It's Christmas weekend, a good time to relax for a few minutes with a list of exciting new plants that will be rewarding additions to your landscape for spring. These woody plants display both practical and aesthetically pleasing characteristics. They have been bred, selected and tested for years before reaching the market.
In most of these cases, to view the plant and get more information on it, go to the Web site of the wholesaler, which I've listed. Then search that site for the specific plant.
• Spiraea snow storm (S. media Darsnorm). I thought this a fitting plant to begin this Christmas Day list. Snow storm is a hybrid developed and introduced by Darthuizer Nursery in the Netherlands. This woody shrub works well for our Zone 7, and it is the perfect size for lovers of the old bridalwreath spiraea that was popular in the 1930s and earlier. This hybrid displays huge white flowers. It blooms from July through October, seldom needs pruning, reaching four to six feet high and wide. It is tolerant of partial shade. A beautiful trait is its blue green foliage that turns to brilliant orange and red in fall. This plant has been available at garden centers since 2003 and is a great accent for the edge of a woodland garden or the middle or back of a sunny perennial border. (Web site: www.springmeadownursery.com/snow_storm.htm.)
• Green tower boxwood (Buxus sempervirens Monrue"). Released this season by Monrovia Nursery in Azusa, Calif., we live in a perfect region to grow this boxwood in well-drained locations. It is touted as a perfect hedge plant for tight spaces, since it grows moderately fast and has a narrow, one- to two-foot wide, columnar habit to nine feet tall. I plan to try some for a vertical evergreen element in the garden to check speed of growth and disease-free tendency in this region. They would be interesting as pillars in the garden to focus the eye toward a sculpture. (Web site: www.monrovia.com.)
• Encore azaleas. Azaleas typically get noticed because they are covered with thousands of colorful flowers in spring. But it just takes a few of their showy blooms to cause excitement when they flower in fall, as some did this year. Our plants started blooming in August and went through October, displaying 15 to 20 blooms. If you saw azaleas flowering in autumn, it might not have been an anomaly; it might have been a repeat blooming, encore azalea. Several hybrids were introduced in the early 1990s and marketed vigorously in this area.
Bred in the 1980s by Robert E. Lee of Independence, La., they were developed to bloom in spring and again in fall. When introduced, encore had been untested here. I was impressed with its concept, but, because they were developed in the deep south, hardiness was a question. I tried some on a shady site, and they seem to like our humid conditions. Planted as four- to six-inch-tall "sticks," because there was breakage in the shipping, they are now two to three feet after seven years. Ours are shorter and a little sparse in flower and branching because of the shady conditions, but this was the most floriferous fall yet for autumn embers and autumn amethyst -- the ones growing in our garden. (Web site: www.encoreazalea.com.)
• Midnight wine weigela (W. florida "Elvera"). There has been a movement toward breeding small hybrids of larger plants that have interesting foliage and flower but also, in sharp contrast to the species, seldom to never need pruning. This brand-new, dark-crimson-leafed weigela meets these criteria. Midnight wine grows 12 to 18 inches tall at maturity, with compact foliage and bright pink flowers in spring. This exceptionally hardy low shrub is good used at the front of a perennial or shrub border for color all summer. It has been likened to a thornless crimson pygmy barberry in habit and color, but slightly lower growing. (Web site: www.pottedliners.com/midnightwine.htm.)
• Prairie flame shining sumac (Rhus copallina var. latifolia Morton). The sumac has always displayed flaming brilliant fall foliage. They are like burning bush (Euonymus alatus) in that they show a dependable red fall color every year. The beauty of this deciduous, multi-stemmed plant that was introduced in March of this year by the Chicago Botanic Garden is its refined, compact habit.
Plant in groupings of three or four where their handsome glossy foliage, creamy white blooms and bright red fall foliage will create a focal point in your landscape. One plant can grow into a colony of stems that never needs pruning. The parent plant is seven feet tall with a 10-foot spread after 15 years of growth. They look great incorporated into rock outcroppings in natural settings. (Web site: www.chicagobotanic.org.)
• Tiger eyes sumac (Rhus typhina Bailtiger). Introduced a couple of years ago, this sumac also grows into an upright rounded shrub about six feet high and wide, but it's an eye-catcher for the fuzzy, purplish-pink stems with lemon-lime foliage that turns yellow in summer and intensely orange, yellow and scarlet in fall. It creates a beautiful focal point for the garden because the leaves show their color and texture. Tiger eyes was introduced by Bailey Nurseries Inc. outside St. Paul, Minn. It was developed when Steve Jorgensen, an employee of the nursery, discovered it among a stand of other sumacs at the nursery. (Web site: www.baileynursery.com.)
• Sambucus black beauty (S. nigra Gerda). This new deciduous beauty from England, bred by Ken Tobutt and Jacqui Prevette, has dark purple leaves in summer. It is shade-tolerant but will show a richer purple with some sun. Tolerant of many situations, it will withstand poor soils that are low in nutrients and can take moist or well-drained conditions.
The flowers in June are deep pink and have a lemony scent. The black berries are in the same genus as elderberry, and birds love them. It will colonize an area and grow into a deep purple-leafed flowering shrub mass about six to eight feet high and wide, or it can be pruned into a lower-growing shrub or limbed up and trained into a small tree. (Web site: www.pottedliners.com/black_beauty.htm.)
• All America Rose Selections. Winners of this award epitomize what I mean by "time tested," but you still need to try them out and determine whether they will work for you. AARS was started in 1938 to test new rose varieties and determine which were disease-resistant, fragrant, floriferous and colorful enough for consumers to plant. They are judged for two years. All categories are considered -- grandiflora, shrub, hybrid tea, climbers and others. The winners have become the preferred species for most gardens.
Following are the four AARS winners for 2005. (Web site: www.rose.org.)
• About Face This grandiflora has deep yellow on the inside of the petals with a dark bronzy orange-red on the outside. These disease-resistant long-stem, full old-fashioned blossoms open up to five inches wide. About Face was hybridized by Tom Carruth and is being introduced by Weeks Wholesale Rose Grower of Upland, Calif.
• Lady Elsie May. The upright and spreading habit of this coral pink rose has a full, even growth habit and excellent disease resistance. It is a good cutting rose, growing in floral clusters on long straight stems with waxy, deep green foliage. Elsie May was hybridized by Reinhard Noack and is being introduced by Angelica Nurseries of Kennedyville, Md.
• Elle. This hybrid tea rose has a classic pink bud and a spicy and citrus fragrance. The flower holds for a long period and the deep green foliage is mildew- and leaf-spot-tolerant, with four- to five-inch-wide blooms that have dense layers of petals on long stems. Developed by Meilland International, Elle is being introduced by Conard Pyle Co./Star Roses of West Grove, Pa.
• Day Dream. Highly disease-resistant, this low-growing, compact shrub rose has clusters of beautiful pink roses that bloom throughout the summer. Growing only two feet in height with a rounded growth habit, it is a low-maintenance rose that would blend well with the front of a shrub or perennial border. Hybridized by Ping Lim, it was introduced by Bailey Nurseries.
Joel M. Lerner is president of Environmental Design in Capitol View Park, Md. E-mail or contact him through his Web site, www.gardenlerner.com.
