3 PLANTS I'LL GROW THIS YEAR

I keep lists of plants I'm on the hunt for in various places—on sheets of paper in my purse, in an app on my phone, at the back of my garden notebook. This way I remember to grab them if I find them at a local nursery.

Each year there are a handful of plants that I get really hung up on for whatever reason. Here are three that I'm hoping to add to my garden this year.

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BOUTELOUA GRACILIS 'BLONDE AMBITION'

Monrovia photo

The first is a grass. I'm fussy about grasses. I've been through the ringer with less-than-well-behaved grasses in the past, so I choose them carefully. The one that I'm currently lusting after, a blue grama grass with a great name—Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition'—caught my eye several years ago. It is a nice size plant—super tall grasses make me jittery—and has the most charming seed heads that sit perpendicular to the stems. The whole thing makes for an interesting plant. Of course those cute seed heads can turn into a nightmare but everything I've read says this is easy to control from a reseeding standpoint. I've struggled to find it in the past, but it seems to be popping up in many more places so I hope it will find a home in my garden this year.

Zone 4-9
Size: 30 to 36 inches tall and wide
Available online at: High Country Gardens, Plant Delights Nursery, Monrovia, Santa Rosa Gardens, among others 

GEUM TRIFLORUM

Paul Drobot photos

The next is a plant that has popped up quite a bit on this blog lately: Geum triflorum. This is another one that's been on my radar for some time, as almost every garden I've toured seems to have them. And Proven Winners horticulturist Stacey Hirvela told me she can't imagine having a garden without it. Bonus points for the fact that it's native in much of the northern U.S., is a pleasant but not aggressive reseeder that will gradually work its way around and a gold star for it looking great for much of the year.

Zone 3-8
Size: 6 to 18 inches
Available online: Prairie Nursery, High Country Gardens, and as seeds

ACHILLEA

'Richard Nelson', Bluestone Perennials photo

'Terra Cotta', Bluestone Perennials photo

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but the next plant on my must-have list is Achillea millefolium. You know ... yarrow. The plant that everyone has had in their garden forever. I feel like I have to defend my reasoning for not growing this plant before. I'm certain it has everything to do with the goldenrod yellow color I most typically associate with this plant. That harsh shade of yellow has never been a favorite of mine (even though I sometimes don't mind it in early autumn). That combined with the sort of loose habit of Achillea always made me think "weed" when I saw it.

But guess what? Achillea is so much more than that. Cultivars range from an easy-on-the-eyes lemon yellow to shocking pink, dark red, peach or orange. Some are more compact than others, which also appeals to me and all are said to be very attractive to pollinators.

A few varieties that are worth a look:

• 'Apricot Delight': Pretty peach color and growing just 18 to 24 inches tall. 
• 'Pretty Woman': Cherry red growing to 22 to 24 inches tall. 
• 'Sunny Seduction': A light, pleasant (to my eye) yellow. 

Zone 3-9

Size 12-36 inches

Available online: Bluestone Perennials, Garden Crossings, White Flower Farm and as seeds 

These were the three plants I had to have last year and wouldn't you know it, every one of them made it into my garden last summer. I still love them all. 

PLANTS OF THE YEAR

It has become very popular for different organizations to features "plants of the year." These usually involve a marketing push as well, so retailers tend to stock up on featured plants and the odds are much better that you'll be able to pick them up without a lot of hunting.

Here are a few of the featured plants of the year for 2017.

Proven Winners launched its own plant of the year program this year and I'm thrilled with what they picked as their landscape plant of the year: Deutzia 'Yuki Cherry Blossom.' I had never grown (or possibly even heard of) Deutzia until Proven Winners several compact varieties a couple years ago and sent a few plants as part of their garden writers trial program. I've found them to be well-mannered, highly textural little surprises perfect for all sorts of different areas. Although I like this pink variety, I like 'Creme Fraiche,' which has variegated leaves, even more.

