Add something new to your garden for a fresh look this gardening season. Here are Triangle Gardener’s top picks of the new plants in 2019.
Nasturtium Baby Rose
Nasturtium Baby Rose / All-America Selections
The last nasturtium to be an All-America Selections Winner was back in the 1930s. Baby Rose is a petite-flowered, mounding variety with healthy, dark foliage ideal for containers and small space gardens. AAS judges praised the uniformly compact plants that sported flowers with consistent coloration. Their compact habit means less “flower flopping” with their blooms remaining upright throughout the season. The rose color is uncommon in nasturtiums and contrasts beautifully with the dark-green foliage. Bonus—both the leaves and flowers are edible!
‘Vanessa Bell’ Rose
‘Vanessa Bell’ rose / David Austin Roses
David Austin Roses introduced three new English roses to the U.S. this year, but it was the yellow ‘Vanessa Bell’ that caught our attention. This rose is one of the most free-flowering varieties David Austin has ever bred; it’s nearly buried in blooms from early summer until frost. The flowers are a soft lemony hue set off by a darker yellow eye and paler outer petals that catch the light in a translucent halo effect. The medium-strong fragrance is best described as green tea with aspects of lemon and, at times, honey. And unlike most pale yellow English roses that can get rambunctious, this pale yellow rose is compact and perfect for a small garden, low hedge or large container.
Superbells Doublette Love Swept
Superbells Doublette Love Swept / Proven Winners
Abundant, small double petunia-like flowers bloom all season on cascading growth of this Calibrachoa hybrid. The flowers are a gorgeous deep pink with a fine white rim on each petal. The effect is pure heaven. It’s low maintenance, heat tolerant, and doesn’t need deadheading. Just make sure it has good drainage as it doesn’t like constantly damp soil.
Swan Maiden Gardenia
Swan Maiden gardenia / Gardener’s Confidence
This gardenia variety has single blooms, a dense growth habit, and a very heavy spring flowering with an intoxicating fragrance. Swan Maiden’s compact size makes it perfect for containers or small gardens. The glossy foliage makes a great year-round accent to a shrub border or flower bed. The Swan Gardenia series was developed to meet the need for improved cold hardiness and disease resistance, as well as exquisite bloom form, reliable rebloom, and compact habit.
Pugster Amethyst Buddleia
Pugster Amethyst Buddleia / Proven Winners
Full-sized flowers on a compact butterfly bush? That’s what Pugster brings to the buddleia family. The extra-large, cool purple flowers grow on thick, sturdy stems, making the plant less brittle in growing, as well as improving winter survival in colder climates. It grows 2-feet tall and wide in full sun and blooms from summer through frost.
Coleus ColorBlaze Torchlight
Coleus Colorblaze Torchlight / Proven Winners
Give this plant just a few weeks of growing and you will quickly have a 24 to 40-inch tall stunning addition to the garden or a container. The fuchsia, maroon, and almost neon green colors are attention grabbers and will make you and others take notice of this beautiful plant. Like most coleus, it is heat tolerant and grows in sun or shade.
The Champion Sunblush Rose
The Champion Sunblush rose / Garden Debut-Greenleaf Nursery
Bi-colored 2.5-inch flowers repeatedly bloom from late spring through summer on this lovely rose perfect in the garden as a specimen or small hedge. Yellow flower buds with pink striations open to reveal soft, yellow petals with pastel pink edges before finally turning deep pink. This rose grows 4-feet tall and wide in full sun.
Hosta ‘Munchkin Fire’
Hosta ‘Munchkin Fire’ / Walters Gardens
The perfect size for troughs and the ever-popular fairy gardens, this vigorous new yellow miniature hosta has short and narrow leaves that hold their bright yellow color all season long. Since the leaves are so narrow, there isn’t a prominent leaf base, and the leaves simply taper to become part of the petiole. Lavender flowers appear above the petite habit in midsummer.
‘Black Mountain’ Bluestem
‘Black Mountain’ bluestem / Hoffman Nursery
This bluestem has a compact, refined habit that retains the beauty and resilience of the species, gives this bluestem a new look for a native grass. The flowering stems emerge bluish-green, with flowering spikelets covered in silvery, white hairs. The effect is shimmering white tufts that sparkle in the sunlight. ’Black Mountain’ is named for Terry Dalton of the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, who discovered an unusual stand of Andropogon ternarius in his family’s pasture in Black Mountain, NC. Like the species, this bluestem thrives in poor soils that are coarse, rocky, or sandy, and it’s not particular about pH.
Pink Pom Poms Redbud
Pink Pom Poms redbud / Dr. Dennis Werner
Another redbud from the incredible breeding program of Dr. Dennis Werner at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, Pink Pom Poms has double pink flowers that are breathtaking. It has the Texas redbud genes giving it great heat tolerance and a super glossy heart-shaped leaf as well. Best yet, it is sterile and doesn’t produce seedpods after blooming. This redbud grows up to 20-feet tall in sun to part shade.
Featured image: Pink Pom Poms redbud / Dr. Dennis Werner