New perennials: volume 2

For the past few months, we have been totally consumed by the chaos of spring, and that is just the way we like it. After all, this chaos is the culmination of all the planning and preparation that takes place during the cold, dark months of winter, and it means that we are finally able to put our plans into action. Our favorite part of spring is planting new varieties, watching them grow, and sharing our experiences with our customers. We have several new varieties this year that we will be watching closely.

I can’t resist trying new Echinacea, and this year I am especially excited about two varieties that we are adding to our lineup. Echinacea ‘Orange You Awesome’ is part of the PW Color Coded® collection, with tangerine-orange flowers and dark cones. We are hopeful that ‘Orange You Awesome’ will share some of the qualities that we love so much about Lakota™ Fire, namely the sturdy basal branching and impressive bud count, that is characteristic of our favorite PW Echinacea. While Lakota™ Fire is a seed strain and shows a lot of variability in flower color, the Color Coded® Series is propagated from tissue culture, so we should expect more uniformity in flower color and habit. In photos, the flowers of ‘Orange You Awesome’ look absolutely electric, so we are excited to see them in real life. ‘Mellow Yellows’ is another new Echinacea we will be trying this year. This was a recommendation from one of our customers, and we can’t wait to see how this seed strain performs. As the name suggests, the flowers of ‘Mellow Yellows’ are subtle, and age to varying shades of yellow on the same plant. This should be a great native introduction to any garden.

Hibiscus ‘French Vanilla’ is another new perennial addition for us this year. This variety and color are new to the Summerific® series this year, and we can never say no to new Hibiscus. The flower buds are yellow and open to ruffled yellow flowers with red eyes, which are complemented by red flower stems. We will be watching to see how the yellow flowers hold their color through the summer (if we can hold on to them long enough).

I am personally very excited about two new asters we are trying this year: Aster novae-angliae ‘Grape Crush’ and ‘Pink Crush’. These promise to add bright color to the fall garden and to be a good substitute for ‘Purple Dome’, which is prone to disease issues and can look ratty with age.

Salvia ‘Back to the Fuchsia’ is the newest addition to the PW Color Spires® collection, and I don’t think it will disappoint. We love this series of Salvia; they have excellent form and become saleable in just a matter of weeks. We planted our first crop of these in mid-April and they are already nearly full in the pot with buds starting to form. ‘Back to the Fuchsia’ has fuchsia-pink flowers on charcoal-colored stems.

We are excited to watch these varieties grow and see how they compare to the marketing, and we hope to find some new favorites in the mix. As always, we appreciate your feedback on new plants, or plants that you would like to see us grow in the future.