What Are Your Favorite New Plants?

I was recently asked to give a talk at the GLTE - Great Lakes Trade Exposition and I was asked to speak on my 10 favor shrubs. I don't know about you but this is nearly an impossible task. Every day I have a new list of favorites - depending upon what's going on in the garden.

Any way it got me thinking - and I added some pics of a few of my current favorites to the bottom right hand side of my blog page. I also thought it would be interesting to hear about your favorite plants - especially any new plants that you think are exciting and would like to share with everyone.

So Tell Me - What are your favorite plants? And tell us why.

Post your list as a comment and tell us your favorites.

The JC Raulston Arboretum - A Plant Lovers Candy Store

In my last post I featured Lo & Behold 'Blue Chip', a new dwarf buddleia developed by Dr. Dennis Werner. I should have noted that Dr. Werner is the Director of the JC Raulston Arboretum, which is run by NC State University.

If you love plants and if you have plans to visit Raleigh, North Carolina, then a visit to the JCRA is essential. It is one of my favoite places to visit because I always come across many new plants that I never seen before.

The JC Raulston Arboretum is a nationally acclaimed garden with the most diverse collection of cold hardy temperate zone plants in the southeastern United States. As a part of the Department of Horticultural Science at NC State University, the Arboretum is primarily a working research and teaching garden that focuses on the evaluation, selection and display of plant material gathered from around the world. Plants especially adapted to Piedmont North Carolina conditions are identified in an effort to find better plants for southern landscapes.
The Arboretum is an 8-acre jewel that has been largely built and maintained by NC State University students, faculty, volunteers, and staff. The Arboretum is named in honor of its late director and founder, J. C. Raulston, Ph.D., who founded it in 1976.

Plant collections include over 5,000 total taxa (species and/or cultivars) of annuals, perennials, bulbs, vines, groundcovers, shrubs, and trees from over 50 different countries, which are displayed in a beautiful garden setting.

Plant breeding has been, and continues to be, a part of the arboretums function. While Lo & behold Buddleia ‘Blue Chip’ is the newest plant to be released from the arboretum, many of you have also heard of Sinocalycanthus ‘Hartlage Wine’, which was also developed at the JCRA. This remarkable plant was the first hybrid between Calycanthus and Sinocalycanthus.

Two excellent ways to stay in touch with what is happening at the JCRA is through the frequent e-mail postings from the Cuttings from the JC Raulston Arboretum listserv and the JCRA e-Updates. Cuttings from the JC Raulston Arboretum features current events and developments at the Arboretum. The monthly JCRA e-Updates offer another great way to read about current and upcoming happenings at the Arboretum.

Have you every visited the JC Raulston Arboretum? Please post a comment let us what you think.

A Spiraea with Fragrant Blue Flowers?

Image if you can - a new selection of Japanese Spiraea

One with blue flowers ...

that's fragrant ...

that blooms from mid-summer to frost ...

that attracts butterflies ...

Can it be true? Does such a plant exist?

The answer is NO and YES.

No - there is no such thing as blue flowered Spiraea. I’ve looked.

Yes - there is a plant that has the same neat mounded habit as a Japanese Spiraea and that has loads of fragrant blue flowers. What is it?

Lo and Behold™ ‘Blue Chip’ - A new Butterfly Bush (Buddleia hybrid).

Personally I have a love hate relationship with Butterfly Bush. I love the bright colors, I love the sweet fragrance, I love the long bloom time, I love the flock of dancing butterflies that it attracts and I love that it’s easy of grow.

But at the same time, I hate that it can look so darn scraggly and beat up. Let’s face it people don’t know how to prune buddleia and with time the plant can look really bad! I also hate seeing the blown out - overgrown containers that some growers put out on the market. One day you have a really nice looking three gallon, but the next day you have a tangled mess on you hands. Buddleia can grow too fast for it own good.

But now, Lo & Behold ‘Blue Chip’ is about to change the way we think about buddleia and how we use it in the garden and in the landscape. Credit for this revolutionary breed goes to Dr. Dennis Werner of The J. C. Raulston Arboretum . This is the first of a series of dwarf and compact plants that will be sold in the Lo & Behold series name. This remarkable plant is perfectly at home in a perennial garden, it makes a very cool patio container, and it can even be used a mass planted ground cover.

As an added bonus it does not have to be dead-headed to keep on flowering. Normally you have to remove the old flowers on buddleia to keep it looking good and keep it flowering. With this new plant, the new flowers just keep on coming while the old flowers fade away. And if that was not enough, this plant is essentially seedless – you need not worry about stray seedlings popping up around the garden.

Don’t bother asking me where to buy it - because it’s not yet available for sale.

