The Rural Voice, 2006-03, Page 42Gardening
What's new in plants for spring
Rhea
Hamilton -
Seeger and
her husband
live near
Auburn. She
is a skilled
cook and
gardener.
By Rhea Hamilton -Seeger
Now is the time to dig out the peat
pots and potting soil and rip open the
seed packs.
March is the best time to get your
seeds started for that early jump on
spring planting. I have spent a
number of winter months nursing
wee seedlings past the wilt stage and
moving them around to sunny
windows to avoid the long, bland,
spindly look only to get them planted
out for birds and insects to feast on. I
now head to the closest garden centre
where they have wonderful set ups,
great staff, and all the latest annuals,
perennials, and vegetables ready for
my garden.
Greenhouse operators attend plant
trade shows in August, September,
and October. The new varieties are
planted out in large plots and planters
and growers can see first hand how
the plants fill out and the actual
colour. It is like turning kids loose in a
candy store. With hundreds of plants
and colours to choose from, you really
have to know your local market.
Marie VanDorp from Plant
Paradise in Vanastra gets quite
excited about the new plants and
takes lots of notes in the fall to refer
to when she needs to place her order
later in the winter.
So what is new on the local front?
Gardeners are always seeking new
colours in both blooms and foliage.
Marie looks for both great colours
and long-lasting blooms for the
myriad of planters her company
makes up for municipalities and
commercial areas.
The first perennial on her list was
Fire Witch Dianthus. While it is a
perennial it has an extended bloom
season, compact growth and, as the
name implies, electric colour. It is
38 THE RURAL VOICE
already budding up in the
greenhouse.
Don't be afraid to use perennials
in your planters. Later in the early fall
you can plant them in your border
and have your pots cleaned out and
ready for either that dried fall
arrangement or for quick storage for
winter.
There is a new trailing red petunia
that has a different leaf shape and the
red is more like a brilliant fire engine
red rather than the purple reds that
have been on the market for the last
couple of years.
For hanging planters there is a
new annual phlox which will grow up
to 12 inches high and stay quite
bushy with a lovely drooping habit.
The vibrant deep pink is aptly named
Cabernet.
The ever -popular bacopa is back
with bigger pastel pink blooms and a
larger blossom on the white variety.
It is a wonderful green foreground in
large planters and never fails to
produce blooms. With the introduc-
tion of the pink variety there are even
more combinations you can put
together.
Marie also has my favourite,
railing lobelia. This year there are
bigger and more intense blooms, Hot
Water Blue, Blue Star, and there is a
brilliant pink hue which is hard to
come by in lobelia which tends
towards the blue, white, and lavender
shades.
Ever aware of the need to offer
low maintenance and drought tolerant
plants, Marie has started Gaillardia,
Gazania, Osteospermum, and
Coreopsis.
Osteospermum, or often called
Cape marigold or African daisy, is
one of the wonderful plants from
southern Africa that does well in dry
spots. It will get rather tall at 18 to 24
inches in a lovely range of colours
from white and cream to pink,
orange, yellow, and purple. The
underside of the petals are often
purplish or brown which makes
an interesting visual especially with
the newer varieties which are
sporting spoon -shaped petals. The
flowers close at night and in cloudy
weather.
In that same category of drought
tolerant plants is the Portulaca. I
remember planting boxes of them
when I was a child. They produced a
riot of rainbow colours on a ground -
hugging, fleshy mat of leaves. It
makes a great first -garden annual for
children to plant and tend to. Its
leaves will take all the pinching,
touching, and petting that little hands
can offer. You can now plant
portulaca in specific colours and
there are new varieties with bigger
blooms and WOW colours.
Blueberry, Vanilla, and Antique
Rose Nemesia are back with their
orchid -like blooms. They like full sun
or partial shade and with a bit of
pruning will bloom all summer. Also
along the delicate lines are, angelonia
or sometimes referred to angel mist
or summer snapdragon, and torenia
which forms a nice mound and is
used along the edge of planters or
borders. It enjoys semi -shade and
average to moist conditions. Looks
great with coleus and fuchsia in
mixed baskets.
Globe artichokes are the new
architectural feature for large
planters. Marie has over 300 started
for this spring. They have a striking,
large, deeply cut leaf with flordl bud
which looks like a fist of leaves. It
will open into a large thistle head of
bluish purple and can be dried for
winter bouquets.
I find that I have to go to my local
garden centre several times before
deciding just what I needifor those
few planters on the back patio. I
usually go with a rough idea and
become overwhelmed with the
variety and the selection of colour. I
like my old standard impatiens for the
shady planters with a dash of lobelia
around the edge but one look at some
of the new varieties and I have to go
home and rethink my plans. And of
course you rarely go home empty
handed. There is always a another pot
around that you can fill and set out or
a spot in the edge of the border that
could use a little bright spot.
Gardening. The snow just can't melt
fast enough this year.0