Plant of the Week: Laced Up® elderberry

 

Fastigiate Black Lace® elderberry

 

It's Halloween so it seems like a good time to highlight a plant with some Nightmare Before Christmas appeal. I could have gone with the obvious, like Ghost® weigela, but instead, I'd like to present a plant that Morticia Addams would covet: Laced Up

®

 Sambucus.

Imagine Black Lace

®

 Sambucus but narrow and columnar. Laced Up® elderberry has the same deeply cut, dark purple foliage and pink flowers as Black Lace®, but grows upright with an occasional twist to one side or the other. If you want a sedate, traditional silhouette, this is not the plant for you. But if you or a customer wants something really different from everything else in the neighborhood, Laced Up®  is your plant.

Laced Up® Sambucus nigra will grow 6-8' tall and 2-4' wide. It doesn't need pruning in production; its natural inclination is to grow vertically without much (any) branching. You can prune it as a young plant to get a couple of branches on it - they, too, will grow straight up. 

It will grow in full sun or partial shade, with more intense color in full sun. It is hardy to USDA Zone 4. Although not selected for its fruit production, it will produce black berries if planted near Black Lace® Sambucus.

Plant of the Week is written by Jane Beggs-Joles



Plant of the Week: Double Play® Candy Corn® Spiraea

 

Trick or treat!

Ah, candy corn. Personally I think it's a waste of refined sugar. I'll take sour gummy worms over the overly sweet little pseudo-kernels of corn any day. But each to his own, I suppose.

I do, however, like Double Play® Candy Corn™ Spiraea. This plant's name really captures its color transformation: the colors of the actual candy are completely artificial, but the plant's hues are 100% natural and gluten-free.

 
It begins with fire engine red spring leaves, then matures to pineapple yellow. The new growth is orange red. If that's not enough for you, the flowers are dark magenta-purple.  All of that color, and in something as adaptable as a spirea! What a treat!

Double Play® Candy Corn™ Spiraea japonica grows 1.5-2' tall and wide. Like other spireas, it is very adaptable and deer resistant. It will grow in full sun or part shade, and is hardy to USDA Zone 4.
 
If you're looking for something with a little less flash, consider one of the more sedate members of the Double Play® series. Truthfully, all were selected for their outstanding foliage and flowers, so none of them is a wallflower. But Double Play® Pink and Double Play® Red spireas have more of a burgundy spring flush and darker summer color (although their flowers are outrageous!). The most subtle one in the group is Double Play® Blue Kazoo, which is a completely different color palette: cool blue green foliage and white flowers.
Plant of the Week is written by Jane Beggs-Joles

Perfecting the Outdoor Experience

More and more people are bringing the party to their patios with expanded greenspace, elaborate firepits, and adding outdoor entertaining space...me included.  I spend more time in my backyard and patio than anywhere in the house.  There's also been a recent resurgence of backyard games like horseshoes, cornhole, yard jenga, can jam, and several others.   Because of these trends, the backyard has become the hangout spot for my family and friends.  I've realized that I need more patio friendly plants that shine out in the evening so my guests and I can enjoy my garden well after dark.  Here's a few ideas that I'm planning to put in my gardens that will shine all night long. 

Sugar Shack® Buttonbush
Cephalanthus occidentalis 'SMCOSS' USPP 26,543, Can 5,124 | USDA 4 | AHS 10 | Part Sun – Sun | 3 -4’ tall and wide

Buttonbush has long been prized as a native, but it was way too big for most landscapes. Not anymore! We've cut the size in half and added colorful red fruit and glossy foliage. Add in cool looking, fragrant white flowers and you've got a delightful plant that shines from spring to fall and all night long! 

 

Sonic Bloom® Pearl weigela
Weigela florida 'Bokrasopea' pp#24585; cbr#4598 | USDA 5 | AHS 8 | Part sun to sun | 4-5’ tall and wide

Sonic Bloom^® Pearl is a humdinger of a weigela!  Sonic Bloom plants have the strongest reblooming seen on weigela, blooming in May and reblooming until frost. The flowers open pure white with a yellow throat and then change to pink

Bloom-A-thon White Reblooming azalea Rhododendron
Rhododendron x 'RLH1-3P3' USPP 21,512 | USDA 6 | AHS 9 | Part sun to sun | 2.5-3’ tall and wide

Large flowers appear in April, then rebloom in early July, continuing through fall until hard frost. Even high summer temperatures don't stop this enchantress from producing loads of late summer and fall flowers.

