Kelly Norris Dishes on New Plants to Consider for 2019

Andropogan-Black-Mountain-Hoffman-Nursery

Andropogan ‘Black Mountain’ (Hoffman Nursery) is more compact than the species. Its flowering stems emerge blue-green and develop reddish hues in late summer. The inflorescences have spikelets covered in silvery, white hairs. Photo by Hoffman Nursery.

Autumn is still a gamble in retail horticulture, as we’ve done a lackluster job of convincing the gardening public how wonderful the season is for planting. It’s a hard hill to climb — even public garden and museum attendance slumps in the fall — as kids return to school and the din of college football season reaches a dull roar.

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For me, as I plan and plant for another season, it’s a great time to take stock of new plants I’ve experienced at industry events like Cultivate, the Perennial Plant Association Symposium, or the GWA: The Association of Garden Communicators Annual Meeting and Expo. This is often the season of decisions — to gamble and plant or not at all — and we hedge many small bets. If you’re looking to build a more resilient business model, it’s not a bad strategy to try and experiment, if even incrementally. From what I’ve seen of the forthcoming 2019 class of new introductions, there have been riskier years. It’s fair to say that the New Plant Showcase at Cultivate’18 was one of the more diverse and interesting in recent memory.

Jackpot

A handful of varieties represent the nexus of the moment I believe the market is approaching. Space limits me from waxing poetic, so take it for what it’s worth — a curator’s scribbled notes and photos of what stuck out, told a story, or had benefits beyond a pretty face.

Summer-Spice-Hardy-Hibiscus-feature

The Summer Spice Hardy Hibiscus Collection (J. Berry Nursery) won Greenhouse Grower’s Medal of Excellence Editor’s Choice and Readers’ Choice awards during Cultivate’18. Pictured: Hibiscus ‘Summer Spice Cordon Bleu’ Photo by J. Berry Nursery.

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I had an early look at the Summer Spice Hardy Hibiscus Collection from Texas A&M AgriLife Research and J. Berry Nursery, which in full disclosure means I saw the varieties in flower and received trial plants for evaluation in 2017. As enchanted as I was with their exotic blooms, the product of tropical hibiscus genes, I secretly harbored the fear that I’d never see them through a winter in my USDA Zone 5b botanical garden. To my delight, I was wrong.

I caught up with Tamara Risken, Marketing Director at J. Berry, after Cultivate to effuse about these plants, most of which were beginning to flower in our trials when I left for the conference. She tells me more are in the works, with a particular focus on compact habits in response to production concerns from growers that many of the top-performing varieties on the market today are simply too large. As a gardener, I think there’s some merit to that (can you say large and in charge in the garden?). I have no doubt the color breaks alone will prove tantalizing for consumers who recognize and adore hibiscus.

Hoffman Nursery earns major props for what I think of as a concept plant for landscapes of the future. As contemporary design ideas continue to reach public spaces that consumers interact with daily and trickles into the retail environment, it’s going to be critically important to have local palettes and typologies from which to create progressive, resilient, and durable landscapes. That’s why I’m excited about Andropogon ternarius ‘Black Mountain,’ a refined and landscape-adaptable version of a widespread southeastern native grass. This is a plant that works, with the kind of functional benefits that we need more of in today’s landscapes.

Other great offerings: Agastache Poquito Series (Terra Nova Nurseries), Salvia ‘Rockin’ Fuchsia’ (Proven Winners), and Begonia ‘Canary Wings’ (Ball Ingenuity).

Upping the Ante

Miscanthus sinensis ‘Bandwidth’ is a product of Tom Ranney’s stellar breeding program at North Carolina State University and is distributed by Darwin Perennials. Will it be a gamechanger for Miscanthus? Stop and consider who is making more noise about sterile (or limited fertility, as Tom recently clarified) landscape clones of plants like this (and Berberis, but let’s not even go there for now) — industry or consumers? Are they asking for it, or are we just selling it? What are we doing to oversell (because overcommunication is key) the ecological benefits to conscientious consumers? The bigger issue is whether they’ve moved on from these genera entirely (as I feel they have or soon will with Berberis, though perhaps not Miscanthus). I’ll namedrop the functionally sterile Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Cayenne’ from the University of Georgia and Emerald Coast Growers in the same breath here, as Pennisetum may actually be the bigger culprit of unnecessary weediness than Miscanthus.

I want to grow it to believe it: Rehmannia ‘Crouching Tiger’ (Pacific Plug and Liner), Curcurma (ForemostCo), and Amsonia ‘Butterscotch’ (Emerald Coast Growers ).

Take a Gamble

Salvia × hybrida ‘Blue by You’ is billed by Darwin Perennials as an improvement over Salvia ‘May Night’ for both growers (better yielding in production) and consumers (haven’t figured that out yet). It’s an early flowering interspecific hybrid between S. nemorosa and S. pratensis. I’ll probably plant it and suspend disbelief, as I do enjoy spring-blooming, made-for-meadow salvias. But how much more does this bring to the table?

Likewise, I can only hope that the Salud series of Helenium, also from Darwin, gives growers a seasonally fashionable alternative to chrysanthemum, which seems to be the direction most new Helenium are headed. Something taller and less container-oriented would be nice for landscape applications.

I played my hand, I rolled the dice: Agapanthus ‘Northern Star’ (Concept Plants), Calocephalus brownii ‘Bed Head’ (Benary), and Coreopsis Sizzle & Spice Series (Walters Gardens).

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