Proven Winners photo

The National Garden Bureau assigns broader categories to their annual picks, offering four in a variety of categories. So they've declared 2017 as the year of the pansy, daffodil, rose and brassica. That may seem far ranging, but I can get behind all those picks.

Pansies make me feel guilty. I think they are a lovely, cheery plant and yet I rarely use them. Spring is short here and even those pansies can handle cold weather, potting some up in a container is wonderful, but that container will only be around for a few weeks because all of a sudden it's time for summer containers. I'm going to try to remedy that this year.

National Garden Bureau photo

What can I say about daffodils? You know I love them, the deer don't eat them and nothing could be easier to grow. The Bulb of the Year title is well deserved.

National Garden Bureau photo

According to the National Garden Bureau, it's the year of the rose. I sure hope so because I'm about doubling the amount of roses in my garden this year.  Seriously though, if you think of roses as high-maintenance divas, it's high time to rid yourself of that misconception. Yes, those roses still exist but I recommend you skip them and aim for easy-care roses that grow pretty much like any other shrub. And the good news is that fragrance is being bred back into these easy-to-care for roses.

National Garden Bureau photo

It's also the year of the brassica, that being all those vegetables in the kale, cabbage and broccoli family. I'll confess, I'm not a brassica lover. But growing kale has made me appreciate it and I do love the Lacinato variety that I grow. And I've discovered that just about any vegetable that is roasted with olive oil and salt and pepper tastes pretty darn good so broccolini and even the occasional Brussels sprout has made its way into my veggie repertoire. The category is big and full of incredibly nutritious food, so it's well worth finding one and giving it a shot this year. I can't speak for growing all of them, but kale is a cinch to grow from seed.

The Impatient Gardener photo

The International Herb Society has been naming an Herb of the Year for ages and for the past few years I felt like maybe they were running out of herbs to give this distinction to (artemesia, elderberry and savory have been featured recently). But this year it's cilantro's year and I like that pick. Cilantro is certainly one of the most popular fresh herbs that people use, even though there is apparently a gene that makes it taste like soap to some people. It's fussy to grow though. It doesn't like heat and it will bolt quickly and as soon as that happen you might as well get comfortable with the fact that now you're growing coriander (the seeds of cilantro), not cilantro. Still, I love it in Mexican food. In recent years I've grown one called Slo-Bolt. I don't know if it's true to it's name as I've not grown it side by side with "regular" cilantro, but I get a few harvests out of it. Here's a little tip: If you love the taste of cilantro but hate that it bolts so quickly, consider growing papalo, which has a similar flavor in much larger, thicker leaves.

Renee's Garden photo. I've grown this variety in the past, but this year I may try this. The flowers are edible as well.

The Perennial Plant Association has chosen Asclepias tuberosa aka butterfly weed as it's plant of the year. Not only does this fit in with the movement to create more pollinator friendly gardens, I believe this to be an excellent plant. I remember the first time I saw it on a garden tour. I was drawn to it from clear across the yard. It's a nice height of between 2 and 3 feet, is deer resistant, can be grown from seed and it has long lasting flowers. It's a member of the milkweed family but has less milky sap than most of that group. 

Perennial Plant Association photo

Proven Winners also picked an annual to feature this year and it's one of their gold standards: Supertunia Vista Bubblegum. OK, it's confession time: I have never grown this plant. I've grown oodles of annuals from Proven Winners but never this one. There is something about that specific color of pink that I just don't love. But I'm clearly in the minority as I see people grabbing it by the flat-full at garden centers and P. Allen Smith has raved about it for years. I found this photo of it in a landscape, though, and I think my mind may be changing. It really is pretty stunning (of course the rest of that garden isn't so bad either).

Proven Winners photo

Lastly, there are the All-American Selections. These are excellent choices to pay attention to as these plants have been tried and tested and are chosen for their performance. The AAS logo appears on seed varieties that have earned the distinction so it's a good thing to look for. Here are their 2017 selections.

Sweetie Pie paper. All-American selections photo. 