Jazz Hands Dwarf White loropetalum
Loropetalum chinense 'Hakuou' PPAF | USDA 7b | AHS 9 | Part sun to sun| 1-3’ tall, 3’ wide

Here's one for my southern friends...I wish I could grow it in Michigan!  It has rich, dark green leaves and large pure white flowers that burst forth in spring. It is a repeat bloomer that flowers sporadically all summer long. Its dwarf habit makes it a good fit for residential landscapes and container gardens. 

Plant of the Week: Pearl Glam Callicarpa

Rock star Callicarpa

When you do one thing, you need to do it really well. If you're a beautyberry, that means producing outrageous ornamental berries.

 

But what if we set our expectations a little higher? I'd like my shoes to be both comfortable and stylish, and I'd like my Callicarpa to have something going on other than fall fruit.

We ask, and plant breeders deliver. Pearl Glam™ (above) and Purple Pearls® Callicarpa (below) have extravagant purple fruit and purple foliage. Pearl Glam has slightly darker foliage, but Purple Pearls® has distinctive pink flowers. These are rock stars where other callicarpa are mere pop singers.
Both are hybrids (C.dichotoma x C.kwangtungensis) and so a little hardier than Callicarpa americana; they will go into USDA Zone 5. They will do best in full sun, and grow 4-5' tall and wide.

These fast growing plants have good deer resistance, and are a nice addition to gardens that need some fall interest without attracting deer.

 
In addition to their exceptional berry display and unusual foliage color, these new varieties have an appealing upright habit that looks good in a container.

Plant of the Week is written by Jane Beggs-Joles

Plant of the Week: Low Scape® Mound Aronia

Get the low down!
Let's say you want a small plant. Something that is good for mass plantings. You'd like it to look good in spring when shoppers are in the garden center, so some flowers on its compact habit would be nice. And you want something adaptable: cold, warm, wet, dry, sun, part-shade - everything. Fall color would be nice, too. Your customers are interested in native plants, so if we can manage that and good deer resistance it would be great.

Done. We are happy to present Low Scape® Mound Aronia melanocarpa. It meets all of these criteria, and looks great doing it.

Low Scape® Mound grows 1-2' tall and 2' wide. If you want something a little taller, check out Low Scape® Hedger. It's the perfect size for (you guessed it) hedges. Although Low Scape® Mound Aronia will produce black fruit in summer, Low Scape® Hedger doesn't really fruit. These are ornamental selections: if you are looking for fruit production, 'Viking' is your plant.

Both are hardy to USDA Zone 3 and will grow in full sun or partial shade. 

The case for an ornamental Aronia:

Aronia melanocarpa, or black chokeberry, is a really useful and interesting plant. It's attractive, too.

That last bit is important. For a long time it seemed that A. melanocarpa breeding was focused on fruit production. A worthy goal, to be sure. Aronia is a valuable fruit crop option for cold climates. There are some Midwestern farmers who are getting in on the next big thing and growing Aronia for making jelly and wine. Birds like it, too, which helps its case as a good plant for naturalizing.

But it has some really strong ornamental qualities, too. Spring flowers, summer fruit and fall color give it multi-season appeal. As interest grows in using native species for landscapes, it's great to have some new options. Am I the only person out there who is sick and tired of 'Gro-Low' Sumac? (OK, it's fine, but really, let's move on.)

For an elegant argument in favor of Aronia, check out this article from the Arnold Arboretum. It's full of practical observations about the plant as well as a play-by-play of Aronia nomenclature drama. Not my thing, but the taxonomists among you will appreciate it. It certainly beats watching the Detroit Lions.

 

Plant of the Week: Gatsby™ Series Hydrangeas

The Great American Hydrangea

When presented with a group of outstanding Hydrangea quercifolia, we felt strongly that our native hydrangeas deserved a name that reflected their heritage. That's how we came to call them Gatsby™ hydrangeas. 

They all have exceptional flower displays and robust fall color. They also perform well as container grown plants. Oakleaf hydrangeas have typically fared better as field grown plants than container grown ones, but these varieties shape up nicely (but go for a 3 gallon or larger).

Gatsby Pink® oakleaf hydrangea (shown right) has very showy blooms that quickly transform to rich pink. Gatsby Moon™ hydrangea has very densely packed panicles that are almost mophead-like in appearance, yet hold up very well on sturdy stems. Gatsby Star™ has a lacier look with crisp, star-shaped florets. All of these plants will grow 6-8' tall and wide.

If you need something a little more compact, check out Gatsby Gal™ H. quercifolia (Shown at top). She grows just 5-6' tall and wide.

 

All of the oakleaf hydrangeas will grow in full sun to partial shade and are hardy to USDA Zone 5.

Plant of the Week is written by Jane Beggs-Joles