Showing posts with label Ilex. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ilex. Show all posts

A Peak Into the Future

One of the fun things about working at a wholesale, liner (starter plant) nursery is that you get to see into the future. That's because the new plant varieties we sell today don't hit retail stores until after our customer's grow them a year or two into larger retail-sized plants. So when I analyse our current orders, I get a glimpse of what will be in garden centers in a year or two. 

Would you like to see into the future? Here is a top ten countdown of our top selling new plants. Click on the picture if you want to learn more about the plant.

Kodiak Orange Diervilla

Infinitini Brite Pink Crape Myrtle

Double Play® Red Spirea

Let's Dance® Rave Hydrangea 

Brass Buckle Japanese Holly

Invincibelle® Spirit II

Zinfin Doll™ Hydrangea paniculata

Lo & Behold® 'Blue Chip Jr' Buddleia

Little Quick Fire® Hydrangea paniculata

Bloomerang® Dark Purple Lilac




The Times They Are a-Changin’

“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.

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

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.  

OSO EASY® PETIT PINK rose is an award winning, hardy rose that stays very small.

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

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.  

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

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?  

NORTH POLE® Thuja is a very narrow, fast growing evergreen. 

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.

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.

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!

Freaky Fun Foliage A-Z (part 1)

When making your next tree, shrub or perennial plant purchase, think first about plants that have attractive foliage. It could be a plant with variegated foliage, but there are many other types of leaves that add interest to the landscape. Plants offer a wide array of foliage colors such as yellow, chartreuse, blue, orange, copper, bright reds, dark burgundy and even black. 

 Albizia  Summer Chocolate
Mini Salsa Berberis 
Green leafed plants can also have interesting leaves as well. First off there is an endless range of green hues. Leaf texture also adds interest. Leave texture varies greatly from finely cut leaf, to wavy, to crinkled, to big and bold, all of which provide variation and texture that can make a garden more interesting.  

Pucker Up Cornus
Crème Fraîche Deutzia 
Goldy Euonymus 
Forsythia 'Kumson' 
Bangle Genista
Hydrangea a. petiolaris 'Firefly'
Castle Gold Ilex 
 
 More to come . . .


Sky Miles for Sky Pencil: The Journey from Mt. Daisen to Maryland

You migth suspect I do a bit of traveling – but plants have a funny way of traveling around the world too.

Sky Pencil, Japanese holly, (Ilex crenata) is a plant that has earned some serious sky miles. This narrow, column-like, evergreen holly was discovered in the wild on Mount Daisen, Honshu, Japan by my friend Akira Shibamichi. He then passed it on to his good friend, and my acquaintance, Dr. Yokoi, the noted variegated plant collector. Dr. Yokoi passed it on to Rick Darke (the ornamental grass guru) while he was in charge of research at Longwood Gardens in Kennet Square, Pennsylvania. (I met Rick while I was a summer student at Longwood in 1982). Rick got the plant in 1992 while on a plant collecting trip to Japan with Sylvester March of the United State National Arboretum. The USNA then propagated it and introduced it and now it’s grown by nurseries and gardeners across the U.S. and around the world.


Just to keep the story going, Mike Farrow of Holly Hill Farms nursery in Earlville, Maryland took ‘Sky Pencil’ and crossed it with a male selection of Japanese holly. His goal was to develop a very narrow, conical holly with dark green leaves. You see - vertical Plants, especially those with the quintessential Christmas tree shape are very popular, Thuja occidentalis (aka arborvitae, aka Eastern cedar), Skyrocket Juniper and Dwarf Alberta Spruce (Picea glauca ‘Conica’) are all narrow, pyramidal varieties and nurseries grow them by the acre. Mike Farrow understood this. Successful plant breeding starts with a good eye for plants and a good idea and Mike has both. (His impressive plant portfolio includes Arctic Fire Redstem Dogwood, 'Sienna Sunrise® Nandina, Bollywood Variegated Azalea and Pink Panther Echinacea).


After growing out hundreds seedlings, Mike selected out the six best plants to propagate and to evaluate further. Part of this evaluation took place in Michigan after Mike sent his six holly selections to Spring Meadow. For our part of the evaluation, we propagated and grew on about 1,000 plants of each selection. We evaluated each variety in propagation, as a one gallon crop and then as three gallons to gain a thorough understanding of it production and timing. To better understand how the plant performed in the garden we planted the hollies out on two different test gardens. Eventually we choose the best looking, best performing plant of the bunch. At this point we sent plants to about thirty growers across the country to find out how the plant performed under various climates and soils. Ultimately, after all these evaluations we took the leap and introduced Mike’s new plant as Sky Pointer Holly (Ilex crenata ‘Farrowone’ pp# 20,049).



