A Few Rocky Mountain Keepers
February 17, 2009 
Plant Select, a plant introduction and recommendation program for the Rocky Mountain region that’s introduced or recommended 87 plants to date, has named its 2009 winners. Among the winners are:
Korean feather reed grass, an elegant clump-forming grass that offers a beautiful alternative to the stiffer, more architectural Karl Forester grass. This graceful grass grows 24 to 40 inches tall and 15 to 18 inches wide, preferring locations with sun to partial shade, and moderately moist to dry soil. The attractive feathery flowers persist from summer through fall and into winter, offering year round interest to a variety of situations.
‘Lavender Ice’ offers a new color in hardy ice plants with its iridescent lavender flowers and dark eyes, blooming nearly all summer long. It prefers full sun to partial shade and moderate to dry soil, and grows to about 2 to 3 inches tall and 12 to 24 inches wide. The green foliage turns purplish in the winter.
‘Silverheels Horehound’ is a vigorous mat-forming ground cover with rounded, fuzzy leaves fringed with a beautiful silver lining that encircles each leaf. This native plant from Turkey thrives in moderate to dry soils, growing to just 2 to 4 inches tall and 24 to 36 inches wide in full sun in a wide range of soil types.
Another new flower color is also found in ‘Coronado’ Red hyssop. This selection has brilliant crimson and maroon spires from July to September, and came to Plant Select from Welby Gardens in Denver. This new cultivar brings a unique and exciting color offering of our native mints. The plant prefers full sun and is quite adaptable to most moderate to dry soils. It’s a little smaller in height and width (15 to 18 inches tall and 12 to 15 inches wide) than many of the other agastaches.
‘Denver Daisy’ rudbeckia is a tender perennial that has flowers with a striking dark eye and long-rayed yellow petals. It blooms from May through early fall, growing to 18 to 28 inches tall and 10 to 25 inches wide. ‘Denver Daisy’ was hybridized by Benary Seed Company from the Colorado native Black-Eyed Susan Requiring moderate to dry conditions, these stunning flowers perform best in full sun to partial shade in a moderate soils.
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