Plant of the Week: Gem Box® or Strongbox®

Sadly, boxwood blight is working its way across the United States. Last March, Nursery Management magazine wrote an informative article about the disease with a determination that it has been positively identified in over 25 states. Just this month the blight fungus had been positively identified on boxwoods at an Indiana store owned by a national home and garden chain. While the chain has pulled the plants from the shelves of all its stores, they cannot guarantee some have not already made it to homeowner gardens.

Maybe its time to start looking for a boxwood alternative? Well, you're in luck. Jane has some good options for you in her Plant of the Week - enjoy!

Boxwood alternatives: Gem Box® or Strongbox®?

Gem Box® Ilex glabra

We know that boxwood is facing some challenges due to the spread of boxwood blight, so we wanted to offer another option for a small, shear-able evergreen.

Gem Box® Ilex glabra delivers, and then some. 
I. glabra (inkberry holly) is native to North America which makes it appealing to people who are trying to work more with native species. Its dark-green foliage develops attractive red tips during the spring flush. Gem Box has tight compact branching that continues to the ground so the plant doesn't look bare-legged like older varieties can.

Strongbox® Ilex glabra

Strongbox® Ilex glabra does pretty much what Gem Box does, but has larger leaves. Some of you may prefer one, some the other, and maybe you'll decide to grow both! 

Both varieties will grow 2-3' tall and wide and grow in full sun to partial shade. They are hardy to USDA Zone 5 and will adapt to many types of soil, with the exception of alkaline soil.

Plant of the Week is written by Jane Beggs-Joles.

Note from Natalie - if you live in zone 7 or warmer, also consider Juke Box® Pyracomeles. It's a ProvenWinners® ColorChoice® exclusive with shiny, dark green leaves and a full, round habit. It's thornless, and unlike inkberry holly, it doesn't flower. It's also a little more petite than the inkberry holly. This is a  brand new evergreen variety that will be available to consumers this spring - ask for it at your local garden center.

Until next week! - Natalie

Oso Easy® Urban Legend® Rosa takes honors at Biltmore

If you read last week's blog about the GWA Region III "Cleveland Grows" event, you remember that I mentioned the "Meet the Trade Editors" panel discussion with representatives from the green industry press. They suggested that we create videos to go with articles we send to them and I just happened to be getting ready to send a press release about an award one of our lovely little roses had earned. Well it has been picked up and it's one more fun way we tell the stories about the plants we love.

See the video here, on the Floral Daily website.

We talked about this rose in June, but I think it deserves another look in the context of the Biltmore International Rose Trials:

Oso Easy® Urban Legend® Rosa is a bright-red rose with non-stop blooms and all the disease resistance you'd expect from a Proven Winners® ColorChoice® shrub. And it's getting noticed as a top contender in the rose world with three awards under its proverbial belt.

You might wonder why it's called Urban Legend? Well, the story is this beautiful, bright little rose is the perfect addition to urban gardens because its prickly thorns will discourage burglars and other undesirables when planted under windows and in hedgerows.

It reminds me of my mother-in-law, who has planted a large barberry hedge by her house to keep unwanted visitors away from side windows. I have to say, the last place I'd want to find myself is in the middle of a barberry hedge!

But my guess is the rose is also named for its prolific blooms and ease of growth, even in urban settings where conditions are not typically as cushy as in home gardens.

On Sat, Sept. 29 the 2018 Biltmore International Rose Trials took place at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C. Oso Easy Urban Legend Rosa was awarded the Lord Burleigh Award for Best Disease Resistance, plus the Chauncey Beadle Award for Best Shrub Rose.

The Biltmore’s Lord Burleigh Award for Best Disease Resistance is named after a descendant of George Vanderbilt, Biltmore’s builder/visionary. I asked LeeAnn Donnelly, the Biltmore's senior PR manager, about the origin of the award name and here's what she had to say about it:

"Lord Burleigh was the original Cecil ancestor (William Cecil, Lord Burghley) who was related to and served as an advisor to Queen Elizabeth 1.

How does that relate to Biltmore? George Vanderbilt, Biltmore’s builder/visionary, and his wife, Edith, had one child, daughter Cornelia. Cornelia married British diplomat the Honorable John Francis Amherst Cecil in 1924. He was the third son of Lord Cecil and the Baroness Amherst of Hackney, making him a descendant of William Cecil, Lord Burghley."

The Biltmore's museum curators say the spelling of Lord Burghley’s sir name is often spelled “Burleigh” hence, the award spelling. 

With more information on the Biltmore's website to go on, I discovered that Chauncey Beadle, the namesake for the award for best shrub rose, was an avid azalea collector and horticulturist hired at Biltmore in 1890, who later became the estate superintendent.

