March 26, 2018

Plant(s) of the Week: Meet the Floral Four

It's hard to believe how fast March is flying by, and this is made all the more evident by the fact that we already are down to the final four, known as the "Floral Four", in Shrub Madness!

If you haven't had a chance to acquaint yourself with Shrub Madness, it's a bracket competition, much like the March Madness basketball tournament, but instead of teams, plants compete in a head-to-head matchup for glory and greatness.

As a result of the popular votes that have come in so far, these are the plants that are battling it out in the Floral Four:

Czechmark Trilogy™ Weigela  vs Let's Dance® Blue Jangles® Hydrangea 
Czechmark Trilogy™ Weigela florida
Let's Dance® Blue Jangles® Hydrangea macrophylla
Czechmark Trilogy™ is an improved version of the ever-popular 'Carnaval' weigela. Flowers start out white, transition to pink, then finally red. This results in an eye-popping combination of three colors on the same plant.

Reaching a size 3 - 3.5' tall and 3.5 - 5.5' wide, Czechmark Trilogy looks great in borders, foundation plantings, flower gardens and hedges. Not fussy, Czechmark Trilogy weigela is adaptable to most well-drained soils and doesn't need pruning. Hardy to zone 4, plant in full sun for exceptional spring blooms.

Let's Dance® Blue Jangles® is a big-leaf hydrangea that blooms all summer long on both old and new wood - with a tight, compact habit that is unusual among reblooming hydrangeas. Large, full flower heads will readily go heavenly blue in acid soils; in alkaline soils, they'll be vivid pink. This proven performer will bloom reliably - even in zone 5.

Fun Fact:
The Let's Dance® series of reblooming hydrangeas were developed in Michigan. They went through a gauntlet of brutal treatment to ensure that they would still create new wood flower buds during the growing season, when it counts.


Pugster® Amethyst Butterfly Bush  vs Zinfin Doll® Hydrangea

Pugster® Amethyst Buddleia
Zinfin Doll® Hydrangea paniculata
Pugster® Amethyst butterfly bush is the newest member of the Pugster series that offers full sized flowers on a dwarf plant. This compact butterfly bush reaches just 2' tall and wide, but has the large, full flowers normally seen on a much larger plant. It blooms non-stop from early summer through frost with amethyst-toned flowers, each with a tiny yellow-orange eye in the center. Thanks to thick, sturdy stems, the Pugster® series offers vastly improved hardiness and winter survival over other types of dwarf butterfly bush.


Zinfin Doll® panacle hydrangea is a beautiful hardy hydrangea with loads of bodacious blooms that emerge pure white and then turn bright pink from the bottom up. Flowers eventually age to a dark pink-red, and stay colorful for months. It looks a bit like classic Pinky Winky hydrangea, but with full, mophead flowers, and it blooms much earlier, too. Strong stems hold the flowers upright in the garden, and make it an excellent cut flower, too. 

Panicle hydrangeas are super easy and reliable. In cold climates, they should get a minimum of six hours of sun each day; in hot areas, morning sun and afternoon shade are best. These are shallow-rooted plants that really benefit from a 2-3" layer of mulch.

As for pruning, plan to cut these plants back by about one-third in early spring. This builds up a strong base while encouraging vigorous new growth to produce lots of blooms.

Which is your favorite? 
Today is the LAST DAY to vote for the Floral Four - and maybe you'll even win some plants! 

Want to know more about the plants featured in Shrub Madness?
Visit us on You Tube for Shrubs Center, short videos featuring experts talking about the plants and their picks for each round of Shrub Madness. 

March 19, 2018

Plant of the Week: Lime Rickey® Hydrangea


Happy Monday!

In keeping with the season, last week Jane wrote about a couple varieties of green hydrangea available from Proven Winners® ColorChoice®. At the risk of sounding like an Irish Spring commercial, all I'd like to add is "...and I like, too!"

Want to read more about the sturdy varieties mentioned in this article? Southern Living just put together a very nice write-up on panicle hydrangeas, featuring 'Limelight', Little Lime®, and some of their colorful cousins, called The Easiest Hydrangea of All.

Enjoy,

Natalie


Planting O' the Green

Limelight® Bloom
'Limelight' hydrangea has been one of our most popular plants for years; it's hard to believe that at one time the idea of offering a green flower was kind of crazy. It still is a strange concept to some people, at least until they see the flowers. Then they get it, and they want it.

Limelight® in landscape
Emboldened by the success of 'Limelight', we've gone on to introduce a few other green flowered hydrangeas, including Little Lime®,  a dwarf version of the  'Limelight' hydrangea.

Both are super-durable - hardy down to USDA zone 3, with Little Lime® being a great choice for container gardening.


