Posts Tagged ‘Drought Tolerant’

Coneflowers are one of the best garden plants.  They tolerate heat, wind, humidity, drought, clay soil, and some shade and come in an array of colors, heights, flower forms. It is really difficult to choose because they are so beautiful.   (ok – I’ll  take three of each just because I can’t make up my mind).

Echinacea Marmalade really caught my attention this past year.  It’s no wonder since it’s from breeder Arie Bloom (Plants Nouveau). Arie has been bringing  us so many amazing, mostly double flowering coneflowers such as Hot Papaya, Pink Double Delight, Coconut Lime, and Marmalade to name a few.

There are a few things I noticed about Marmalade Coneflower this past year and why it is such a  jammin great plant.

1 – Double the Color=Double the Fragrance

Beautifully formed 4” flowers each containing 150 vibrant orange petals. Blooms will range from a oh-so-pretty deep

orange to a peachy buff color.  Double flowering forms means double the fragrance in your garden!  Plus Coneflowers make for a great cut flower!

2 – Longest Coneflower to Bloom

Marmalade was in full bloom in Mid-June.  In Michigan, Coneflowers don’t even start blooming in July and still in full bloom in September with any cutting back or deadheading!

3 – Lax Attitude

Coneflowers can vary in habit from upright to varying degrees of lax, more open habit.  The later, like Marmalade makes for a fuller plant while providing cozy company when nestled in between two taller plants  (such as Butterfly Bush and Pennisetum Karley Rose).

4 – Lasting Color

Deep orange blooms ages to a long lasting buff color.  Other coneflowers turn black immediately after the flower fades,

but not Marmalade. This coneflower will give you long lasting garden performance late in the season before turning dark.

5 – Highest Coneflower Rating

Every year, Great Garden Plants donate new plants to Chicago Botanical Gardens for their Plant Trials.   We were very pleased to hear from Richard Hawke, Plant Evaluation Manager that amidst hundreds of Coneflowers in their evaluation, this was his favorite Coneflower in 2011 for exceptional display and performance.

Add this charming Coneflower to your perennial garden this year, if you haven’t done so already.

Where to Buy Echinacea Marmalade

Tips on Growing Coneflowers

When it comes to my favorite shade plant, Brunnera ‘Jack Frost ’ PP13,859 easily comes to the top of my list.  Few shade perennials have such interesting silver foliage through the season.  This clump forming plant is  a versatile deer proof groundcover that is widely adaptable to numerous shade garden designs such as woodland settings, near ponds – even containers.

I can’t think of a more beautiful plant to be named Perennial Plant of the Year in 2012 than Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’.

The foliage resembles crackled porcelain.  In the shade garden it creates a shimmering silver contrast against other companion plants.

Here are a few Garden Design Tips to make Brunnera work for you your shade landscape.

Container Gardening.  This is an easy shade container plant!  I like using big pots when it comes to containers. Keep pots consistently moist.  In the event plants wilt or the foliage begins looking tatty, simply trim off old foliage and new fresh foliage will emerge later.

Transition or Filler Plant.  Brunnera is a delightful shade plant in garden design to transition or fill in between two large shrubs or perennials.  This gives a wonderful flow to the garden.

Pair the gorgeous  Brunnera as an under-planting to  red Japanese Maples. To extend bloom time in the garden pair Spring blooming Brunnera  with summer flowering Hydrangea.

Combine Brunnera with narrow leaf Hakonechloa and radiant yellow Heucherella Stoplight

Dark Foliage Plants.  You can really make dark-leaf Heucheras, Red Coleus or other dark foliage plants pop with color when combined with silver Brunnera. Dark and light foliage plants pair well in garden design.

Leaf Shape Combinations. The heart-shape foliage of Brunnera contrasts with narrow leaf forms of  shade Ornamental Grasses such as  of Hakonechloa or Carex.   I love combining Brunnera with with soft, airy-texture of Ferns.

