something different? This new variety of a not-so-well-known, heat-tough, Texas-native flower is the favorite new-for-2022 annual of Chris Wallen, a grower at the wholesale Quality Greenhouses near Dillsburg.

   Known botanically as Calylophus, Ladybird Sunglow has bright yellow flowers that resemble evening primrose.

   “It flowered in my home garden non-stop since May and survived that first 23-degree hard (fall) freeze,” Wallen said. “Deer ignored it while eating plants all around it.”

   Ladybird Sunglow grows four to six inches tall, has a mounding habit, is attractive to pollinators, and has no known pest or disease problems.

   “This seems nearly bulletproof,” Wallen says.

   Plants do best in full sun.

Jamesbrittenia Safari Dawn
Credit: Proven Winners

Jamesbrittenia Safari Dawn

   Another new and different annual debuting in 2022 is this bicolor little rosy-pink and yellow bloomer from Proven Winners that looks a bit like sutera (a.k.a. bacopa).

   Wallen says Safari Dawn is a “gigantic improvement over Jamesbrittenia of 15 years ago. It has beautiful bicolor blooms, a nice full habit, and it’s tough and easy to grow. Plants at my house and at the (Penn State) Landisville trial gardens bloomed all summer. My plants also survived that 23-degree hard freeze.”

   Sometimes known as South African phlox, this new Jamesbrittenia grows six to 12 inches tall in a mounding habit and does well in full sun to part shade. Deer don’t like it.

   Fellow Quality Greenhouses growers Andrew Pierozak and Jason Smith also rate Safari Dawn as a 2022 favorite.

   Proven Winners says that “this heat-tolerant South African native has seemingly been on the cusp of greatness for years but has never quite broken through with the right combination of plant performance and beauty. We have finally cracked the code.”

The Best New Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits of 2022

January 11th, 2022

   The COVID-fueled boom in vegetable gardening continued in 2021, and research is showing a high percentage of newbies say they plan to stick with this dirty (but healthy) habit again in 2022.

Fig Fignomenal
Credit: Peace Tree Farm/Concept Plants

   Plant breeders and seed companies are riding the wave by rolling out lots of new edible-plant introductions this year.

   Let’s take a look today at some of the best of the new-for-2022 edibles. If any strike your fancy, don’t dawdle ordering seeds and plants because high demand and order-fulfilling issues have been widespread the past two winters.

   Next Tuesday (Jan. 18), I’ll tell you about some of the best new annual flowers debuting in 2022, then on Jan. 25 I’ll cover the year’s best new perennial flower introductions. I’ll finish off this year’s best-new-plants-of-2022 series Feb. 1 with a look at the year’s best new trees and shrubs.

   Some of the following new edibles are already available in seeds or plants online and in catalogs. Others will show up in local garden centers – seeds already and plants in April and May.

Fig Fignomenal

   Few Pennsylvania gardeners grow figs because they’re seen as not reliably cold-hardy, plus they can get big and wieldy.

   This new fig introduction from Bucks County’s Peace Tree Farm checks off both concerns by being hardy in cold climates and being exceptionally compact – under three feet tall and wide.

   Maria Zampini, president of the Ohio-based UpShoot plant introduction company, thinks Fignomenal is going to be a winner because of its “extremely dwarf and low-mounding habit, which is perfect for urban gardening, indoors as well as outdoors.”

   But she says Fignomenal is a heavy fruiter, too, producing sweet, medium-sized figs that are deep brown on the outside and pink-red on the inside.

   Peace Tree Farm owner Lloyd Traven posted an online video showing him counting 88 figs on a four-year-old Fignomenal plant.

   “It’s a truly dwarf fig that has fruit that ripens in the Northeast,” Traven says.

   The variety won a 2021 Retailer’s Choice Award from The Garden Center Group as one of the year’s most innovative new plants with the potential to become a new best-seller.

   Outside in the ground, Fignomenal plants will do best in warm, sunny, protected areas (such as along as a west-facing stone or brick wall), and for good measure, with a leaf-filled burlap wrap in winter.

   Or they can be grown in pots that are moved inside in winter and back out for the growing season.

Eggplant ‘Icicle’
Credit: All-America Selections

Eggplant ‘Icicle’

   This eggplant with the elongated white fruits is one of five new vegetables good enough to earn 2022 All-America Selections awards based on their performance in national trials.

   ‘Icicle’ has four improvements going for it: 1.) fewer spines than most eggplants, meaning less painful harvesting; 2.) fewer seeds; 3.) good resistance to bugs, and 4.) white skins that don’t yellow like most other white-fruited eggplants.

   ‘Icicle’ grows about four feet tall, averages eight to nine seven-inch-long fruits per plant, and produces mature fruits about 55 days after setting plants out in the garden. It does best in full sun.