• Seychelles pole bean
• Asian Garden Celosia
• Dianthus Supra Pink F1
• Antares F1 Fennel
• Calliope Medium Dark Red geranium
• Candle Fire okra
• Patio Pride pea
• Penstemon barbatus Twizzle Purple
• Aji Rico pepper
• Chili Pie pepper
• Mad Hatter pepper
• Sweetie Pie pepper
• Evening Sensation petunia
• Sugaretti squash
• Winter Honeybaby squash
• Chef's Choice Yellow tomato
• Midnight Snack tomato
• Patio Choice Yellow tomato
• EnduraScape Pink Bicolor verbena
• Mega Bloom Orchid Halo vinca
• Mega Bloom Pink Halo vinca
• Gold in Gold watermelon
• Mini Love watermelon
• Profusion Red zinnia

OK ... it's your turn: If you were choosing a plant of the year for 2017 what would it be?

Expert garden bloggers share their favorite shrubs

When I first started creating the garden at our house, my first garden as before I just had a balcony to put containers on, I ran out and got every perennial I thought looked interesting. Of course I've learned so much since then and the beautiful thing about gardening is that you can correct your mistakes. One of the most valuable things I've learned is the beauty of a mixed border combining perennials, shrubs, annuals and even, occasionally, trees.

Shrubs are so key to good garden design because they offer structure and interest that you just can't get with perennials.

I love asking fellow gardeners what their favorite plants are. Last year I asked some great garden bloggers about perennials, but this year I tried to pin them down on shrubs. Here's what they had to say.

Kylee writes the excellent blog Our Little Acre and gardens in northwest Ohio. She has a handful of garden cats who hang around, chickens and an adorable new granddaughter. And in April, the book she co-authored with another fantastic garden blogger, Jenny Peterson, will be published. Indoor Plant Decor is going to be the bible of indoor gardening.

Here's what Kylee picked (see what a good job I did nailing her down to one? I'm such a pushover):

Just like last year, I've had a difficult time paring my favorite down to just one. Erin wants to know my favorite shrub and I just couldn't come up with just one! So, I narrowed it to these three: 

Proven Winners photo

• Physocarpus opulifolius 'Coppertina' - I wanted this from the moment I first heard about it, but had to be patient, because I didn't find it locally until a few years ago. It was every bit worth the wait! Its foliage color is beautiful when mature, stunning when new, and it always looks good, you know?  It's hardy in Zones 3-8 and it's not picky about soil pH.

Monrovia photo

• Fothergilla 'Mt. Airy' - When spring comes,  it shows up with bottlebrush white blooms that remain while its corrugated green foliage finishes leafing out. Then in fall, it turns an absolutely thrilling shade of orange.  When the sun hits it then, it fairly glows. This shrub was discovered here in my home state of Ohio by the great Dr. Michael Dirr, whom I had the opportunity to meet last month! Oddly enough, it likes acidic soil and we have alkaline, but it does just fine for me. (Rhodies, azaleas, and blueberries don't do well here, as a rule, since they too, like acidic soils.) Hardy in Zones 5-8.

• Magnolia x loebneri 'Leonard Messel' - Though it's pretty nondescript for most of the year and can be susceptible to powdery mildew, I would still be sad if anything happened to it.  What it does in spring makes up for all the rest of the season.  Its blooms are the most heartbreaking shade of pearly pink and the centers are real works of art if you look closely.  In time, it will grow quite large, unless you keep it pruned so it can remain a large shrub. Ours is currently very much in shrub form. It likes a fair amount of water, so we planted it in the wettest part of the yard and it seems happy there. It's very showy when blooming and is hardy in Zones 5-9, as well as being deer-resistant.

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 Anyone who has read this blog for long knows that I love Genevieve's blog North Coast Gardening. Even though she gardens in a very different part of the country from me, she always manages to speak to gardeners in any zone and she is always my go-to source for gardening product reviews.

Here's Gen's pick:

Photo courtesy of Genevieve Schmidt

Parrot's beak, or Clianthus puniceus, has been making my heart flutter for the last few years. I mean, just look at those blooms! They're a solid 2-3 inches long, come in large clusters, and you can choose from the regular coral or go for red (pictured) or white varieties.

