New varieties are sure to add excitement to gardens and containers.
Diamond Frost, growing alone in a pot. This variety is part of the Proven Winners lineup. |
I enjoyed two new-to-me euphorbias in my containers last summer. Euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost’ is a keeper and I’ll definitely have it again this year. The blue-gray, eucalyptus-like foliage is pretty, but the airy sprays of white flowers are fantastic and just stay and stay all summer long.
The other euphorbia that I grew in a pot was less successful. Where it’s hardy (zone 7+), Euphorbia ‘Rudolph’ makes an attractive plant for the perennial border. It has lemon-lime flowers in the spring, dusky, blue-green foliage and reddish stems. The plant was named for its winter color: in cold temperatures the leaves at the end of each stem turn bright red.
This red coloration was still apparent when I bought the plant in a pot last spring. I put Rudolph into a mixed container with about five other plants, including a rambunctious coleus. It looked great to start, but we then had one of the wettest summers on record. Being a native Australian, Rudolph didn’t like soggy weather and never amounted to much. Since its flowers are produced in early spring and its foliage color appears in late fall and winter, I question its value as a plant for summer containers.
That said, I’m not giving up quite yet. Euphorbia ‘Ascot Rainbow’ has a habit that’s similar to Rudolph, but its foliage is variegated with blue-green, cream, yellow and hints of pink. Wow. So I plan to try this one on its own in a terra-cotta pot on the west side of my house. It’s the most Australia-like conditions that my northern Vermont garden can produce.
-Kathy LaLiberte
Director of Gardening, Gardener's Supply
New bamboo towels come in eco-friendly green -- and white, too.
Bamboo towels (60% bamboo, 40% cotton) are surprisingly plush. They feel cool to the touch because the bamboo fibers are so smooth that there's little friction on the skin. |
I used to think towels were just towels. Well, it turns out that you can do better than the ones you got as a housewarming gift 12 years ago. Much better.
Today, you can buy high- performance, silky, plush towels that are four times more absorbent than cotton. What's more, they're inherently antimicrobial, antifungal and they dry fast. The secret: bamboo fiber.
For more organic and/or sustainable products, see the Gardener's Supply Green Living department. |
Bamboo textiles are considered earth friendly because they're made with a renewable resource that grows quickly without pesticides. For this reason, Gardener's Supply has flagged the new towels with our "eco-friendly" seal. It should be noted that bamboo textiles require a significant amount of processing before they can be used in clothing. However, bamboo requires much less processing than conventional cotton textiles. And, as bamboo products grow more popular, it's likely that new, more earth-friendly processing techniques will be developed.
So, if your only use for bamboo is garden stakes, take a look around. The by-products are everywhere: flooring, fencing, fabrics and tableware. And, don't you think it's about time for some new towels?
For more information about making thoughtful, earth-friendly choices, take a look at our full line of Green Living products, and learn about Our Commitment to the Environment.
-David Grist
Online Content Coordinator, Gardener's Supply
With our new mixes, gardeners go from seed to harvest -- 100 percent organic!
Our Germinating Mix has been a longtime favorite among folks who start their own seeds. Online reviewers give it high marks because the finely textured blend makes an excellent "foundation" for seedlings and ensures fast growth, well-developed root systems and sturdy plants. And now, we're pleased to offer Organic Seedstarting Mix, a compost -based blend that's 100 percent organic, so gardeners can grow organic from seed all the way to harvest.
For more organic and/or sustainable products, see our Green Living department. |
The new germinating mix, blended here in Vermont, is made up of compost, sphagnum peat, rock phosphate, gypsum, protein meal and perlite. It's made for gardeners who want a compost-based mix that has the structure of a traditional soilless mix. Ideal for any kind of seedstarting, the organic blend works perfectly with our APS Seedstarters. One 6-quart bag fills four APS-24s or APS-40s; eight APS-12s or one APS-6.
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There's good news for container gardeners, too. We now offer an OMRI-certified organic soil that's blended specifically for self-watering containers. The All-Organic Self-Watering Container Mix is made with sustainably harvested Canadian sphagnum peat, seaweed-based compost, limestone and fortified with beneficial mycorrhizae. The organic soil has the same properties as our regular self-watering soil; its coarse, airy texture functions like a wick, drawing water from the planter's reservoir to the root system. Although it's designed for self-watering planters, you can use it in regular planters, too.
Though it will be several months yet before I can start planting, I'll soon be making my seed list for the coming year.
