Plant of the Week: 'Miss Molly' Buddleia

 

Good Golly!

 

'Miss Molly' is one of the compact, colorful butterfly bush varieties developed by Dr. Dennis Werner of NCSU. Her sister plants include 'Miss Ruby', 'Miss Violet' and 'Miss Pearl' - all delightful and well-mannered.

 

We love these non-invasive varieties. They have nice, well-behaved habits and are covered with vibrant blooms. When other plants are exhausted by summer's heat, these varieties add exuberant color and fragrance to gardens. 

'Miss Molly' has the reddest flower we've ever seen on a Buddleia, although that red color is most pronounced in southern climates. It is a non-invasive cultivar, and is permitted for sale in Oregon.

 

It grows 4-5' tall and wide and is hardy to USDA Zone 5. Like all Buddleia, it will grow best in full sun and well-drained soil. 

 

Plant of the Week is written by Jane Beggs-Joles

 

 

 



Plant of the Week: Spilled Wine® Weigela

You've heard of Wine & Roses® Weigela, I'm sure. How about Spilled Wine®? It has all the color (darker, actually) of the original, but is smaller. Wider than it is tall, this is an excellent landscape plant that makes a great mass planting. Spilled Wine® Weigela is a more vigorous plant with better flowering than its sister Midnight Wine® Weigela. It gets larger at maturity, and will fill out a container faster, too. All of these dark leafed weigelas will grow best in full sun. That's where you will get the best foliage color and most abundant blooms. Spilled Wine® Weigela is hardy to USDA Zone 4, and gets 2-3' tall and 3' wide. Plant of the Week is written by Jane Beggs-Joles

Plant of the Week: Lo & Behold® 'Pink Micro Chip'

Lo & Behold - it's so tiny! Lo & Behold® 'Pink Micro Chip' is the smallest plant in the Lo & Behold® series. Indeed, it is a tiny little thing - just 1.5-2' tall and wide. 

It produces an abundance of little lavender-pink blooms in summer, flowering from summer to fall. Like the other plants in the Lo & Behold® series, it is a non-invasive cultivar, and is one of a handful of Buddleia varieties permitted for sale in Oregon. It is hardy to USDA Zone 5, although we recommend a good layer of mulch to protect it in colder climates.

What do you do with such a tiny buddleia?
It's just not what we're used to. Kind of like one of those little teacup chihuahuas. Technically, it's a dog, but it's hard to think of it like you would a German shepherd.
And you shouldn't. You wouldn't take your lapdog for a five mile run; you shouldn't plant this little Buddleia in the back of the perennial border. Plant it up front where you can see it. Just as the chihuahua is a nice little dog for folks in apartments, Lo & Behold® 'Pink Micro Chip' is a great choice for patio gardens.

Like chihuahuas, the Lo & Behold® butterfly bushes are kind of fun in groups. Plant a bunch of them as a mass planting or ground cover. They'll flower all summer long. These plants will force you to rethink how you use Buddleia in the landscape.

Lo & Behold® Buddleia and chihuahuas have one more thing in common; they need some help to make it through winter. We recommend planting Lo & Behold® varieties early in the season so they have plenty of time to establish before cold weather comes. It's important that they have good drainage, too, Cold, wet winters are tough on them.

Plant of the Week is written by Jane Beggs-Joles

Gardens Galore! Garden Bloggers Fling

The Garden Bloggers Fling was an extensive tour of public and private gardens throughout the Minneapolis area.  It. was. awesome.  What a trip! 

Aside from meeting new friends and catching up with others, I came home with so many great ideas for my gardens and plants to put on my "must-have" list.  More than a few trends emerged as we visited a variety of gardens. Here's just a few...

Pollinators
Plants that are good for pollinators were all the 'buzz' on the tour.  Several of the gardens focused on them while others made sure to include pollinators in their gardens.

Shrub suggestions: 
Sweet Emotion® Abelia
Lo & Behold® 'Blue Chip Jr.' Buddleia
Bloomerang® Purple Syringa
Azurri Blue Satin® Hibiscus
Beyond Midnight™ Caryopteris








Native shrubs
Native plants in gardens and landscapes are rapidly increasing in popularity and were prevalent in several of the gardens on the tour.  It was interesting to see how natives were incorporated into smaller spaces in urban gardens. 

Shrub suggestions:

Kodiak® Black Diervilla
Invincibelle® Spirit II Hydrangea
Sunny Boulevard™ Hypericum
Summer Wine® Physocarpus
Gatsby Pink® Hydrangea
All That Glows™ Viburnum
Sugar Shack® Cephalanthus




Rain gardens
I just loved seeing these at a few different gardens and it seems like they are growing in popularity. I recently put one in at my house to help with storm water drainage and am looking to expand it by adding more plants.

Shrub suggestions:

Little Henry® Itea
Arctic Sun™ Cornus
North Pole® Thuja
Vanilla Spice® Clethra
Lemony Lace™ Sambucus






Next year, the Garden Bloggers Fling will be held in Washington, DC.  Please visit http://gardenbloggersfling.blogspot.com/ for information as it becomes available.  See you there!