New Perennials at Amanda's Greenhouse

I'm always game to try new perennials. I like bee balm (monarda) as a cut flower and am looking forward to trying 'Purple Rooster.' It boasts both "true royal purple flowers" and "mildew free plants." Bee balm can be an aggressive spreader, but its roots are shallow and it is easy to thin.

'Purple Rooster' Monarda
Photo from Walters Gardens

Perennial grasses are tricky. Many of them are either too vigorous, or they do not stay upright. 'Karl Forester', a feather reed grass, was the 2001 Perennial Plant of the Year. The publicist call it a "vertical masterpiece." I am less impressed. Where I have it growing it spreads too fast does not look good all season. I'll try it somewhere else.

Meanwhile, I am forever impressed with miscanthus 'Silberfeder' (silver feather grass) which looks nice in my garden all winter. Every spring I dig around the edges to keep it from getting too big and of course to have plants to offer my customers.

Late last sumer I was visiting my friends at Cady's Falls Nursery and was very impressed with a blue switch grass, Panicum virgatum 'Heavy Metal'. It was upright and about 50 inches tall. This is one I will be growing and selling this year. This grass has metallic blue leaves which turn yellow in the fall.

'Heavy Metal' panicum virgatum
Photo from Walter's Gardens

Mildew on phlox is definitely a problem for me. 'David' seems to have the best resistance and I am adding 'David's Lavender' this year, which is supposed to have the same resistance.

David's Lavender Phlox
Photo from Walter's Gardens

Another new phlox I will be trying, because I was asked by a customer and I can't resist the photo, is 'Peppermint Twist.' It's only 16 inches tall and appears to be a real sweetheart. It is also supposed to have good mildew resistance.

Peppermint Twist Phlox
Photo from Plants Delight Web Site

Many more new plants on the horizon.

MORE New Plants for the Garden

The National Garden Bureau has named 2012 as “the Year of the Geranium.” Burpees will be offering a yellow geranium. There are so many great long lasting yellow flowers out there already, this introduction does not appeal to me.

Last year I started growing ‘Graffiti Red’ geranium, which is an exotic and unusual appearing geranium that’s been around for a while, but is hard to find.

Graffiti Red’ geranium

They produce loads of wild looking double, star-shaped flowers. I call it my “punk” geranium.

A nice development in the world of geraniums is interspecific breeding. Zonal and ivy geraniums are both grown from cuttings. The zonals are tough, upright and vigorous.

Calliope Dark Red

The ivies are pretty for hanging baskets and window boxes, but are susceptible to oedema (water ruptures the cells of the leaves) and are generally not good in full sun. So the industry has crossed the two (interspecific) and come up with excellent new geraniums, notably the ‘Caliente’ and ‘Calliope’ series.

One new variety that I will reluctantly try is 'Plentifall' pansies. They are fragrant and are bred for hanging baskets with a trailing habit of up to 24 inches. I’m sure they are lovely, but I can’t help worrying about dead heading, once the first bloom has finished.

Photo from www.vanmeuwen.com

Johnnies Selected Seeds is offering “Flower Sprout,” a cross of brussel sprouts and kale. The plant grows like a brussel sprout, and develops decorative, edible rosettes. This is something that will be fun to try, but it is backordered until May.

Gardening is a joy for me and experimenting with new plants is part of the fun.

What is New for the Garden

First, I'll tell you what is new for me - both knees. I had bilateral knee surgery in December and have spent most of the winter recovering, exercising, and generally getting back on my feet again.

We are having a mild winter here in northern Vermont and I know the lack of snow has been difficult for anyone associated with winter recreation. We covered our perennials in pots later than usual, but I still worry that they got too warm under the various layers. We shall see.

Meanwhile I am ready to start blogging again about one of my greatest pleasures - gardening.

Every year the All-American Selections competition (AAS) chooses the “best new, never-before-sold plant varieties.” Four entries with “superior garden performance” are given the AAS Award. The competition has introduced a total of 637 plants since 1933.

Some of the past AAS winning plants, like ‘Bright Lights’ swiss chard or ‘Sensation’ cosmos have gone on to become classics. Others, like ‘Harkness’ tomato and ‘Melody’ marigold have disappeared from the horticultural marketplace.

The two winning flowering plants for 2012 are salvia ‘Summer Jewel Pink’ and an ornamental pepper, ‘Black Olive.’ Normally I grow every every new AAS selection, but I’m stepping back this year.