Our display gardens here in Burlington, Vermont, are asleep beneath a thick blanket of snow. Though it will be several months yet before I can start planting, I'll soon be making my seed list for the coming year. As always, last year's vegetable garden had some winners and some losers. Though it was a tough growing season (we had an entire month of rain in July), some things did remarkably well. For me, one of the best parts of gardening is trying new varieties of vegetables. Of those we trialed last season, here are some new favorites:
Husk Cherries: Otherwise known as ground cherries or cape gooseberries. These little beauties are native to Brazil, though they long ago naturalized in Peru and Chile. They are in the same genus as tomatillos and resemble miniature ones. They ripen to a golden yellow and have a flavor somewhat like a pineapple. It's fun being able to snack on these bite-size, fruity treats, which cleverly disguise themselves as a vegetable. Source: Thompson & Morgan
Rat’s Tail Radish: Unlike other radishes, these are actually edible seed pods that are produced on a bushy plant. They have a pleasantly spicy bite. The plant is native to Java, which makes them all the more interesting and exotic. I enjoyed eating them as a passing-by treat picked right off the plant and found they're also great in stir fries. Source: Kitchen Garden Seeds
Purple de Milpa Tomatillo: This variety is very ornamental, with beautiful dark purple fruits sometimes touched with green. I found them to be slightly sweeter than their green counterparts. Plus, why grow green tomatillos when you can grow purple ones instead? Source: Seeds of Change
Golden Sweet Pea: This is the most attractive pea I have ever seen. The tall green vines have pretty purple flowers and yellow pods. These peas hail from India and they tolerate heat and drought better than most pea varieties. They also produced a higher than average yield. Source: Kitchen Garden Seeds
Musica Pole Beans: This variety produces sweet, flavorful beans in great abundance. If I could only grow one type of bean, this is the one (so far!) The pods grow to 7 or 9 inches and stay juicy, never tough. You can make an entire meal out of just a half dozen of them. Keep the plants well picked and they just keep on producing. Source: Renee's Garden Seeds
Malabar Spinach: This delicious and highly nutritious green is actually completely unrelated to spinach. Native to India and Indonesia, malabar spinach thrives in the heat of the summer. The red-stemmed vine is very ornamental and is should be trained up a trellis for easy access and highest productivity. Its succulent leaves look like spinach but taste quite different. They're a nice addition to salads and a great midsummer or hot-climate green. Source: Johnny's Selected Seeds
The 2009 seed catalogs have been piling up since before Christmas. I'm sure I'll find lots of new plants that I can try growing (and eating!) in the coming year.
For more information, check out the slide show of our 2008 vegetable garden.
-Sarah Taparauskas
Gardener, Gardener's Supply
Evergreens add quiet majesty to winter landscapes.
Up here in zone 4/5 Vermont, the closest I've come to having boxwoods is a holiday wreath made from boxwood cuttings. Now, thanks to some recently introduced, much hardier cultivars, I'm looking forward to giving boxwoods a try in my garden.
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Evergreens tend to be backdrop plants in the landscape, while the flowering trees, shrubs and perennials hog the stage. But in winter, evergreens have a quiet majesty — especially when dusted with snow.
Among the most distinctive evergreens are the boxwoods, which have long been used to provide structure in formal gardens. Boxwood's finely-textured foliage and tolerance for intensive pruning, makes it an ideal plant for creating a low to medium-height hedge. Unfortunately, boxwoods are hardy only to zone 6, so for northern gardeners they have not been part of our plant palette. Thanks to intensive breeding efforts there are now a number of new cultivars that thrive in zone 4 temperatures (-30 to -20F).
Leonard Perry, of the University of Vermont, recently pointed out that the boxwoods have earned a Cary Award in 2009, which is sure to raise the plant's profile. The Cary Award is a program to promote outstanding plants for New England gardens.
Perry notes that most of the more hardy selections for northern gardens (zone 4) are selections of the Korean boxwood (Buxus sinica var. insularis), formerly known by a different scientific name (Buxus microphylla var. koreana), or hybrids of this and the southern common boxwood (B. sempervirens). Here are some of his favorites:
- Green Gem: Perhaps the lowest-growing, slowly reaching 2 feet tall and wide.
- Green Velvet: Forms a slightly taller globe shape (3 feet).
- Green Mountain: Taller yet, forming a pyramid 5 feet or more tall, and half as wide.
- Verdant Hills: A slow-growing introduction from the University of Vermont about 30 years ago. It is quite hardy (zone 3), and reaches 3 feet tall and about twice as wide.