Sky Pointer Holly has shiny, flat, dark evergreen leaves. The flat leaves make for hard living for spider mites, as they cannot hide and protect themselves under the cupped-shaped shaped leaves which are common on Japanese holly. This gem has tight, upright, conical branching which makes it a great container plant. I see many such plants used in sidewalk cafes and near store fronts for decoration. It’s hardy to zone 6 and just like ‘Sky Pencil’ it appreciates a bit of shade, especially in the winter. Growers appreciate its narrow growth habit. Narrow plants require little or no spacing in the nursery, which ultimately saves them time, labor and money.

And thus the journey continues. Last year, Spring Meadow Nursery shipped Sky Pointer liners (starter plants) to wholesale growers across North America. These growers pot them up, and grow them on for one or two years and then send them on a truck to a garden center near you. If all goes as planned, someone will buy a Sky Pointer holly. Perhaps it will be you. And after you plant it in your yard and watch it grow, I suspect you’ll think about its long journey from Honshu, Japan to your front yard.

Holly Reaches New Heights



I love the saying “Standing on the shoulders of giants” because it reminds me that most all great accomplishments are built on the people that labored before us. This is especially true in plant breeding.

Holger Hachmann, a plant breeder from the Holstein region of Germany is quick to remind people that his breeding work could not have been accomplished if not for his father and a housewife in Long Island, New York.

Holger grew up the son of a nurseryman and renowned plant breeder Hans Hachmann. His father was, without a doubt, the most prolific Rhododendron breeder ever. In addition to introducing hundreds Rhododendrons, he develop a number of popular Potentilla cultivars including Potentilla ‘Hachmann’s Giant.’ Plant breeding was taught to the young Holger by example, just as he learned to weed the fields and to root cuttings. Hans taught his son the secrets of plant breeding. His most important lesson was to start by identifying a problem or weakness in a plant, and then solve it. Certainly Holger was well trained and well equipped to begin his plant breeding career. He had a great teacher.

In stark contrast, years earlier a housewife was laying a new foundation. An amateur horticulturist by the name of Kathleen Kellogg Meserve, told a reporter "Not knowing what I was doing was an advantage. I didn't know what could be done and what couldn't. So I just did it." And without any formal training and without understanding chromosome numbers she develop what we now call Blue Holly. She crossed the beautiful but tender English Holly (Ilex aquafolium) with a hardy, low growing Rugose Holly (Ilex rugosa). At first glance this may seem trivial, but in actuality this cross made it possible for millions of people in Middle America to grow Holly.

And so the foundation was laid; Holger’s father had taught him the tools of plant breeding and Kathleen Meserve invented a hardy holly. And as blue hollies became more popular, Holger found himself growing a good number at his nursery. In time, he soon came to realize that Kathleen’s work was not yet complete. Growing a good quality blue holly took a lot of time and care. The plants grew slowly and required a lot of shearing to make a full plant. Additional people expected hollies to be upright pyramidal evergreens and not round bushes. Here was a breeding opportunity. To solve this problem, Holger crossed the hardy Blue Prince holly with ‘Alaska’ a pyramidal, glossy leaved English holly which was considered the hardiest of all English Holly.

With time and patience Holger made his selections and introduced two new plants. And fittingly, he named his plants Castle Hollies; stately, yet rugged plants built on a strong foundation laid down by two previous “Giants” of the breeding world. Growers in Europe and America have been growing his plants for about four years now and the reports have been very favorable. Castle Spire holly is fast growing female selection with bright red berries. It has a traditional Christmas tree shape. The foliage is quite unlike Blue Holly, being extremely glossy and rich green in color. Castle Wall holly is a very functional male selection. This is Holger’s favorite because it makes good container plant and a great hedge. Its dense, upright habit makes it a good replacement for the over used ‘Hicksii’ yew. With its useful shape and attractive glossy foliage, this plant is more than just a pollinator. It will find a home in the landscape as a specimen, hedge and foundation plant.

Castle Spire

Brick by brick, stone by stone and trait by trait, breeders continue to improve upon the work of their predecessors. Clearly it takes a strong foundation to build a beautiful castle that will stand the test of time.