‘Summer Jewel Pink’ (above) is the sister of ‘Summer Jewel Red’ which won the AAS award last year and I did grow that plant last summer. Perhaps it was the wet season, but its performance was underwhelming.



’Black Olive’ (above) is a decorative pepper with dark purple fruit growing along the plant’s stems. It is edible, but if I’m going to grow a showy pepper I choose ‘Super Chile’. It is very pretty and a great producer of inch long bright red hot peppers. Super Chile was an AAS winner in 1988 and it produces three times as many peppers as regular chile peppers.



The two vegetable winners are ‘Cayennetta’ peppers (above) and ‘Faerie’ watermelon. ‘Cayennetta’ pepper is a “mildly spicy pepper that is easy to grow.” This variety produces red chili peppers about 3 to 4 inches long on a compact, well branched upright plant. It is 69 days to maturity and I may be tempted to try it as a container plant.




‘Faerie’ watermelon (above) has a yellow rind with thin stripes. It yields “sweet pink-red flesh with a high sugar content and the vigorous vines spread only to 11 feet .” You can grow melons in our area, but for me they use up too much garden space for their relatively small yield.

A new concept that is turning up more and more in retail seed catalogues is the “fuseable” seed. This is when more than one seed is combined in a pellet form. Different colored coleus or petunias are often combined, and sometimes two different species are combined, like bacopa and petunias. The idea is to take the guesswork out of nice color or plant combinations.

I’ll pass for now. I’d rather create my own combinations and I also worry about one of the seeds in the pellets not germinating. It will be interesting to see how successful this new trend becomes. I will discuss more new plants the next time I blog.

Fall Flowers in Vermont

Fall is around the corner and our early mums are showing color. If you see mums in full bloom right now here in Vermont it is because they have been tricked, with the use of dark covers, to think the days are shorter than they really are, forcing the flowers.

Once the mums really get going I like to use them for bouquets, as they are long lasting. Typically I will combine whatever perennials are blooming with with annuals I have on hand. One of my best performing annuals this year has been "All-Around Purple " gomphrena" which has supplied blooms on long stems for months now.

'All-Around Purple' Gomphrena

Another annual that I like for bouquets is didiscus, kind of a light blue Queen Anne's Lace. I hope next year I remember to somehow stake this one.

Didiscus

'Little Joe' Eupatorium ('Joe Pye Weed') is supposed to be a a diminutive version of the species, at 3-4' feet. Not so in my garden - it's still at least 5 feet tall, but the flower is smaller and more refined than the species and it lasts a good long while in a bouquet.

'Little Joe' Eupatorium

Sanguisorbia canadensis ('Canadian Burnet') does its thing right now. I like the foliage of this plant all season and am always happy to have some spikey white flowers for bouquets in the end of summer. Verbena bonariensis is always a favorite of mine providing loads of flowers and I never go without pink lavatera. I don't find the white lavatera is as long lasting in bouquets. It also seems more attractive to insects.

Lavatera 'Silver Cup'

I was a reporter for a daily newspaper for seven years and managed to write something just about every day. You would think keeping a blog would be a piece of cake. Apparently not.

Summer Marches On ....

The daylilies continue their show and we have started transplanting for next year. The mums are growing fast and need to be spread out. Hard to believe!




'Red Ribbons' (above) is a pretty spider daylily which won 'best spider' daylily in 1992.



Above is a close-up of 'Howard Goodman' and a shot of the row in the gardens. Interesting that I also grow a daylily called 'Howard Goodson.'

Among the new and impressive blooms -

Starman's Quest

Snow Blizzard

Ruth Whitten

Moses Fire

My planting by the milk house did nicely this year


and 'Jackmanii' clematis did particularly well.


Tomorrow I deliver flowers to a wedding in Thetford, so it will be the first time I have missed farmers' market. I'm sure they will survive without me!

Summer is Definitely Here - The Sale Continues

The hot weather and high humidity slowed me down last week, although the plants seem pretty happy. I like to water in the evening when it is cooler and the water will have more time to do its job. We have put our shade cloth on the biggest greenhouse, so that makes things bearable inside.


All baskets are now $10 each, perennials in quart pots are $2.50 and six-packs are $2.



I have planted containers for a wedding Aug 6. The requested colors are yellow and white, an informal country look, sand I think these will be fine.



The daylily sale (buy five at $6.50 each, get the sixth free, your choice) is moving right along and quite a few happy campers have left with full cars.

