WEATHER
Spring is here, and eager gardeners are browsing their favorite garden shops for that special new plant for the season.
Color sells, whether it’s a nursery display, a garden club plant sale or a farmers’ market.
Claudia Loy of Sunnycrest Nursery in Key Center thinks people tend to want brighter plant color in time of war than in peaceful eras, when choices may be more along the lines of pastels and cooler tones.
Brilliant pansies, ranunculus, azaleas and a multitude of other plants fill the spaces in garden centers and grocery stores this month. Warmer weather is finally approaching, and the itch to add color is hard to resist.
Many gardeners also ask for plants that bring in wildlife, especially birds and butterflies, although most want deer-resistant types.
Loy notes some new items at their nursery this year, with lime green and bright yellow foliage being especially popular to brighten up gardens.
Leycesteria Formosa Golden Lanterns (also called “Notbruce”) is a top-notch choice of colorful shrub. This Himalayan honeysuckle has golden leaves tinged with red that contrast well with fuchsias or purple-leaved shrubs. Purple-red bracts around fragrant white flowers that turn to bird-loving berries in the fall. It is considered deer-resistant, and although it’s fast growing, it tops out at about 5 feet and may die back in cold winters.
Berberis thunbergii “Pow Wow” (a Japanese barberry) creates a yellow glow in the garden right now. Another deer-resistant plant, it carries thorns, so the gardener needs to place it carefully. The spring color changes to chartreuse in the summer, and it adds orange and red in the fall.
Daphne x transatlantica “Summer Ice” is a dependable shrub with variegated foliage that tends to shimmer. A mounding, prolific bloomer with “intoxicating” fragrance, it’s a plus in the garden.
Prostanthera (Australian mint bush) “Poorinda Bride” is a fast-growing shrub with lavender-tinged, white flowers. It can use an annual pruning to maintain a bushy shape, and it’s hardy to about 15 degrees.
“Blanche Sandman” is a new honeysuckle (lonicera sempervirens) with an unusual color, red tubular blooms with yellow interior. Hummingbirds love it, although it is scentless.
One of the best variegated plants is a Jacob’s Ladder (polemonium) with bright green leaves edged with cream. Violet blue flowers add another dimension.
One of Loy’s favorite hydrangeas, the blue macrophylla “Endless Summer” now has a companion, “Blushing Bride.” These plants bloom on old and new wood, so give a longer bloom season.
Both should be readily available this year locally.
“Endless Summer,” from Minnesota, is the parent plant of “Blushing Bride.” The blue will never be a dark or deep color, and it can vary toward pink or lavender, depending on soils. The white begins as pure white, then turns to a blush pink or even a pale blue when it’s mature.
Other growers in Holland and Japan have created a pink “Forever and Ever,” “Forever and Ever Double Pink” and a sport of the single pink, “Forever and Ever Red,” an exciting new re-blooming color. As these plants become more available in this area, hydrangea aficionados will snap them up to add to their bloom season.
Loy’s dad, Don Olson, planted a Josta berry (ribes nidigrolaria) last year with good success. A vigorous cross between gooseberry and black currant, it combines the best of both shrubs and fruit.
Pronounced yust-a-berry, it is thornless, disease-resistant, and it tastes good eaten off the bush as well in jams and pies. One shrub can produce up to 12 pounds of berries rich in Vitamin C. The plants are self-pollinating, hardy and easy to grow.
New plants or old favorites are available in our local garden centers.
Have fun browsing!
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