Berry Nice! Winterberry



When most people think of holly, the image conjured up is one of bright red berries, glossy evergreen foliage and Christmas decorations. So when you talk to the average homeowner about deciduous holly (Ilex verticillata) they look at you as if you were moron. That's because many people consider deciduous holly is an oxymoron. A holly has glossy evergreen leaves, right. No, not always. Ilex verticillata, Winterberry Holly, or Winterberry is our native, wetland holly that looses it leaves each autumn. This is a beautiful shrub is all the more showy because its loss of leaves makes the berry display all the more showy. After the leaves have turned yellow and have fallen, you are left with a breathtaking view of thousands of brightly colored berries clinging to every stem. What a joy to have such color in the middle of winter.

Ilex verticillata is an amazing plant with a tremendous geographical range and a very diverse genetic expression. The native population of Ilex verticillata stretches from Nova Scotia, south to Florida and west to Missouri. It can be found throughout Michigan in low grounds, moist woods, swamps and occasionally in higher, drier soils. Even though it is most commonly found in low swampy soils, it can also be grown quite successfully in your average garden soils. It is an easy to grow plant that has few serious insect or disease problems. As for its genetic variation, this plant can range in heights from 3 feet to 15 feet. The width of the plant is also variable. In wet sites it normally suckers to form a dense spreading thicket. In drier garden soils, it tends to form a tighter clump. At blooming time this plant has little to attract attention. It has very small, inconspicuous white flowers, with male flowers and female flowers found in different individual plants. It is autumn, however, when this plant comes into its own, when its slender branches are draped with small but numerous berries right to the branch tip. The berries remain on the plant until midwinter adding color to the landscape when it is most needed. To facilitate a good berry set it is advisable to purchase at least one male for every three to five female plants and to plant the male in close proximity.

There are a good number of named cultivars to choose from in the market. The red fruited cultivar 'Oosterwijk' is a Dutch selection that is very popular in Europe for the production of cut branches. It is noted for holding its color and berries as a cut branch in flower arrangements. The most popular American selection for cutting is 'Winter Red'. The bright red berries are of medium size and produced in abundance. It is a multi-stemmed; erect plant maturing at 8 to 9 feet in height. One of my favorites is called 'Cacapon'. This beautiful plant has attractive, dark glossy green leaves and compact branching. It has abundant bright red fruit and makes a great landscape plant with year round interest. It matures to 6 to 8 feet and has a nice rounded habit. If you are looking for a smaller plant, 'Red Sprite' is a fantastic low mounded selection that matures at 3 to 5 feet. It has attractive, clean, dark green foliage, and tight branching right down to the ground. This plant makes a great low hedge or mass planting. Its low stature makes it an indispensable variety. For those looking for something a bit different, try 'Winter Gold'. This is yellow-berried sport of 'Winter Red'. The berries are not really gold, but instead and attractive pinkish-orange that lighten up with age. Another attractive color variation is 'Aurantiaca'. This beauty has bright pinkish-orange fruit that lighten with time. It is a eye-catching plant, although a bit untraditional.

Having a rich abundance of Ilex verticillata in Michigan, it is impossible not to hone in on a few exceptional native specimens. After years of observation we have chosen two plants worthy of introduction. One plant was located about ¼ mile off a local road, and for years it never fail but to catch our eye. It has dark red shinny berries produced in great abundance and a well branched rounded habit. The berry display was so nice, we simply named it Berry Nice. We had also been observing a native plant located in a ditch right along side the road. For years we would drive by this plant, and every autumn it would produce a very heavy crop of bright orangish-red fruit. After years of admiration we finally introduced this beauty under the name Berry Heavy. After observing these two selections for the last eight years, I was pleasantly surprised that they have the added benefit of losing their leaves well before other cultivars. This is a real benefit as you can enjoy a better, more unobstructed fruit display in the autumn.

No matter which selection you grow, Ilex verticillata is a shrub worth getting to know and understand. Landscapers on the East Coast, who are blessed with a climate which allows for the growing of many fine evergreen hollies, have adopted winterberry as a regular staple in their landscaping palette. If you're a landscaper, or a designer, I urge you to try at least one new plant a year and make Ilex verticillata this years plant. It is a tough, easy to grow shrub that looks great in mass. Use it in place of Viburnum dentatum, Arrowwood Viburnum. It will the perfect plant for wet, or poorly drained sites. Use it around retention ponds or near a runoff ditch. Don't reserve this worthy plant just for wet sites, is will grow just fine in drier soils. With the new demand for native plants, winterberry fits the bill and looks good too! And as the old commercial use to says "Try it - You'll like it!"