A lot of plants with such splashy flowers have lackluster foliage or a rangy habit, but parrot's beak shines here, too. The leaves have a lush, fern-like appearance that fits in around water features, tropical-style plantings, or really, nearly anything. And while it makes a great stand-alone shrub, it's also a natural to espalier. I have one growing against my chicken coop that only sticks out about 2 feet, and I don't need to prune it much - just a little pinching to direct the growth. They'll grow about 5 feet tall and around if left to their own devices.

Obviously, since they're from New Zealand they need full sun, good drainage, and not too cold of a climate - they're happy in zones 8-11.

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Debbie is an expert garden designer and garden coach (which is so cool) in Connecticut's zone 6.  She is also a member of the Garden Designer's Roundtable, which is an incredible source of inspiration and information. She blogs at a Garden of Possibilities.

Here's Debbie's beautiful pick:

Photos courtesy of Debbie Roberts

While it's impossible to pick just one favorite shrub, I have to say purple beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma) is right at the top of my list of favorite shrubs. Even though it does have an interesting shape with its almost horizontal branches, for most of the year it's fairly quiet and unassuming. But in the fall, when many other shrubs and perennials are looking a bit tired, purple beautyberry puts on an amazing show. Small purple berries drip from the branches. The shrub seems to glows in the sunlight. Here in my Connecticut garden, the berries remain on the shrub after the leaves fall off so it's not unusual to find the little purple berries dusted with snow in the winter.

Purple beautyberry likes a spot in full sun to partial shade and average garden soil and it seems to be deer resistant, at least in my garden (knock on wood!)

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Christina Salwitz is a home gardening training specialist. That's a lot of words to say that she doesn't garden FOR people, she teaches them to garden, which seems so appropriate for an activity that derives so much of its enjoyment in doing it, not just appreciating it. She gardens in Washington state and blogs at The Personal Garden Coach where she posts amazing photos that will have you clambering to get into the garden, tips and tricks, book reviews and more. She is also the co-author of the new book Fine Foliage, which celebrates the beauty of foliage over flowers. You should see some of the amazing foliage combinations presented in the book. It's stunning. She is also a member of the Garden Designer's Roundtable. 

And because with a book hot off the presses and a booming coaching business she's a busy lady, so Christina cut right to the chase:

My favorite “lately” has been the Bountiful Blue Blueberry. It has SUCH amazing foliage color, evergreen, turns a lovely soft plum tone in winter, AND an incredible amount of great fruit. What’s not to love?!

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Steve Asbell is an incredibly talented gardener, blogger and artist who is lucky enough to garden in Florida (at least I'd consider him very lucky at this time of year). His blog, The Rainforest Garden, is about "taking a healthy dash of botanical style and incorporating it into your life through decorating, crafting, cooking and yes, even gardening." His illustrations are not to be missed. He also has a book coming out in early 2014. Plant by Numbers has tips and recipes for creating a carefree indoor garden with 50 artistic living arrangements with houseplants, ranging from tried and true Dracaenas to up-and-comers like mistletoe cactus and bromeliads.

Steve is writing about one of my favorite tropical shrubs:

Photo provided by Steve Asbell

Dwarf Bottlebrush (Callistemon viminalis ‘Little John’)

For those of you growing in zones 9-11, dwarf bottlebrush has everything you could possibly ask for in a shrub. First of all, it’s one of those rare bushes that stays small without much maintenance, with tight whorls of velvety blue-green leaves that stay attractive throughout the year. Most folks however, grow it for the fire-engine red ‘bottlebrush’ flowers that glow in the sunlight and bring hummingbirds in droves. All of these great features are reason enough to grow the plant, but the reason it gets my vote is that it is incredibly drought tolerant and thrives in the hottest and driest spots in my garden. If you live in zone 8 you can grow dwarf bottlebrush with protection, or just grow the larger varieties since the cold will keep them in check. In northern zones, dwarf bottlebrush’s small size and admirable drought tolerance makes it a winner for container plantings.

