“Come
gather 'round people wherever you roam
and admit that the waters around you have grown
and accept it that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you is worth savin'.
Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone
for the times they are a-changin'.” -Bob Dylan
I’m sure that Bob Dylan wasn't writing about the nursery business when he wrote these iconic lyrics, but
nothing better sums up what’s going on in the world of plants and in particular
the world of shrubs. Surely, the times they’re a changin'! To illustrate this change, just get in your
car and drive around some neighborhoods, both new and old, and note how the landscapes
have evolved in relation to the age of the homes. With each new generation there has been a
dramatic shift in the landscape, the way plants are used and the type of plants
being used.
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| Homeowners want more color. The yews and junipers are gone. |
Color has increased;
perennials and flowering shrubs have replaced yews and junipers that were once so common. There’s been an overall increase in plant
diversity; the ubiquitous crab apple and blue spruce have been replaced with a
myriad of plant species. And as homes
have become larger and lots smaller, people no longer have the space for big, old-fashioned shrubs. At first glace one
might jump to the conclusion that shrubs have seen their day, but in light of
societal changes and new breeding efforts I believe that shrubs are actually the
beginning of a renaissance.
As the Product Development Manager
at Spring Meadow Nursery, my search for new plants takes me around the
world, and I get to meet a wide array of professional and amateur plant
breeders. I have the rare opportunity to
see what will be new four or five years before the rest of the industry. As a
plant geek and horticulturist, I get excited when I see that one-of-a-kind new
plant. It’s like searching for buried
treasure, but my task requires that I exercise restraint and show good
judgment. I search for plants that meet the needs homeowners. To sort through all these new plants and to
help me make sound introduction decisions, I've developed an internal plant selection criteria that helps me focus on those plants the non-horticulturists would want to buy.
We have a clear vision for shrubs, and our
goal is to reinvent the way people view and use them. Here is a sampling of what I look for when
searching for new shrubs.
Shrubs as Perennials
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| Shrubs are no longer just the bones of the garden |
Botanically speaking, shrubs are
perennials - they just happen to have woody stems, but in laymen’s terms people
view perennials as herbaceous plants with colorful flowers. Shrubs, on the other hand, have been viewed as
the backbone of the garden: something green to plant in the background. This is
not my view. Plant breeders are
developing new shrubs that are blurring our traditional lines of plant classification.
MY MONET™ (Weigela
f. ‘Verweig’), LO & BEHOLD® butterfly bushes, and OSO HAPPY® PETIT PINK rose are all examples of miniature shrubs that look more like perennials.
Gardeners and landscapers use them like perennials in borders, decorative containers and mass plantings. While these shrubs fill the same niche as perennials, they don’t require the same level of maintenance. There is no need for deadheading, dividing, or staking. You don’t have to cut them back in autumn or spring. I recently read an article that described shrubs as the lazy man’s perennial, and there’s truth to that. People complain about a lack of time in this day and age, so the future for small and miniature shrubs is very promising.
Colorful Foliage
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| Colorful, and interesting foliage, like you get with LEMON LACE™ Sambucus adds garden interest. |
Some years back, I was responsible
for producing over a million perennials. The goal of the program was to provide
retailers with bud and bloom perennials. Everyone knows that perennials sell a whole lot
better when they’re in bloom, but unfortunately, most only bloom for four to
six weeks. It was a very difficult task shipping
all these perennials before the blooms had expired while building weekly
assortments with sufficient amounts of color. The lesson I learned was that plants with
colorful foliage could be sold every week, all season long. I could always count on Hosta, Heuchera, Artemisia, and Pulmonaria
to ship every week. These same benefits
were passed on to retailers and gardeners – colorful foliage looks good all
season long in the garden center and the garden. The same lesson can be applied to shrubs: shrubs
with colorful foliage have a longer selling season, and when they do flower, it’s icing on the cake.
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| CRÈME FRAICHE™ Deutzia |
Over the last
ten years, we have seen a wide array of new shrub introductions with attractive,
colorful foliage. CRÈME FRAICHE™ (Deutzia gracilis
‘Mincream’), TINY WINE® (Physocarpus
o. ‘SMPOTW'’), BLACK LACE™ (Sambucus
nigra ‘Eva’) and WINE & ROSES® (Weigela f. ‘Alexandra’) are just a few. Again, everyone benefits from the season-long
color provided by these shrubs.