Have Sun? Plant on the east side of the house, near a large boulder or large plant . Anywhere you can find shade from the afternoon sun.

Brunnera is such a terrific shade plant. I sincerely hope you included it in your garden design plans if you haven’t done so already!

More info:

How To Grow Brunnera

Brunnera Jack Frost – Where to Buy

Hellebores have become America’s #1 Deer Proof Plant for Shade Garden.  Pink Frost Hellebore is a  spring flowering shade groundcover with unique silver evergreen foliage. Exciting rare &  drought proof perennial. Watch our video and  find out why this is such a stunning shade plant for the perennial garden.

Grown and shipped in our Jumbo 1 Quart Pots  at www.GreatGardenPlants.com

I never thought I’d live to see the day that we were able to grow a true PINK flowered Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger), but famed English hybridizer David Tristram has finally accomplished his goal!

After many years of careful hand-crossing Helleborus niger with Helleborus x hybridus, David was finally successful in creating a true inter-specific cross.

It was originally thought that these two different species would never cross with each other, however Mr. Tristram has proved this theory wrong.

As you can see from the picture on the right, Helleborus x hybridus comes in a wide variety of flower colors, shapes, and sizes. Whereas the Christmas Rose, Helleborus niger is a pristine, clear white in color.

Walberton’s Rosemary Hellebore is a superb hybrid between these two that now gives gardeners the “Best of Both Worlds”! We get the rich pink flower color from the xhybridus parent and the 3 month earlier bloom time from the niger parent.

We’ve just finished Halloween here in western Michigan and our plants of Walberton’s Rosemary are coming into full bloom! WOW! I’ve never seen another Hellebore bloom this early in the year.

As you can see from the picture on the left, the hybridization process has also produced a plant with superb vigor! Christmas roses can be a bit tricky to grow in the home garden, but when Mr. Tristram crossed it with the vigorous x hybridus, he greatly improved its garden vigor.

As you can see from the image on the right, this new hybrid has tremendous flower power! I shot this picture at Skagit Gardens before this plant had been released several years ago. I was simply amazed at the huge number of blooms on these 2 gallon specimen containers!

Congratulations to Mr David Tristram for all his years of dedicated hard work! His new Walberton’s Rosemary Hellebore brings another new realm of great garden possibilities to our favorite and Colorful Deer Proof Shade Hellebores!

“Good things come for those who wait….”

My admiration for Baptisia took a couple of years to develop.  It certainly wasn’t love at first sight since  first year plants were spindly and I thought it was never going to amount to much. The second year  this sun perennial started to take off and I began to see its merits both as a drought proof flowering perennial and its shrub-like habit.

Garden Design with Baptisia

Baptisia is worth a place in any garden.  Here’s why:

1)  Baptisia helps anchor the back of the border.  It is an excellent choice as a small shrub alternative due to its size, shape and some pretty spectacular foliage that stay attractive all season.
2) No serious insect or disease problems.
3) Seldom bothered by deer.
4) Drought proof once established.
5) Maintenance –  Easy – Just cut back in fall or spring

Stunning lupine-like violet-blue flowers in spring are loved by butterflies

More on Baptisia

• Baptisia grows 3-4 feet tall and 3-4 feet wide
• Hardy perennial – Zone 4-9
• Thrives in full sun to part shade
• Stunning, violet-blue lupine-like flowers in late spring
• Plump seeds pods turn charcoal black when ripe and can be used in dried arrangements
• Prefers a moist, humus soil
• Needs good drainage
• Develops deep taproots – not for the serial plant mover – best to leave alone.
  

  The dried seed pods of Baptisia lend themselves to craft projects & dried flower arrangements

I like the fact it won the prestigious 2010 Perennial Plant of the Year award.  There’s a lot of new flower colors that are rocking the garden world. I personally love an old fashioned variety called  B. australis because there is so little true blue perennial flower color.  This is a true beauty of a garden plant in or out of flower  providing interest, color, and structure  from spring-fall in the perennial garden.

Find out more about Baptisia