Siloam Ury Winniford is one of my favorites. I like all the 'siloams,' but this one is particularly floriferous and perky.

SILOAM URI WINNIFORD

I love the blended colors on Smokey Mountain Autumn.

SMOKEY MOUNTAIN AUTUMN

I sell quite a few white daylilies, and Gentle Shepherd is probably the whitest, but it also has thin pedals and doesn't hold up all that well.

GENTLE SHEPHERD

Because of the nasty "lily beetle" I no longer sell Asiatic or Oriental lilies. Neem oil is recommended when you first see them and I did manage to control the bugs on my one planting of lilium superbum with one timely spray. However, they have returned with a vengeance.

Researching these insects I learned that they squeek when held. The first beetle was officially sighted in Cambridge, MA in 1992. Females lay up to 450 eggs and it is the larvae that are quite repulsive. They look a bit like slugs with swollen bodies and black heads. The reason they start to look particularly gross is because they secrete and carry their excrement on their back. I wonder what THAT is all about.

LILLIUM SUPERBUM (DBA 'Turk's Cap')

I do love these lilies and with the exception of the lily beetle, they are easy to grow. I guess I will offer them next year, although tall plants are hard to handle when grown in pots.

Our three other greenhouses are filled with ... mums. The seasons march on.

Vermont Daylily Sale

The daylilies have started to open and mine are ALL offered at $6.50 a piece. AND - if you buy five, the sixth one is free - your choice. This is retail only, as I don't ship plants. We grow all our daylilies in the field and pot up large plants. Many of the pots have more than five fans.

- Here's a quick sampling from the more than 100 cultivars offered -

CHARLES JOHNSTON

BURNING INHERITANCE

BARBARA MITCHELL

BUTTERFLY KISSES

NILE NIGHTENGALE

RUBY SPIDER

HOLIDAY DELIGHT

HOWARD GOODSON

We are closed Monday, so it's nice to have the time to pop outside (in the drizzle) and take these photographs. I hope everyone is having a lovely summer.

Vermont - Sale on ALL Annuals

Finally I have a moment to post. How do people maintain their blogs?

All annuals are on sale at the greenhouses. Six-packs are $2, as are 4 inch pots. Terra cotta 4 inch pots (things like 'Wave' petunias) are $1. All quart (4/5 inch, deep pots) are $3 and this includes some neat perennials that were planted last summer and overwintered in the pots.

The customers continue to roll in, many returning year after year and some visiting for the first time through "word of mouth." I like to think it's a combination of quality and low prices. That's what I'm told anyway! Now here are some quick photos I took yesterday afternoon. First, a shot outside the greenhouse. I am often advising customers to concentrate on foliage, not the flowers, for contrast. This is an example, although the hosta in front ('Sun Power') is blooming I notice, and I left the allium standing, because I think their seed pods are kind of cool.



Last year a customer asked me to sell 'Morden Centennial' rose. The online photos make it look like a double light pink, and mine is more glowing rose. That could be the first blooms. At any rate, it's a beauty.

MORDEN CENTENNIAL ROSE

I mentioned in another post that I didn't care for the double wave red petunia, because its spent blossoms are so messy. I won't grow it next year. But I do like 'Double Wave White' which is not quite so full, carnation-like, and has a pretty, clean white airy look to it.

'Double Wave' White Petunia

I have an elderly customer who comes back year after year for one flower - 'Twinkle' phlox. I usually end up planting the rest for myself, as they seem under appreciated. They are short and adorable.

TWINKLE PHLOX

Marigolds are always good sellers - not the most exciting of flowers, but you can count on them. I try and offer some unusual varieties along with the standard yellow and orange. 'Mr. Majestic' marigold is a dwarf, consistently striped marigold.

'Mr. Majestic' Marigold

And for bright and flashy - I like 'Bonanza Bolero' Marigold.

'Bonanza Bolero' Marigold

I still have some 'Phantom' petunias left, but the all black and 'Pinstripe' sold out right away.

'Phantom' Petunia

As if running four greenhouses and perennial gardens wouldn't keep me busy, I also attend two wonderful farmers' markets, one Wednesday in Danville (see below) and one Saturday in St. Johnsbury. Poor old Danville is undergoing road construction so we have moved to a new (lovely) spot.



Loading the truck, setting up, breaking down and then unloading is a lot of work, but it pays off later in the summer when visitors to the greenhouses slow down. And there's great food at those markets!