Add a fresh look in your garden with Triangle Gardener’s 10 great picks for 2010.
Banana Cream Shasta Daisy (Plants That Work)
Banana Cream Shasta Daisy
Why we like it: This butterfly loving shasta daisy is a crowd pleaser with 3 months of color in your garden. The large, semi-double 4” flowers are banana yellow when they open and transition to a light yellow/near white. The end result is a stunning two-tone effect. The branched 18” stems on this compact plant produce 5 blooms per stem and up to 50 blooms on a single plant.
How to grow: Full Sun
Size: 18 inches tall, 24 inches wide
Zones: 5-9
Berry Dazzle Dwarf Crepe Myrtle (Gardener's Confidence)
Berry Dazzle Dwarf Crape Myrtle
Why we like it: This new dwarf crape myrtle explodes into bloom in summer and lingers into fall. Brilliant fuchsia-colored flowers make this slow-growing shrub eye-catching as an accent or in borders and mass plantings. The foliage turns a burgundy red in the fall. Best of all it is disease resistant and drought tolerant. ‘Sweetheart Dazzle’ has the same great features, but with beautiful pink flowers and red orange fall foliage.
How to grow: Full sun for best results, can tolerate some shade
Size: 2 feet tall, 3 feet wide in 4-5 years
Zones: 6-9
Easy Does It (Weeks Roses)
Easy Does It Rose
Why we like it: Easy Does It is the one and only All-America Rose Selections winner for 2010 and it’s easy to see why. This new floribunda has abundant 3-inch ruffled blooms in shades of mango, peach, and apricot. A great tropical blend of color for every garden and it is disease resistant! Fragrant, colorful clusters of large blooms make this award-winning rose hard to resist.
How to grow: Fun Sun
Size: Medium, rounded, bushy
Zones: Hardy in all regions
Firebird Echinacea (Terra Nova Nurseries)
Firebird Echinacea
Why we like it: Sometimes it all comes together in an Echinacea – wonderful habit, compact size, and charming, red-orange shuttlecock-type flowers that look like they want to fly away! The dark cones only add to the appeal of this wonder. Attracts butterflies in summer and seed hunting birds in the fall.
How to grow: Full Sun
Size: 38 inches tall, 18 inches wide
Zones: 4-9
Flirt Nandina (Southern Living Plant Collection)
Flirt Nandina
Why we like it: Stunning, deep red, new growth accentuates the evergreen leaves of this dwarf nandina. Flirt has superior color through the summer unlike similar varieties. A superior plant for southern gardens. Try it in window boxes and containers, too.
How to grow: Full sun to part shade, well-drained soil
Size: 12-24 inches tall, 14-20 inches wide
Zones: 6-10
Kaleidoscope Abelia (Plant Haven)
Kaleidoscope Abelia
Why we like it: This glossy abelia is steps above the older varieties. The leaf variegation is the star. In early spring the leaves emerge on bright red stems with lime-green centers and bright yellow edges. In summer the yellow matures to golden. Come fall the foliage deepens to shades of orange and fiery red and in winter the foliage hangs on. The slightly fragrant white flowers are produced in abundance from summer until fall.
How to grow: Full sun to light shade with moist, well-drained, acidic soil. Foliage color is best when planted in full sun.
Size: 2-3 feet tall, 3-4 feet wide
Zones: Evergreen in zone 7
River Mist Variegated Sea Oats (ItSaul Plants)
River Mist Variegated Sea Oats
Why we like it: Voted the best new perennial at the 2009 Plantarium, River Mist is a drought and deer proof ornamental grass guaranteed to add 4 seasons of interest in your garden. A green and white variation of Northern Sea oats, it is highly adaptable to a wide range of growing conditions. By late summer showy green oat-like seed heads emerge atop strong stems. The seed heads dry to tan adding interest in the winter garden.
How to grow: Light shade
Size: 3 feet tall, 2-3 feet wide
Zones: 3-8
Snow Princess Lobularia (Proven Winners)
Snow Princess Lobularia
Why we like it: This sterile lobularia is extremely vigorous, and because it puts no energy into setting seed it has an incredibly long bloom time. Mounds of fragrant, white blooms fill the plant through summer. The list of awards keeps coming for this extremely fast growing lobularia, perfect for containers or mass plantings in the landscape. A plus for the Triangle – it’s extremely tolerant of hot, humid conditions.
How to grow: Sun to partial sun, needs good drainage
Size: 4-6 inches tall, spreading
Zones: Annual in Triangle zones 7-8
Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangea (Bailey Nurseries)
Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangea
Why we like it: The enormous blooms start out a creamy vanilla-white, changing to a soft pink and finally to a strawberry-red, and last 3-4 weeks longer than most hydrangeas of this variety. New blooms keep the multicolored show going throughout the summer and early fall. Its upright shape and large cone-shaped flowers on red stems make it a dramatic addition to the garden.
How to Grow: Prefers partial shade in the South, morning sun only
Size: 6-7 feet tall, 4-5 feet wide
Zones: 4-8
White Out Knockout Rose (Great Garden Plants)
White Out Knock Out Rose
Why we like it: From Bill Radler, breeder of all Knock Out Roses, comes this new white-blooming rose. Disease-free foliage is covered with masses of 3” snow-white blooms from spring until frost. White Out’s low-growing habit and extra-long bloom time make it the perfect candidate for creating hedges of summer color.
How to grow: Full sun
Size: 3 feet tall and wide
Zones: 4-9