Shrubs with Unique Architecture
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| The narrow architecture of SUNJOY® GOLD PILLAR Berberis opens up new uses in the landscape. |
Some years back, I received a call
from Gary Koller, a well-respected garden
designer in the Boston
area. Gary
urged me to find and offer more shrubs with narrow, columnar growth habits. In
his opinion, we needed plants with a smaller footprint that took up less space
in the landscape. He also felt these
shrubs added interesting architecture to gardens. The trend toward smaller home lots dictates the
need for smaller and/or narrower shrubs. After all, who has the space for a Spiraea x ‘Vanhouttei’ in their garden
anymore?
Narrower shrubs have another great
benefit: they require less care and maintenance. Growers spend less time spacing and pruning them
which saves them money. Homeowners also
benefit from these shrubs as they save them both time and effort. SKY POINTER® (Ilex crenata
‘Farrowone’), CASTLE WALL™ (Ilex
x meserveae ‘Hechenstar’), FINE LINE® (Rhamnus frangula
‘Ron Williams’) and NORTH POLE® arborvitae (Thuja) are a few narrow plants that have seen increased popularity
over the last few years. I suspect this
trend will continue.
Multiple Seasons of Interest
For most people, the yard and
garden space has become much too valuable for plants that only shine a few
weeks of the year. People want and
expect more than three to four weeks of flowers. Colorful foliage addresses this need quite
well, but shrubs with interesting fruit and fall color fit the bill. BRANDYWINE™ (Viburnum nudum ‘Bulk’) is a good
example of a shrub that earns its keep. It
has extremely glossy green foliage, attractive white flowers, rich burgundy red
autumn foliage, and an outstanding fruit display that starts out green, changes
to pink, then transforms to blue. And while the species typically requires a
second cultivar to cross pollinate in order to fruit, this cultivar does not. Its flowers are self-compatible, and thus it fruits
abundantly without a pollinator. It’s a
work-horse of a shrub that gives season long pizzazz.
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| Flowers, fruit, form and fall color make BRANDYWINE™ Viburnum a plant with seasons of interest. |
Shrubs that rebloom, by their very
nature, offer multiple seasons of interest. With the success of plants like ‘Stella d’Oro’ daylily and Endless Summer® hydrangea, we have continued to look
for shrubs that rebloom. BLOOMERANG® Lilac (Syringa x. ' Penda’)
starts blooming in May, rests in June, starts flowering again in July, and continues non-stop until frost. SONIC BLOOM™ weigela blooms and reblooms continuously without dead-heading. It
just keeps on flowering!
Superior Performance and Ease
of Care
It should be noted that no matter
how colorful, how sexy, or how big the flowers, everyone expects that a plant will
perform. Long gone are the days when
people were willing to spray their plants to keep them healthy. Just look at the rose market - Knock Out®, Oso Easy®, and Home Run® roses do not have the big, showy flowers of a ‘Queen Elizabeth’ rose, yet they’re
in high demand because they’re easy to grow. People want plants that are going to live – and
that they can count on. Sure there will
always be die-hard gardening enthusiasts who enjoy the challenge of growing
Himalayan blue poppies, but according to the National Gardening Association, 81%
of the population is comprised of casual, reluctant, and non-gardeners. It’s unfortunate, but most of these people do
not know how to prune a shrub or amend soil pH, and they have no desire to learn. If we want to sell plants to the majority of
the population, we have to give them plants that are easy to grow. New shrub
breeding is providing just that.
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| PINK HOME RUN® roses add lots of color with little effort. |
The Future looks Very Bright
As you can see, plant breeders are
reinventing shrubs to meet the needs of today’s growers, retailers, landscapers, and gardeners. European breeder rights
laws, as well as U.S. plant patents, have given breeders greater incentive to
develop new shrubs, and the pace is quickening, but new is not necessarily
better. The patent books are full of plants that no one wants. It takes a lot more than larger flowers to be
successful in today’s market. People are
demanding more. And like Bob says, “The
times they are a-changin,” and so are shrubs. In my view, they’re no longer just
the bones of the garden – new shrubs are changing the way we grow, sell, garden, and landscape. The future looks very bright indeed!