Lime Rickey® in landscape
Lime Rickey® and the smaller Invincibelle Limetta® are H. arborescens, not H. paniculata, but are also durable choices for harsh climates.
Lime Rickey® with pink pollen display

Lime Rickey® hydrangea is a calm, cool plant for the summer garden with full mophead flowers held upright on very sturdy stems. If you get a little closer to the flowers you will see that the pollen is a showy pink color. That's kind of fun to see and reminds me of the Preppy Handbook that made the rounds of 1980's junior high schools. Wait around and you'll see a beautiful marbleized effect on the blooms as they age. 

Hardy to USDA Zone 3 and growing to about 4-5' tall and wide, in northern climates, you will want to give Lime Rickey® full sun, but as you go further south some partial shade is fine.

Smooth hydrangea like Lime Rickey® are a great choice for cold climates or really any situation where you don't want untimely pruning to compromise the flower display. It flowers on new wood and will bloom quite nicely after a late winter pruning.

I think green flowers can do a lot for a garden. Sure, they're not as obvious as hot pink, but they have an understated charm that is perfect for a soothing backyard landscape. In a world where everything and everyone seems to be competing for attention, they're pretty chill. I like that.

Plant of the Week is written by Jane Beggs-Joles

March 12, 2018

Plant of the Week: Snow Day® Exochorda

Hello and happy Monday!

This week I want to share a post from another writer's blog - Jennifer Connell's 'Three Dogs in a Garden.' Jennifer is an artist, freelance writer, and photographer from Huttonville, Ontario and runs the blog with two additional contributors, Jean Godawa and Signe Langford.

Earlier this month, Jennifer did an amazing job of compiling some of our favorite new dwarf varieties into her "New Shrubs for 2018" post. Thanks so much!

Now on to Jane's Plant of the Week, which is an apropos choice since around here, it has still been lightly snowing pretty much every day.

Enjoy - Natalie  


Snow Day
Is a March snow day as good as a January one? I'm sure that the grade schoolers among us would say yes, but for those of us who have been driving on snow and ice for the past few months, one more blast of winter can seem just plain cruel. Enough already.

We've had a little snow this past week. Not enough to play in, but enough to brighten the gray landscape. Our friends on the east coast haven't been so fortunate. They've had quite a bit of severe weather in recent days, including some wicked snow and wind. A spring snow day can also be bad for plants...unless the plant itself is the treat.

We named the Snow Day® Exochorda as such because of their ability to delight us with the white stuff. Beautiful plants for the spring landscape, the horticultural Snow Day is far less inconvenient than the weather event.


Snow Day® 'Blizzard' (top picture) is the larger of the two plants (5-6') and can be trained into a small tree. Snow Day® Surprise (bottom image) is a smaller plant (3-4'); both will grow in full sun to partial shade and are hardy to USDA Zone 4.


Snow Day® 'Blizzard' and Snow Day® Surprise pearl bush are disease resistant and once established, are drought-tolerant. Exochorda flowers on old growth, so prune as needed after its had a chance to show its stuff in the spring.

Plant of the Week is written by Jane Beggs-Joles

March 5, 2018

Plant of the Week: Summer Wine® Black Physocarpus

It's Monday and it's March... that means March Madness is upon us. And here in the plant world, Shrub Madness has taken over. Last week was the first week of voting, and plants like Invincibelle Wee White® hydrangea, Incrediball® Blush hydrangea, are leading the pack. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like my favorite, Winecraft Black® Cotinus, will make it through the first round. But hey, there are still plenty of amazing plants to root for!

Let your voice be heard! You can join the fun by registering at ShrubMadness.com and clicking on "Play Shrub Madness" in the website header. Once you're registered, you can vote daily for your favorite shrubs in head-to-head matchups. Prizes are given away to registered voters throughout the competition - click here for more information.

Now, let's learn about a brand new ninebark that will be hitting garden centers next year. This new variety is a striking color and couldn't be easier to grow. (And its name is coincidentally very similar to my Shrub Madness favorite!) Read on for more info and I'll be back next week.

- Natalie



Homegrown Hero

Summer Wine® Black ninebark
Some plants are at their best in difficult situations. Physocarpus is one of them.

Bring on the sun, the wind, and the rain. Okay, you don't need the rain so much, but a dramatic thunderstorm won't slow this plant down. Crummy soil, including clay, is okay, too.

What this plant doesn't like is poor air circulation, so avoid planting it where it is in tight spaces. That narrow spot between houses in a subdivision? Probably not a great idea. A hedge along the roadside? Perfect.

Physocarpus opulifolius is native to much of North America; it's great to see our native genera hold their own as ornamentals.

Summer Wine® Physocarpus is a colorful, durable choice for colder climates that looks nice in a container. The dark burgundy foliage is very dramatic, but we wanted to go even bolder.

Enter Summer Wine® Black. Its foliage is even darker purple-black and has good resistance to powdery mildew. When selecting new Physocarpus varieties we are paying attention to disease resistance as much as we are aesthetics.

Summer Wine® Black ninebark is hardy down to USDA Zone 3 and will grow best in full sun. It gets 5-6' tall and wide. Available in better garden centers in spring, 2019.

Plant of the Week is written by Jane Beggs-Joles


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