George's Current Ramblings and Readlings

The Best New Vegetables and Fruits of 2021

January 12th, 2021

   If even a fraction of the estimated 16 million new gardeners who tried growing their own food for the first time last year goes at it again this year, demand will remain high for vegetable seeds and young, spring-time transplants.

Kitchen Minis are edibles bred for indoors growing.
Credit: PanAmerican Seed

   The bottom line is that you’d better get your seed orders in early and your plans in place over winter, especially if you’re a gardener who seeks out specific, must-have varieties.

   Breeders and plant developers have another intriguing lineup of new plants ready to hit the market for 2021.

   For your planning pleasure, I’ll take a look today at some of the year’s best new edibles. Then in the next three weeks, we’ll explore what growers have coming as the best new annual flowers (Jan. 19), the best new perennial flowers (Jan. 26), and the best new trees and shrubs (Feb. 2).

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

   The details on best new edibles of 2021:

Kitchen Minis

   Some trend-watchers think the surge in edible-gardening will carry over into a demand for edibles that can be grown indoors – including in the winter… and without the need for costly lighting or hydroponics equipment.

   PanAmerican Seed is introducing a line of  “Kitchen Mini” plants that have been bred in Denmark just for that purpose. The plants are super-compact potted tomatoes and peppers (with other crops to follow) that produce indoors on a sunny windowsill.

   Kitchen Minis “ripen in pots as small as eight inches and in lower light conditions so you can have fresh flavors any time of year,” says Josh Kirschenbaum, PanAmerican’s vegetables account manager. “Our motto for Kitchen Minis is ‘No garden? No problem.’”

   The first introductions are small-fruited peppers – both sweet and hot ones – and a pair of cherry tomatoes – ‘Micro Tom,’ which grows 18 inches tall and produces red fruits in 50 days, and ‘Siam,’ which stays under a foot tall and produces red fruits in 70 to 84 days.

   Both of the tomatoes are determinate, meaning they ripen most of their fruits around the same time instead of producing on and on for months.

‘Midnight Cascade’ blueberry.
Credit: Bushel and Berry

Blueberry ‘Midnight Cascade’

The Bushel and Berry Collection is a line of compact fruit bushes aimed at small-space gardens and container growing. They’re also designed to be good-looking plants as well.

New in the collection for 2021 is ‘Midnight Cascade,’ touted as the first hanging-basket blueberry.

   This variety produces the same white, bell-shaped spring flowers and early-summer blue fruits as traditional vase-shaped blueberry plants but has a loose, trailing habit that’s ideal for growing out of a hanging basket.

   “The foliage has hints of red that will darken in fall weather,” adds Katie Dubow, a spokeswoman for Star Roses and Plants, which produces Bushel and Berry plants for garden centers.

   Full sun to light shade is the recommended light setting.

Gardening Trends of 2021

December 29th, 2020

   Droves of stuck-at-home families started food gardens and carved relaxation areas out of their yards this year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vegetable gardens were a hot item in 2020 and look to be popular again in 2021.

   Gardening trend-watchers say those will carry over as the biggest two gardening trends on the 2021 horizon as well.

   As we close the door on 2020, here’s the dirt on everything that trend-watchers see in their compost-stained crystal balls:

Another big vegetable year

   Edible gardening surged in 2020 as shoppers saw dwindling grocery shelves and figured this pandemic year might be a good time to grow their own.

   “While this has been trending for several years, a spike occurred with COVID-19 and the resulting issues with food accessibility and security,” said Andrew Bunting, vice president of public horticulture for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

   “More people were cooking at home instead of going out, so they wanted their own fresh produce to try,” adds Diane Blazek, executive director of the National Garden Bureau.

   “Research shows we picked up 16 million new gardeners during COVID-19, many of whom are under 35,” said Katie Dubow, author of the Chester County-based Garden Media Group’s 2021 Garden Trends Report.

   She says that more than two-thirds of adults are now growing at least some vegetables, herbs, and/or fruits – or are planning to do so in 2021.

   Another measure was the more than 18,000 people who watched live or recorded sessions of Penn State Extension’s 10-part webinar “Victory Garden Reinvented.”

   “After experiencing the self-satisfaction of growing high-quality, delicious fruit and vegetables, gardeners will continue this trend in 2021,” predicts Nancy Knauss, Penn State’s statewide Master Gardener Coordinator.

   PHS’s Bunting goes a step further. “This phenomenal return to vegetable gardening will only gain more steam in 2021,” he says.

   At the very least, says Hershey Gardens horticulture specialist Alyssa Hagarman, edible interest is likely to remain high “with young adults who are very eco-conscious.”

Information explosion

   All of those new gardeners hungered for information on how to grow edibles and more – and that trend is likely to continue, too – if not grow – in 2021.

Gold Medal Plants of 2021

December 22nd, 2020

   One of the best resources for making wise plant picks in Pennsylvania gardens is the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Gold Medal Plant Program.