I listened in to the Biltmore International Rose Trials on the Rose Chat podcast and I have to say, this is an event I'm now eager to attend! More information, including a full list of award-winning roses at the trials, can be found here.

These two additional awards bring Oso Easy Urban Legend's total to three awards announced this year, having been honored with the 2019 Award of Excellence by the American Rose Society in June.

Oso Easy Urban Legend­ is a tough, landscape rose with true-red, semi-double flowers that bloom in early summer and continue through the first hard frost. A crown of lush yellow stamens in the center adds interest and contrast. Like all of the roses in the Oso Easy series, the dark green glossy foliage resists powdery mildew and black spot.

Bred by Christopher Hugh Warner in the United Kingdom and released by Spring Meadow Nursery/Proven Winners ColorChoice, Oso Easy Urban Legend Rosa is one of 12 varieties in the Oso Easy rose line.

And that's a wrap! Until next week, never stop growing. - Natalie

Cleveland Grows! GWA Region III meeting and tours

Happy midweek!

I finally had a chance to update my online photo album with the spectacular photos for the Region III meeting and Cleveland Grows! tours.

You may notice that several of the photos are much nicer than my usual work. That's because I didn't take them all. I had a pro with me, my co-worker and partner in crime, Adriana Robinson, came with me on this trip and she took a good many of the pics shared here and on the album.

Like this one! An eye-popping photo of the entrance of our first stop, Willoway Nurseries, Inc.

If you arrived early you had time to self-tour their display gardens which was worth getting there an hour early! The day was perfect for walking around the gardens and inspecting plants. I even tried my first goji berry. It wasn't my favorite. Then we were herded inside for a presentation, lunch and our Region III meeting. One of the things that fascinated me most in Danny Gouge's presentation was the infrastructure they've created for irrigation applications. Stormwater runoff is collected throughout the nursery facility and stored in water containment ponds, creating recycled water for irrigation. This, plus large portions of production that has been dedicated to pot-in-pot growing, is the future of greenhouse production!

We were treated to a nice lunch during our meeting, then we hopped on a buggy and toured some of their greenhouses (pics are in my online photo album). I'm sure we all look a little younger from the natural dermabrasion we experienced when the wind kicked up on that part of the tour! We came back to the main building and there was gifts, gifts, gifts! Bulbs, starter plants, Corona pruners (here's a link to a video Tweet I made about mine) and more. Susan and Maria did this thing up right.

Our next stop was Petitti Garden Center in Avon, OH. This is just one of NINE locations! Apparently, the location we were visiting used to be an amusement park, which was renovated into the retail center and the beautiful cathedral-like greenhouse was added. We had about 1/2 hour to shop and I went home with grass seed, orange crocus bulbs, two pairs of fuzzy socks from the fuzzy sock Christmas tree, and a dress! Adriana got the coolest grafted cactus... Yes, they had a wide selection of items - fortunately, we didn't have a ton of time so I couldn't buy out the store, but I got a good start.

And as you can see from another one of Adriana's great pics, they had lots of gorgeous Proven Winners ColorChoice shrubs to choose from. We noticed one of our fellow garden writers from Tennessee had her car filled to the doorhandles with some stunning PWCC hydrangea paniculata!

Our final tour stop was Green Circle Growers. Adriana and I decided to take the long way around when we missed our exit and discovered the next one was 18 miles away! Luckily we were able to easily catch up to the tour at their Just Add Ice Orchids production facility. Of course, it was a feast for the eyes, but it was also fascinating to see their automated sorting and potting lines at work. Also, like Willoway, all of the water they use for growing is 100% recycled and reused. They also have retention ponds that collect 1.5 million gallons of fresh water for every one inch of rainfall received and they use this rainwater in their growing facilities. Seeing all the orchids was spectacular, but I'm such a huge geek that if given the chance, I'd have tromped across the fields to see those ponds.

Bobbie Schwartz talks
about her back garden

The day closed with a delicious dinner at The Hotel at Oberlin in adorable downtown Oberlin, sponsored by Green Circle Growers. We enjoyed a "Meet the Trade Editors" panel discussion with Matt McClellan, Managing Editor of Nursery Management magazine and Janeen Wright, Managing Editor of Greenhouse Grower magazine. My favorite takeaway? Include video with your stories and press releases! I just sent out a press release and Adriana and I created a video to go with it.

Then it was on to the hotel where we stayed overnight. The 40-minute drive felt short as we talked about the interesting things we'd done and seen that day. The morning held private garden tours and we managed to squeeze in the beautiful gardens of Bobbie Schwartz. It's a long drive back to West Michigan and I had a personal commitment on Saturday evening that couldn't be missed, so we had to duck out before the final garden tour, but I'll be looking for photos!

Until next week...never stop growing.  - Natalie