Plants I Want 2012: Plant Delights Nursery

January can be a very exciting month as many well-known mail-order nurseries put out their new catalogs and entice plant geeks such as myself with their new introductions and plants I want to use in work projects and plants I'd like to add to my personal collection.

I'm anxious to start with one of the most popular mail order catalogs and that's of Plant Delight's Nursery in Raleigh, NC. I had the pleasure of meeting Tony Avent years ago as an undergrad when he was a auctioneer for a reception at the International Plant Propagator's Society conference. He was entertaining and hilarious, but he's also a remarkable plantsman and owns one of the most successful plant mail order operations out there. He's so well connected with other growers in that he has access to the best of the best and many of their offerings are simply to die for if you know your plants! He also has a great cartoonist friend who does their comic catalog covers:

So after they posted on their Facebook page that their 2012 Spring catalog was online, I jumped to my bookmark and had a peak at their selections. Here's what I'm lusting for and WHY.....



Arisaema consanguineum 'Wild Blue Yonder'. This is a selection of an Asian Jack-in-the-Pulpit with enormous foliage that is dramatically splashed in silver/blue. The texture it creates in the garden is exceptional. Plus, it's also an introduction by Ellen Hornig who used to run Seneca Hills Perennials, but is now closed. I had a chance to meet Ellen a few years back and she was a very sweet lady I hope to cross paths with again. $35.00 for a small tuber of this plant will be a tough one to swallow, however. It's kind of a plant I can probably survive without, for now. So on a scale of 1-5.....

1 (can probably live without)------- 5(already on my shopping cart.

 ** 2 **





Baptisia hybrids from Hans Hansen at Walter's Gardens. 


So, I met Hans two summers ago at the Perennial Plant Association conference and talk about a devoted plantsman. Now, I love Baptisia and recommend them highly because of their drought tolerance  and ease of care once they're established, but a lot of beginning gardeners sometimes get impatient with them. But now with these lovely new colors, I think I'll have an easier time convincing clients to try these out!

From left to right: 'Blue Sundae', 'Lemon Meringue', 'Dutch Chocolate'

**1** -will try to get locallly for clients

Epimedium sp. 'The Giant'. I'm certainly one of many Epimedium fanatics out there and this holy-grail of the horny goat weeds is an absolute must have because of its sheer size, rarity and exclusiveness, and its breeding potential to develop the most prolific flowering plants that will ever be developed! This was first offered through Darrell Probst from Garden Visions for like $500 or $300 dollars and now I can actually own one for $150. YIKES!!!  But can Riz live with or without it???

**2**

Musa xishuangbannaensis 'Mekong Giant'. I'm definitely a sucker for hardy tropicals even though they were considered a trend way back and now because they take so much water and fertilizer to look their grandest, I still have a soft spot for them because of their bold dramatic look in the landscape and in a way it sort of reminds me of my homeland. This new selection is suppose to have heavily speckled purple stems and huge foliage much larger and more dramatic than the standard hardy Musa basjoo. Xishuangbanna is a prefecture in Yunnan Province, China and boasts a remarkable amount of biodiversity. It is a tropical region that is home to some of the last of the Asian Elephants in the wild and many new species of plants and animals are being discovered and described all the time. This will certainly be for my collection and will definitely be a conversation piece if it does what Tony says it will do.

**4**

Delosperma 'Fire Spinner' looks to be an exquisite addition to the dry open garden rockery or green roof!! Look at that color! The hardy ice plant is one tough addition to the landscape just as long as it has exceptional drainage. I'm super excited about this new introduction as many colleagues are already drooling over the photos that have come out for press releases.

**4** --might look for it locally later this season.




You know, that's about it for the new introductions from Plant Delights. There are other plants I've lusted over that I might finally get from them to complete an order.



R

Chelsea 2011: Plant of the Year nominee I adored.

Like I mentioned, I wasn't all that thrilled with the new plant selections up for "Plant of the Year", but the winner, Anemone 'Wild Swan', was quite nice; but one that I just about salivated over was a FRAGRANT tuberous begonia dubbed 'Fragrant Apricot Falls'.

So, there have been fragrant tuberous begonias introduced into the market such as the "Scentiment" series, but from what I heard, the scent was quite faint and often exaggerated. So when I saw this begonia, I was impressed by it's color, size, floriferous bloom and habit, but kind of scoffed that it'd be all that scented. Once they made the claim that you could detect the sweet scent from a few paces away, I actually approached the plant and buried my nose into it and...

W O W !!!!!!


With hints of citrus, rose, and honeysuckle, I was so enamored by the plant and wanted so badly to bring it home with me.

Yes, it's not hardy and has to be protected and overwintered indoors, but THIS IS SUCH AN EXQUISITE TREAT! I hope they offer it soon!

Chelsea 2011 Plant of the Year! Anemone 'Wild Swan'

It was pretty exciting tagging along John Grimshaw and getting to sneak into an RHR Committee meeting to select and vote on the Chelsea Plant of the Year for 2011.

While most of the selections were kind of bleh, the winner was quite exquisite and a few others caught my attention enough to want to import them in at some point in the near future!

The winner was a soft and delicate, but seemingly hardy and vigorous Anemone called 'Wild Swan'. Supposedly a complex hybrid between several different species (sort of reminds me of the coloration of A. rivularis and A. leveillei) and selected about 10 years ago from a batch of seedlings.

If the claims are correct, it will flower from May to November (provided it get adequate moisture and fertilizer), but with its close resemblance to A. japonica, I'm worried about it running and becoming a problem as this fall blooming species can be a thug. I find the seemingly tidy habit attractive (as a container plant as well) and the coloration is really quite exquisite.

Here's why it got its name:





Me with the 2011 Chelsea Plant of the Year during the first member's day at the Chelsea Flower Show.


Cheers,

R

CHELSEA 2011 REPORT - Part Three: More Press Day Antics

Sorry for the delay. It's been quite busy on my end with never-ending projects and tasks at this time of year.

So, press day wouldn't be complete without a few "behind the scenes" images and photos only the public could see on the papers the next day. Like I said, the amount of press and media attention this show garners is quite remarkable.

One of the images I will never forget was entering the press tent to collect some press release, literature, and, most importantly, find an outlet so I could charge my camera battery.

Little chance I had witnessing this as I hid in the corner to snap this photo.



It was such an interesting experience attending this event. Here in Seattle, I'm so used to recognizing people I knew and I immediately feel welcomed, ready to schmooze, and set to take notes, photographs, and run into people left and right and it's all one party of plant folks, garden writers, and prominent names in the field. In Chelsea, I felt like a nobody.I took it as an opportunity to really push myself to speak to growers and just really observe and soak up the whole experience.

Camera crews swarmed the grounds of the Royal Hospital with interviews left and right, evening news reporters, gardening personalities doing demonstrations in the show gardens. It was all quite fascinating to watch behind the cameras. To give me some more insight on all the happenings at Chelsea, I ran into a well-known plantsman by the name of Dr. John Grimshaw. He helped pen a fabulous reference on new trees and a book on Snowdrops, one of his passions. John Grimshaw's Garden Diary and we happened to have crossed paths on Facebook. During press day, he spotted me and introduced himself and I asked if I could tag along as he previewed the displays, scrutinized the plant materials and shared his take on UK Horticulture and gardening in general.


Here we are looking at a stand of Digitalis or Foxgloves. I inquired as to why such a common and weedy plant deserved its own stand. He says that they've always, traditionally, been popular with show goers and they're remarkably easy to have blooming in time for the late May show. So there you go! We're actually standing next to a cool cultivar called 'Pam's Split' with a rare split in the fused corolla, which is white with a red spotted throat.

Hanging with John turned out quite to be a blessing as a colleague of his invited me to stay after the 3PM cut off time for press to vacate the show grounds for the Evening Gala to begin. This meant seeing more of the show, learning which entry won "Chelsea Plant of the Year", and, perhaps, a celebrity citing. While I missed out on seeing Ringo Starr, Gweneth Paltrow, and all these other names listed on the press release of potential celebrity visitors, I did manage to have the honor of seeing her:


Again, I asked myself, "Why don't we have any real celebrities make appearances to our flower shows that could potentially draw a bigger crowd?!"


So, I took this picture not knowing who this lady was until a colleague of mine gasped and asked if it was Vanessa Redgrave. I later learned that it WAS her launching a new rose in honor of her daughter, actress Natasha Richardson, who passed a way tragically. The 'Natasha Richardson' rose will be available to the public with proceeds from its sale going to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a charity that Natasha Richardson supported. Looks to be a top notch selection. Read about it here.

Speaking of rose lauches, the infamous David Austin unveiled the brand new "Will and Kate" rose at this year's Chelsea! Meh. It looked to be quite a strong bloomer, but the flowers weren't anything special. It had a light scent. It was white. It was kind of short. It was white. Bleh...I don't need it. Cool to be able to honor people through a plant though, that's pretty damn awesome.



Here are more missed photo opps that I didn't get a chance to shoot, from the Daily Telegraph.

So, the grounds and the main marquee, which I'll cover in the next installment, began to be filled with catering staff, more press and cameramen, and dolled up models in the show gardens and exhibits where not only did they garner the attention, plants and flowers were the focus as they both shared the stage.











After a long day, John introduced me to a English favorite, rum and raisin ice cream!




R

This new plant's called....domino...DOMINO!!!

My young division of this Epimedium 'Domino' is getting established in a container and it decided to flower a few weeks ago.



Still not as readily available as other cultivars as this one set me back around $30.00 plus shipping, but it has gotten so many raves from fellow plantsmen and collectors I had to get it!

It is incredibly prolific in bloom with wonderful mottled foliage when developing and its overall vigor and habit are superb!

And now, the song/music video that reminds me of this plant!

I'll have the double-double...or NOT

Nah, I'm not talking about my recent encounter with an In and Out burger for the first time EVER! (animal style with a strawberry shake, mind you)

But, I'm talking lilies. Double-flowered lilies. Double-flowered ORIENTAL LILIES. Double double...okay, you get the idea.

Now, double flowered lilies aren't all that new. They've been around for quite some time and they're usually the result of one of mother nature's "accidents" and breeders have come along and selected those that have converted/fused some of their stamens into tepals creating a sterile pollen-free "abomination of nature" that's ridiculously cool and, hey, pollen free so I can cut them for arrangements without worrying about staining the tablecloths or getting plant sperm on my nose.

Most of the doubles that have been on the market have mostly been Asiatic lilies. They're the ones that come in a wide range of colors, bloom at around June for us in the Northern Hemisphere and usually aren't scented, but in recent years, a whole arsenal of double flowered Orientals have made their way onto the market and I wanted to be one of the first to obtain, grow and evaluate them as garden plants.

The first of these double orientals to hit the masses is one 'Miss Lucy'. A very soft pink with gently ruffled petals opening to perfection like a carnival confection. This photo blew me and thousands of other avid gardeners off our feet.



We were promised that each bud would open properly, last longer in the vase than any other "single-flowered" oriental hybrid, and being an experienced lily grower, I thought I was about to grow a dream!

I purchased bulbs from a dutch source and that first summer of 2004, this is what it produced:


Buds aborted, and those that did develop opened slowly, then browned out and fell off. A total, WTF Moment!! I paid $10 a bulb just to get this??!!

I figured, okay, it was a tough summer, I didn't irrigate like I was suppose to and didn't fertilize as much as I could have; it was all me, not the plant.

So in 2006, I made sure they had lots of organic material, adequate water and I even tried to plant them in a little more shade so they don't scorch, but I still got THIS:


These were three stems with single flowers on each to make it look like I had "success" with this "exciting new introduction". They never opened fully and you can see the trace of browning on the tepals as they began to go south. =(

I was so ready to trash and bad mouth 'Miss Lucy' and never recommend anyone to grow it! However, I started seeing this at local Seattle and eastside Bellevue home gardens:







OK, what gives, huh???!!!

I've grown lilies since I was in my early teens: I've bred and propagated them, cloned them in the lab, rescued embryos in vitro, collected rare species from the wilds of China AND I CAN'T GET A BLOODY DOUBLE FLOWERED ORIENTAL TO F*ING OPEN PROPERLY!!

Yeah, you bet I was pissed!

What made me determined to succeed with these lilies was seeing Bob and Dianna's new repertoire of double orientals they featured in their catalog about 2 years ago.

Bob and Dianna or B&D Lilies have been friends and mentors of mine since I caught the lily bug early. They've known me since I was 13 years old and bought my first 'Casablanca' bulb from them at the 1996 NW Flower and Garden Show.

Here we are at last year's show:



So in their wonderful catalog, they had like 3 or 5 different double flowered Orientals that blew me away. That floozy 'Miss Lucy' was one of them, but it also included ones that were far more colorful and interesting in shape and I figured, "OK, I gotta do this. I need to get one of each and DO THIS!!!"

Here were my results:

Lilium 'Jozef'


So, meh, okay. Not the best form or the greatest color. Had one flower on a stiff thin stem.


Lilium 'Davyd'


Yeah, this one came out kinda freaky and gross looking.


Lilium 'Chrys'

So then this came along and actually melted my heart and said, "Ahhhh....finally. A nice one"



There are others I got, but never came up for some odd reason and there are still others that I've yet to try, but might splurge on should they become available.

I'll be on the lookout for these this spring:


'Queen Sofia' - aka 'Roselily Fabolia' aka 'Double Star'



'Distant Drum' - aka 'Double Pink Rose'

and this WILD THANG being advertised as purple and white. Why is it f'ing RED with white??!!

Lilium 'Magic Star'



So, I dunno. I don't want to say that these are all crap as I know I could have taken better care of them and according to my gardening friend, Nita-Jo Rountree, who grow spectacular stems of 'Miss Lucy', as seen above, the key, she's been told by a grower, is to always provide adequate water when actively growing and forming buds or else you'll run into the problems I had.