Better independent garden centers will have a limited number of plants in the summer of 2008. There should be wider availability in the spring of 2009. Lo and Behold 'Blue Chip is a Proven Winners ColorChoice flowering shrub, so garden center buyers will have to contact a Gold Key Proven Winners ColorChoice grower if they hope to offer this plant in 2008.

Kudos to Dr. Dennis Werner for redefining the Butterfly Bush.

Little known Ginkgo cultivars from Hungary

During our visit to Hungary we were surprised at the number of unfamiliar tree cultivars of Hungarian origin. I suspect that during its 44 years under communism the country did not have full access to the genetics of the West, and thus nurseries developed their own selections. We saw a good many Hungarian selections of Ginkgo biloba. Here are three Hungarian selections (above) that we had never heard of before venturing into this Eastern European country.

If there are any tree growers reading this, I would suspect that you would find the wide array of Hungarian tree selections quite interesting. You might consider making a trip to Hungary to see for yourself. We saw many interesting Hungarian tree selections including many unique cultivars of Morus, Platanus, Pyrus, Prunus, Salix and Sorbus. We were particularly impressed with the selections of Sorbus. I will post of few of the more interesting cultivars in my next post.

Hungarians are very fond of conifers and most of their gardens feature a wide array of cultivars. Many of these are Hungarian varieties that were selected to be tolerant of high light levels and lime soils. Here is a sampling of some Hungarian conifer selections.

Anything interesting for you? Let's here your comments.

Plant Hunting in Hungary

What a joy it was to spend a week in Hungary, visiting nurseries, plant breeders and botanic gardens. While I am still exhausted, and suffering from jet lag, I am still glowing with joy after seeing good plants, meeting wonderful people, tasting great and unexpected foods and sampling some most unusual local spirits.

First and foremost the Hungarian people were kind, generous and fun. They are a proud people with a rich heritage in architecture, cuisine, plants, beer and wine. Everyone we met insisted that we sample some special Hungarian meal. My goodness, I think I gained 10 pounds on this trip - but I must say that it was well worth it. I took pictures of some of our meals and I expect to share their food with you as well, over the next few posts.

One of the highlights of our trip was a personally guided tour of Budapest at night. The sights were incredible and rich with colored lights reflecting off the mighty Danube River. Statutes, castles, bridges and the sights and smells of Budapest at night made a lasting impression. Oh how sorry I felt for the tourists that missed out on this city in favor of the more routine. Sure Paris is beautiful, but in Budapest we felt as if we had it all to ourselves.

Stay tuned for my next few posts and I will show you the plants we found and some of the food we enjoyed. See you soon. Until then - get out and enjoy your garden. The hydrangea paniculata are in peak autumn color and the caryopteris is in full bloom.

Plant a Hydrangea on your Tree

There are few plants that create as much excitement as does Climbing Hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris) especially when seen in full bloom, lighting up the trunk of a tall oak tree. This is an outstanding plant that deserves greater use. Climbing Hydrangea is native to the woodlands of Japan and coastal China. The lacy, creamy-white blooms are 6 to 10" in diameter and appear in late June or early July. The blooms are actually comprised of numerous small flowers, some fertile and some sterile. The sterile flowers are larger and showier and encircle the smaller fertile flowers in the center of the bloom. The effect is unforgettable! Climbing Hydrangea is an attractive plant even when not in bloom. It has glossy heart-shaped leaves and cinnamon colored stems with exfoliating bark that make this plant interesting all year long.
Climbing hydrangea can reach heights of 50 to 80 feet if it has the support of a large tree to do so. It looks great on tall trees, on stone pillars, on brick walls or cascading over a rock pile. It is not overly aggressive like some vines can be. Dr. Michael Dirr, author of the Manual of Woody Landscape Plants calls it "The Best Vine!"

Climbing Hydrangea is most often sold as a container grown plant. Planting can take place from spring until fall. Plant it next to a brick wall or aside tall tree with an eastern or westward exposure. The planting depth should be the same depth as it was grown in the nursery. On poorly drained soils, planting depth may be raised several inches and soil should be sloped up to the original soil level of the container. The addition of organic matter such as compost, aged manure or peat moss will improve plant growth. Once situated at the proper depth in the planting hole firm the soil around the root ball and water thoroughly to remove any air spaces. The addition of a surface mulch of 3-4” will help retain soil moisture. Climbing Hydrangea is not the fastest plant to establish and growth will be slow for several years after planting. Once established the growth will improve with each passing year.

Climbing Hydrangea is a great plant that has tremendous potential. Few people have ever seen this plant. Once they have they will never forget it and will most certainly want one of their own!

There are several new cultivars of climbing hydrangea that are worth looking for. 'Skyland's Giant' (see above image) is a new variety selected for especially large flowers. 'Fire Fly' is a new variegated selection of climbing hydrangea that is simply spectacular in in the spring when the plant flushes. It has the same great flowers as the species. As the season progressed the variegation becomes less pronounced.