Archive for January, 2011

Mum Matchsticks - Hardy thru Zone 4

“What’s Old is New Again!” This is the case of Mum Matchsticks – an exciting New Sun Perennial! I was visiting with Kevin Hurd over at Walters Gardens and he asked me if we had ever considered selling this unusual-looking Chrysanthemum. I, personally, am not a huge fan of Mums…you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. BUT, when I went to their growing field and saw the extremely unusual flowers on this plant I knew we had a huge winner!

Striking QUILLED flowers are about 2″ across with bright yellow centers & hot red fluted flower tips. I’ve never seen anything like this! This hybrid has been around for 20-30 years so you know this is a very long-lived garden Mum.

Matchsticks Mum - Compact & heavy-blooming habit!

A vigorous grower, Matchsticks Mum produces a compact plant 20″ tall and 24″ wide and is LOADED with dozens of these colorful blooms which require NO staking!

And, we’ve had them last over 3 weeks as cut flowers! What more could you ask for in a ultra-hardy Garden Mum?

If you only try one Coneflower this year – make it Red Knee High PPAF Echinacea.

Why?  You’ll get a good reliable Coneflower that comes back every year and it is drop dead gorgeous!

Dependable? You bet!  It has purpurea in its bloodlines which means it will come back year after year. Nothing wimpy here with great performance and LOTS OF BLOOMS!

Echinacea Red Knee High PPAF

I have it on my list of Goosebump plants – we all have a list like that. They are  plants our neighbors google over and well, they give us goosebumps just talking about them.

Red Knee High – yep it’s knee high all right;  nicely proportioned, blooms a long time and the color pairs well with so many colors –  Place it in the middle of the perennial border  and pair with some blues –(I’m fond of Russian Sage Perovskia and Caryopteris)  Enjoy the  butterflies that linger for the show.

Coneflower tip—if you really want some oh-la-la impact, you just got to plant this beauty in groups of 5 or 7.  Seriously, not just 1 or 2, the more the better!

Hardiness, color, performance, goosebump plant – make sure to include Echinacea Red Knee High PPAF this year in your garden.