Best of 2022: Perennial edition
It’s hard to believe we’re already approaching the end of the 2022 season. It seems like just a few weeks ago we were uncovering hoophouses, planting spring liners, and looking forward to a busy summer. But here we are in mid-September, with one foot in 2022 and the other in 2023, as we try to split our focus between finishing the current season out strong while planning for a successful next year. Although the season is far from over, for many of us this time of year elicits a mix of emotions: relief that we have wrapped up production for another season, sadness that summer is coming to an end, a sense of pride over what we were able to accomplish, and a desire to reflect on what we can do to improve for the future. One of our favorite things to do this time of the year is to take a look back at the hits and misses when it comes to new plant varieties. We don’t expect every new variety to live up to our expectations, but all the misses we’ve trialed over the years have been more than offset by the number of great new plants we have been able to add into production.
One of the top-performing, standout varieties of the year for us was Dicentra ‘Pink Diamonds’, a fern-leaved bleeding heart for full sun. This PW variety blew us away with its two-toned pink flowers that refused to stop blooming from June all the way through early September. The most frustrating aspect about this plant was our inability to sell it. Because Dicentra are known for being shade perennials, we saw a level of resistance from many of our customers over adopting this variety into their product lines. This type of reluctance to try new plants has been a growing trend in recent years as retailers must contend with limited bench space amid an ever- increasing number of new varieties on the market. When space is so limited, it’s no surprise that retailers and re-wholesalers are hesitant to bring on new varieties, especially those that may require extra marketing and education to move them to the end customer, most of whom won’t be looking for Dicentra on benches with full sun plants. But we were so impressed with this charming, carefree, alpine-type bleeding heart that we’ll continue to grow and promote it in 2023.
It’s no surprise that the Kismet® series of Echinacea tops our list of favorite perennials for the second year in a row. This Terra Nova® series was a hit when we trialed limited numbers in 2021, so we made it a permanent addition to our production lineup this year. When it comes to new varieties of Echinacea, there’s a lot of skepticism among our peers in the industry. This is due, in large part, to so resulted in many of the bold, unique Echinacea varieties that were later found to be unreliable in the landscape or not hardy. And many of the new Echinacea introductions were double flowering varieties, like ‘Hot Papaya’, that we have since learned are not beneficial to pollinators. This has made us all the more selective when it comes to adding new coneflowers into production, and we’ve been excited about some of the most recent genetics released into the market. We have found the Kismet® series, especially Intense Orange and Raspberry, to be unmatched when it comes to form and intensity of flower color. Bright, saturated flowers are complemented by dark flower stems and provide weeks of color during the summer. The Kismet® varieties also received high marks in a 2018- 2019 study out of Mt. Cuba Center in which different varieties of Echinacea were rated based on the number of pollinator visits they received over the course of the study. We’re looking forward to evaluating the cold hardiness of this series over the upcoming winter months as well.
Astilbe ‘Lowlands White’ was a surprise favorite of ours this year. It’s been a while since we’ve had a reason to get excited about new Astilbe, but ‘Lowlands White’ offers something different in terms of form and texture. Since there aren’t a lot of white-flowering Astilbe on the market to choose from, and ‘Vision in White’ is becoming harder and harder to find, this was a welcome addition for us. Plants are sturdy and dense, with an interesting, almost two-toned leaf texture, and bright, fluffy white flowers that draw your eye from a distance.
Lastly, among our top-performing perennials this year were the Proven Winners® phlox varieties we added into our lineup, some new, and some new to us. Phlox paniculata ‘Backlight’ was new for 2022 - an addition to the Luminary™ series of tall garden phlox. Phlox ‘David’ has long been the standard when it comes to white garden phlox, but we found ‘Backlight’ to be just as disease-resistant with more attractive, deep green foliage, and a mass of white flowers that lasted for weeks. Phlox ‘Opening Act Pink-a-Dot’ and ‘Opening Act Romance’, part of the Opening Act series of hybrid phlox, were also welcome additions. As the name suggests, this series blooms earlier than traditional garden phlox. We were impressed by the sheer mass of flowers produced on each plant. Since blooming phlox is in demand all summer long, we’re always looking for varieties that will help us extend what we can offer throughout the season.
In recent years, it’s become more and more difficult to move new plant introductions to our customers. We’re beginning to better understand the challenges garden centers and re- wholesalers face when it comes to space and marketing, as well as educating their customer base. We’re hopeful that the plant breeding industry will come to better recognize these challenges as well so we can be better partners when it comes to moving great new plant varieties into the market. In the meantime, we’re committed to continue trialing new plants so we can pass on our honest and unfiltered feedback.
Next time: we’ll talk about some of our favorite new shrubs for 2022.