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Linda from Each Little World is a great blog friend whose garden isn't all that far from mine, but I still haven't seen yet. She is blogging less frequently than she once did but every post is insightful and interesting. I'm crossing my fingers that we'll see more of her garden as spring approaches, especially because big changes are in the works in her garden: a large tree that was the foundation of one of her shady beds fell in an early winter storm so she'll be figuring out what is next for that part of the garden. Her photos, often taken by her talented husband (and gardening conspirator) Mark, are stunning and look like they've been lifted from the pages of a lovely gardening book. 

Here's Linda's pick:

Dwarf Alpine current makes a long, low hedge curving away from the nearby apple trees in Linda's garden.
Mark Golbach photo

If it were May or June, then I'm sure I'd declare Doublefile Viburnum my favorite shrub. It's definitely a show-stopper and is always the center of attention when it blooms. But shrubs in the winter garden need to stand-out in a different way than summer plants. At this season, Alpine currant (Ribes alpinum) makes a much needed statement. I grow both the straight species and the dwarf variety ('Green Mound'). 

They take well to pruning, creating strong horizontal lines in the garden: green in summer; almost black in winter. Some years, they make a strong presence in the winter garden; other times only the top of the hedge peeks out of the deep snow. Because they become so densely twiggy they have not been broken like so many other garden specimens during the heavy snowstorms we've had in recent years. It's a shrub that's well-worth a second look, and it's usually readily available at most nurseries.

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Erin here: I'm overwhelmed by all the great shrubs that garden bloggers love. Some I've never heard of and others I had written off but now I'm anxious to try (Fothergilla and Alpine current, I'm looking at you). But I thought it was only fair to share my favorite shrub, which I know will come as no surprise to regular readers. 

Plant touchers unite!

 Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight' is hardly flashy anymore in these days of super-improved shrubs but to me, one of the best things about shrubs is that they are often the lowest maintenance plants in the yard. That's important to me.

I have some special plants and I'm happy to give them extra care but there just isn't time for a garden full of diva plants. Some of them just have to manage more or less on their own. And that's just what Limelight does. I prune it in very early spring or late winter every year (some years more than others), I sometimes throw some compost or organic fertilizer at the base of it (but sometimes not) and I make sure it gets a good amount of water (I have a soaker hose in that garden that I circle the root zone with). And that's it. It's hardy to zone 3 (Siberia?) and heat tolerate to zone 9. The only thing to know about it is that while hydrangeas have the (often wrong, at least in northern zones) reputation for liking shade or part shade, Limelight wants sun, at least up here (I would assume it would  take a bit more shade the farther south you are). Given those few things, Limelight offers up huge lime-tinged blossoms that fade to pink and then dry to brown, where they are a welcome sight in the winter garden.

Thank you to all the great garden bloggers who participated! Now, onto the important part: What is your favorite shrub?

A great performer: Korean feather reed grass

It was a beautiful weekend here in Wisconsin and I did not spend a single moment of it in the garden. That's not a good thing. I should be taking advantage of good weather when I can to start sprucing up for fall.

Usually my fall gardening chores consist of weeding (the more weeding I do know, the fewer weed seeds will have a chance to take root in the garden) and cutting back a few things. But with the incredibly dry summer we've had, this year I'm concentrating most on watering. I want everything to be very deeply watered as we go into freezing temperatures. It's already stressed, but if it went into winter dry, I suspect I'd lose a lot more plants.

So in between moving the sprinkler around (which seems to be the story of the summer), I paused for a moment to enjoy a plant that is really at its peak right now: Clamagrotis brachytricha (Korean feather reed grass).

I love grasses in the garden, but I like well-behaved grasses. Runners make me mad. I also like them to have four-season interest. They are great standing in the landscape all winter if you can keep them that way without folding over. I discovered Korean feather reed grass in Tracy Disabato-Aust's book 50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants. I don't know what became of Tracy. I went to a wonderful seminar by her several years ago, bought several of her books (all of which, I love by the way) and followed her blog, but I've heard nothing of her lately.