Redbud ‘Appalachian Red’ is one of seven Gold Medal award-winning plants of 2021.

   Each year, a panel of regional plant experts gets together to hash out what are some of the best trees, shrubs, evergreens, and perennial flowers that deserve greater use in our landscapes.

   The criteria is that the plants have to be hardy in Zones 5 to 7, have to be solid all-around performers, should be attractive in more than one season, and preferably be resistant to deer browsing but beneficial ecologically.

   The deciding factor is that they’re under-used and/or under-known.

   The PHS Gold Medal panel has been making picks since 1979, originally starting with just woody plants but expanding into perennials six years ago.

   Plants are nominated from submissions by home gardeners, garden designers, horticulturists, landscape architects, nursery owners, and propagators.

   I’ve been on the panel a dozen years now, and I can tell you a lot of thought and input goes into the selections. More nominees get rejected than selected. Even one significant drawback can be enough to derail a plant.

   Sometimes we pick a whole species, if the straight species is a superior performer or if multiple varieties of a species are all pretty good.

   Other times, a particular variety is singled out as a Gold Medal-winner.

   PHS just announced its new set of seven winners for 2021 – two trees, a flowering shrub, an evergreen groundcover, and three perennial flowers.

   Those and all of the Gold Medal winners over the years are posted on a newly interactive PHS website that lets you zero in on best plants by their attributes, see images, and read profiles of each winner, including key stats like bloom times, light needs, and mature sizes.

   The new site also lets you sort plants by the year they won or by particular traits you’re looking for, such as deer resistance, attractiveness to pollinators, and whether they’re native plants.

   All of that is posted on the Best Plants for Your Garden section of the PHS website.

   I’ve also grouped all of the winners since 1988 in a category-by-category listing under the George’s Handy List section of my website.

   Here are the 2021 Gold Medal plants:

New Digs for the 2021 Philadelphia Flower Show… Plus Other 2021 Garden Trips

December 15th, 2020

   The Philadelphia Flower Show is going to happen in 2021, but for the first time in the show’s 192-year history, it’ll take place outside.

FDR Park will be the site of the 2021 Philadelphia Flower Show, the first one ever to be held outside.
Credit: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society

   The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic prompted the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, which produces the show, to rethink what’s always been an indoor show – long taking place in late winter.

   To accommodate social distancing and other virus-prevention steps, PHS plans to make the 2021 show a nine-day, nature-themed, outdoor event taking place June 5-13, 2021, at South Philadelphia’s FDR Park.

   Admission will be limited, with guests required to buy advance tickets for specific dates and entry times.

   Tickets are to go on sale in January at the show’s website.

   PHS members will get first crack before then at reserving tickets.

   As we’ve done for years, Lowee’s Group Tours and I plan to run bus trips to the show each weekday, June 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. Admission will be included, and we’ll take you from two pickup points in the Harrisburg area to the show venue, just west of Philly’s stadium complex (Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Park, and the Wells Fargo Center) and not far from the city’s Navy Yard.

   The cost is $95, including your show ticket. Details are on my George’s Talks and Trips page or you can sign up and get more details by calling Lowee’s at toll-free 1-888-345-6933 or visiting Lowee’s website.

   The Philadelphia Flower Show is just one of the 13 garden-trip offerings Lowee’s and I are planning for 2021. We’re hoping that COVID-19 will be just a bad memory by then and that we’ll all be able to get out and about again.

   Keep reading for more on the rest of the 2021 lineup.

Giving Gardeners

December 8th, 2020

   It’s no secret there was a huge boom in vegetable gardening this year – whether it was because people were worried about the food supply or because they were stuck at home and looking for productive things to do.

Sean and Stacey McNicholl harvest produce from their Philadelphia-area GreenHorn Garden.
(Credit: Pa. Horticultural Society)

   The green industry estimates some 16 to 18 million new gardeners dug into the soil this pandemic year with the vast majority planting edibles.

   But not all of the produce that came out of those new gardens went to the gardeners themselves.

   Many gardeners – new and veteran – donated their tomatoes, peppers, cukes, zukes, and such to friends, neighbors, churches, food banks, and anyone else who could use it.

   One couple who gave in an enormous way was a young Philadelphia-area couple named Sean and Stacey McNicholl.

   These Upper Darby thirtysomethings used their urban-farm land and their greenhouse in a cemetery (once a stop on the Underground Railroad) to churn out more than 15,000 pounds of give-away produce.

   That amounted to nearly half of the 33,000 pounds of total produce that thousands of other gardeners donated through the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Harvest 2020 initiative.

   PHS announced that food-donation program in the spring as a way to encourage gardeners to help their Philadelphia neighbors in need.

   PHS, best known for running the Philadelphia Flower Show, wrote a piece about the McNicholls’ efforts at season’s end. I got PHS’s permission to share it with you.

   Here it is. May it inspire us all for next year: