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New Plants for 2009
We couldn't start a new spring without plans for trying new plants. Life
would be too easy without the stimulating frustration of figuring out
how to grow a bunch of unknowns. There are lots new varieties of things
we've been growing all along, like trailing verbenas and geraniums, and
assorted perennials, but I'll list just a few things I'm really excited
about.
Coleus 'Sedona' Not new, but newly returned after disappearing
for 2 years, Sedona is the brightest, richest orange-bronze colored Coleus
there is. It's big enough to be the center of a large mixed shade/sun
planter, or to make a big glow of orange all summer in the shade between
your perennials and shrubs. So glad to have it back. It will be ready
in May and June.
Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost' Some of you got to try this last year,
but we didn't grow enough of it for everyone - because everyone should
try it. OK, it's fluffy and white, big deal. It's a really pretty fluffy
white, though, and it goes on being that way month after month, perfectly
mounded in shape, never needing cleaning, never stopping blooming, adapting
to all sorts of sun, water and temperature levels. It will be ready in
April
Oenothera 'Lemon Drop' Pronounced "eeno-thera". This
yellow-flowered perennial is one of those with great container potential.
It handles drying out (yes, most of us let our containers go too dry sometimes,
don't we), it blooms continuously, and it has a nice mounding, semi- trailing
shape that flows over the side of a pot nicely.
Dahlia 'Karma' varieties These are tall, large-flowered dahlias
that were bred for the florist market, but they are wonderful as a garden
plant. They produce masses of flowers all summer and fall, in bright red,
yellow, and pink, also two-tone blends and red-white bicolor. Their winter-hardiness
is yet to be determined, but even if they prove not to be truly perennial,
they give so many flowers that they're still worth planting annually.
Petunia 'Supertunia Vista Bubblegum' Not new to us this year,
but I'm still trying to figure out how big it can get. If you've seen
the baskets we plant for the Salem main post office on 25th St. those
huge balls of pure pink are Vista Bubblegum. They start out like any other
trailing type petunia, but they just keep growing, blooming, blooming,
growing. You could make a nice big basket out of one plant, and it'd look
good until Halloween, at least.
Green Indoors
More requests for interior plants have been coming our way the last couple
of years. I hope it's because you all have been learning how much interior
plants do to purify the air in our homes, add healthy oxygen to it, and
send out mysterious spirit-lifting vibes to us. That hippie stuff of the
1970s houseplant fad was "right on", actually. Rather than continue
with my uncertain attempts to find other sources to send you to, I've
decided to start carrying a selection of indoor foliage ourselves. Call
me a control freak, a perfectionist, whatever, but I know I can make sure
I have nothing but the best, cleanest, and healthiest houseplants. I can
never know for sure about plants elsewhere. Along with the "patio
plants", like Mandevillas and Dipladenias, which we've been growing
for years, these can go outside in the summer if you prefer not to have
them indoors all year, or if you like the Jungle Patio look.
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