Anyway, I couldn't be happier with this plant and I completely agree that it falls in the "high-impact, low-care" category. In fact, I've done absolutely nothing for it since I planted it last year other than watering it along with the rest of the garden and cutting it back in late winter. This one falls in my "highly recommended" list.

OK, that's just gross

Don't read this post while you're eating. Unless you are dieting and want a reason to stop eating.

I have sad news to report on the health of the Family Jewels plant. The aphids love it. I have never actually seen a plant so covered in aphids before in my life. From a distance I thought the stems were turning a pretty golden color. And then I got closer and saw this:

That just skeeves me out, although I'd rather deal with aphids than creepy caterpillar-type bugs. Even though this was clearly a massive infestation, I did try my usual remedies. First I hit it really good with a strong blast of the hose. That probably got 75% of them off, but it was really time consuming and wet because I had to hold each stem individually to get on the underside. I waited a couple days and repeated the big rinse cycle, then went through with a rag and a bowl of water and dish soap and manually removed most of the rest of them.

Three days later it was almost as bad. It's OK, really. The plant probably got stressed, making it more susceptible to an alien aphid attack. After all, it's not used to the kind of climate I have it growing in and it has endured one of the worst summers (if you're a plant, awesome if you're a lover of beautiful weather like me) we've ever had. With the weather turning much colder than it usually is this time of year, it's not long for this world anyway. So I'll pull off the seed pods in hopes of saving some seed and then pull it out of the ground. I would have liked to enjoy it a bit longer, but I've certainly gotten plenty of enjoyment from it already this season.

Taking care of the family jewels

 I'm a big proponent of gardening being fun. That's why I feel that gardening "rules" should be thought of more as guidelines. My gardening rule is: Do what makes you happy.

As part of embracing that philosophy, this spring I bought a plant for no reason other than that I thought it was funny. I actually first saw this plant in New Zealand and I've been searching for it ever since. It's Asclepias physocarpa but its common name—Family Jewels tree (aka Hairy Balls plant, or the far more boring Balloonplant) says far more about what this member of the milkweed family actually looks like.

It's a tender perennial in zone 7, so it is most certainly an annual in my zone 5b garden, but I wanted to give it a shot anyway. It first started flowering a couple weeks ago so I was worried that I wouldn't get to see any of the seed pods that give it its common names. Never fear, the family jewels are here.

It's OK, you can giggle. You know you want to.

There are several seed pods now and they are growing rather rapidly (obviously I'm not watering it with cold water ;) ) but I'm really enjoying this plant for its form as well. It has an elongated leaf that isn't unlike what you'd find on an olive tree. I absolutely love olive trees because I think they are just so pretty. I hate olives though. Go figure. Anyway, it's difficult to find an elongated, slightly blueish leaf on a plant that will grow in northern climates so this was a nice surprise.

The flowers are diminutive but pretty with a lovely light scent.

The plant stands about 5 feet 6 inches tall and has a sort of free-form habit. I like it.

I'm going to try to save a few of the seeds and grow this from seed next year. Any plant that makes me laugh every time I see it is certainly one worth growing. Even if it means that you have a rather juvenile sense of humor.

P.S. I think I should receive some sort of award for keeps the puns to a minimum in this post. Feel free to add as many as you like in the comments though. If you have the cojones.

Falling for a great performer

 

One of the new plants in the garden this year that has really thrilled me is heucherella 'Redstone Falls.' I got three of these through the Yahoo Co-op as plugs and they are all over a foot wide now. The coloring in their part-sun location is a gorgeous combination of terra-cotta, orange, yellow, green and a hint of red.

I'm really loving all of the new heucheras and heucherellas that are being developed (many by Terranova Nurseries), but you do have to be a bit careful as to placement of them. I've found that many prefer a good amount of sun, although others tolerate—no, demand—shade. Clearly I hit the nail on the head with where Redstone Falls ended up.