With lilies typically easy to grow without too much attention, the extra effort to ensure these strange lilies might not be worth it for the casual gardener. I think these doubles will always remain a novelty item prized by avid gardeners and serious collectors. Who knows how well they'll be received in the florist trade? Will they open as easily as the "singles" or will buds just abort and shrivel?

Always an ongoing experiment of trial and error. You know I love it!

Oh yeah, I did like this, but totally in moderation:






R

A new Hellebore, but why am I not that excited about it?

Last summer, we got this Hellebore as a sample from Skagit Gardens and since I leaked that we were one of a handful of Botanic Gardens to have this rare hybrid between Helleborus x hybridus and H. niger, many avid gardeners including Jim Waddick and Graham Rice were very interested in learning more about it.

So here it is in peak bloom at the UW Botanic Gardens' Center for Urban Horticulture:




While it looks to be quite vigorous and very prolific, there's something kind of plain and boring about it. It could easily be just another pink Helleborus x hybridus seedling. The size of the flowers are nothing to rave about and the color is not really all that compelling.

I also read that its sterile so any attempts to "improve" it might not be possible. It took some time to prove that it is, in fact, a true hybrid between the two species. So, I dunno. Maybe I might grow to appreciate it, but I'm not all that enthused to tell everyone to go buy it.

New Double Lilies and Hots for Hostas!

As the new year approaches, I get super stoked about the arrival of plant catalogs. I don't know about some folks, but I still LOVE getting them in the mail; thumbing through and highlighting selections I probably could never afford to buy has always been a favorite pastime. hehe

It has also acted as a "heads up" when it came to new plant introductions I should be aware of. I always seem to savor the excitement of seeing a new plant, but over the years, I've become immediately critical of anything new that I see. Suddenly, the serious plantsman in me begins to question its origins, its market potential, its trial process, how it could be utilized in the landscape and if I'm infatuated enough, I find ways to somehow secure a sample so I can grow it myself or often times, I immediately seek out a "plug source" so I can be one of the first in the region to offer a plant.

Plant market can be very competitive and nurseries are always striving to have something new and exclusive. As a small hobby nursery, it's impossible to keep up with the surge of new plants if you don't have the resources to grow them on. However, being the plant nut that I am trying to stay on top of everything I'm exposed to in terms of plants, I can't help going through these catalogs and almost predicting what people might be after (both beginners and seasoned avid gardeners).

Many of you know that I'm a big fan of lilies and Hostas. Upon recent web searches, here are some must haves on my list:

B & D Lilies
I've known Bob and Dianna since I was 13 years old and I've worked with them at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show for a few years. They bring a wide assortment of exciting lily hybrids and some of the best bulbs in the industry. Over the years, they've started to diversify and offer other plants such as peonies and Eucomis, but the lily hybrids are their specialty and they have some notable selections I'm eager to try:

Double-flowered Orientals:
Now, I'm completely enamored by these, but I've yet to grow them successfully. I tried a wide selection last spring, but with the terrible heat and poor irrigation, not one flowered for me, but I'm still eager to try!

Here's a brand new one called 'Lodewijk' I don't have yet. It looks so full and so out of this lily world!


Here's the ethereal 'Davyd' meainging "beloved". The bloom is absolutely breathtaking.

The problems I've had with doubles is their inability to open properly under my garden conditions. I've yet to figure out why, but I have my suspicions: not enough water, too much sun, poorly amended soil, but the fact that I've struggled with a variety called 'Miss Lucy' (the first of the double Orientals to be introduced) for years now, I'm hesitant about recommending these other doubles, but they're so irresistibly different and exotic.

Here's one I HIGHLY recommend that I got last year and was most impressed with. It is an Asiatic hybrid called 'Netty's Pride'



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Naylor Creek
Gary and Jack have also known me for years and their hostas and shade plants are almost unparalleled in terms of variety and quality. Here are some plants I'm being tempted by:

I'm a fan of the classic blue hosta cultivar called, 'Halcyon'. It has produced one of my most favorite varieties called 'June' which has a gold/chartreuse center and now comes 'Blue Ivory'.
Nice wide margins on what I hope is a strong plant that doesn't burn at the edges.


'Fragrant Queen'
I'm a sucker for fragrance and this looks to be very promising. Excellent foliage and consistent fragrant blooms in late summer.

The red-petiole cultivars are much sought after by collectors and even novice gardeners are beginning to take notice and even wonder if a "RED HOSTA" will ever be bred. Here's an attempted with one called 'The Razor's Edge'.