7 New Shrubs And Foliage Plants For Spring Interest
Perennials and annuals aren’t the only plants that supply spring color to the garden. Shrubs and foliage plants also add color and interest and are a great way to round out your product mix. These seven new variety introductions for 2016 are tough plants with minimal needs and offer seasonal interest from planting until frost. They are a great way to round out your spring product line and offer your customers a wide range of options for gardening.
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Caladium ‘Berries N’ Burgundy’ (Abbott-Ipco)
Caladium ‘Berries N’ Burgundy’ is a fancy-leaved variety with a distinctive look, bronze background, pink and white center, and bright-pink primary veins. It is an intermediate to tall variety that tolerates full sun. Its habit is improved with de-eyeing for smaller pots.
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Caladium ‘Flatter Me’ (Abbott-Ipco)
Caladium ‘Flatter Me’ is a fancy-leaved introduction with a unique color pattern, mottled light and dark green background, and a distinct red center. It is tolerant of full sun and makes a beautiful pot plant in pot sizes 4 inches and larger. De-eyeing improves its pot habit.
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Heucherella ‘Fun and Games Red Rover’ (Proven Winners)
Gardeners will enjoy the copper red, lobed leaves with burgundy centers in spring, in addition to how this variety mellows to a deep-green blend in summer. This is a Heucherella villosa hybrid so it is naturally vigorous with good heat and humidity tolerance. Pink buds result in creamy-white flowers in late spring. It is hardy in Zones 4 to 9. The Heucherella Fun and Games Series was a 2016 Editor’s Choice nominee for Greenhouse Grower’s Medal of Excellence program.
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Heucherella ‘Plum Cascade’ (Terra Nova Nurseries)
New to the Cascade Series, ‘Plum Cascade’ is the first purple heucherella, and it is trailing. This small-leaf trailer has lobed, purple-silver leaves. Small, light-pink flowers appear all summer on short stems. It is very elegant with excellent vigor, making it great for groundcover or in a hanging basket.
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Hydrangea paniculata ‘White Light’ (Southern Living Plant Collection)
‘White Light’ is a prolific bloomer that produces large, tight clusters of blooms that can be used as cut flowers. It is versatile in the landscape. Grow ‘White Light’ in a container, as an accent, hedge, or mass planting. It tolerates most native soils and grows well in full sun to part shade. It grows 4 to 6 feet high by 3 to 5 feet wide and is hardy in Zones 3 to 8.
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Loropetalum chinense ‘Purple Daydream’ (Sunset Western Garden Collection/Southern Living Plant Collection)
‘Purple Daydream’ is a true dwarf loropetalum reaching only 2 to 3 feet tall by 3 to 4 feet wide. There is a huge need in the landscape for loropetalums that stay small, and ‘Purple Daydream’ answers this call. This beauty offers year-round, dark, maroon foliage that is drought tolerant and isn’t a favorite of deer. It has a nice, low growing, mounding growth habit and thrives in full sun to part shade. It is hardy in Zones 7 to 10.
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Lomandra longifolia ‘Platinum Beauty’ (Sunset Western Garden Collection/Southern Living Plant Collection)
Drought tolerant and evergreen, this perennial grass is hardy in Zone 8. ‘White Sands’ is a new grey/blue and white variegated form of this tough, low maintenance plant, which grows to 3 by 3 feet in the landscape. It is great for mass planting and erosion control. ‘Platinum Beauty’ features long, green, graceful leaves with thin, white striping. It grows well in full sun to part shade.
View all
Caladium ‘Berries N’ Burgundy’ (Abbott-Ipco)
Caladium ‘Flatter Me’ (Abbott-Ipco)
Heucherella ‘Fun and Games Red Rover’ (Proven Winners)
Heucherella ‘Plum Cascade’ (Terra Nova Nurseries)
Hydrangea paniculata ‘White Light’ (Southern Living Plant Collection)
Loropetalum chinense ‘Purple Daydream’ (Sunset Western Garden Collection/Southern Living Plant Collection)
Lomandra longifolia ‘Platinum Beauty’ (Sunset Western Garden Collection/Southern Living Plant Collection)
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Janeen Wright is former Editor for Greenhouse Grower. . See all author stories here.