- Chicagoland Green: This new variety comes from the Chicagoland Grows program of the Chicago Botanic Garden. It's similar to Green Velvet, but faster growing What's more, it has excellent, dark-green winter color.
- Wintergreen: Another cultivar of the Korean boxwood with good green winter leaf color. Perry says good winter leaf color is important when choosing plants because some selections of hardy boxwoods "bronze" or turn brownish yellow from winter sun and winds.
In the north, these hardy boxwoods grow in full sun to part shade. New plantings may benefit from shade until established. To keep leaves from bronzing in winter, plant in protected sites or use burlap screens. Like most shrubs, boxwoods prefer moist, well-drained soils.
-David Grist
Online Content Coordinator, Gardener's Supply
With so much money to be made in new plant introductions, the world’s plant breeders are working overtime.
Baby Pete agapanthus |
These are exciting times for plant nuts. With so much money to be made in new plant introductions (think about the Endless Summer hydrangea and the Wave series petunias), the world’s plant breeders are working overtime.
There are lots of terrific new plants being introduced this spring. Over the next few weeks, I’ll highlight a few of them that have caught my eye. It’s not always easy to find these newest-of-the-new at local garden centers, so if you see one you like, you might want to consider ordering online to make sure you don’t miss out.
Here are a few new plants that I'm planning to have on my patio this coming spring:
Agapanthus orientalis ‘Baby Pete’
Since agapanthus are warm weather plants, hardy only to zone 7 and up, here in zone 4/5 we need to grow them in containers that can be moved indoors for the winter. Full size agapanthus cultivars can get pretty large and unruly for a pot, but there are now a number of shorter varieties bred for growing in containers.
New for 2009 is super-dwarf 'Baby Pete' which was developed by a breeder in Australia. It has blue/mauve flowers with a darker blue stripe. The foliage gets no more than 6 to 8 inches high, and the flower stems rise only an inch or two higher, which keeps the plant looking neat and tidy. 'Baby Pete' also doesn’t set seed, which means there are no ugly seedpods to be cut off.
Napoleon papyrus |
Cyperus papyrus ‘Napoleon’
The first time I saw papyrus was at Chanticleer Garden in Pennsylvania, where it had been used to line both sides of a long narrow pool of water. Last year, near the end of the summer, I saw a miniature papyrus growing in a shallow bowl on someone’s deck. It turned out to be a new variety named 'Napoleon', which gets just 12-18” tall (unlike its big brother, King Tut, which zooms to a height of 5 or 6 feet). Though I’ll need to treat it as an annual, for me, papyrus is one of those “gotta try it” plants.
Solenostemon (Coleus) ‘Lancelot Velvet Mocha’
This plant isn’t totally new for 2009, but the first time I saw it was late last summer at a Proven Winners display garden event. They had planted up a window box (below), which featured Lancelot Velvet Mocha, Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silver Drop’ and Liriope muscari ‘Silvery Sunproof’. Being a bit of a coleus freak, there were lots of great coleus that caught my eye that day. If I can find them, I’ll also be growing be growing at least two other new coleus varieties: 'Mint Mocha' and 'Religious Radish'. Great names!
-Kathy LaLiberte
Director of Gardening, Gardener's Supply
Lancelot Velvet Mocha coleus, Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Silver Drop’ and Liriope muscari ‘Silvery Sunproof’ |
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Mint Mocha coleus |
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Religious Radish coleus |
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After the challenges of the holiday season, I want a vacation.
A collection of bromeliads, tillandsias, and aroids at the Montreal Botanic Gardens conservatory. |
After the challenges of the holiday season, I want a vacation. The wintery landscape outside my window has me dreaming of warm, sultry breezes, sand between my toes, and lush tropical plants. A trip to the tropics isn’t in the budget, but I’ve got some great alternatives to rejuvenate my spirit and refresh my perspective.
Quick vacations can take several forms, depending on where you live and how much time you have. My favorite one-day retreat is an easy 90-minute drive from Burlington, VT. The Montreal Botanic Garden features ten linked greenhouses, each offering a different climate or theme. The tropical conservatories are filled with orchids, ferns and towering palm trees. Water cascades into mossy pools and drips from bromeliads, exotic orchids, and leafy begonias. In another house, the southwestern desert is recreated, complete with sand dunes, barrel cactus and a landscaped hacienda. The botanic garden is also home to a world-class bonsai collection.
An unusual ginger from Borneo, Burbidgea schizocheila ‘Golden Brush’, brightens a dreary winter day. |
Right across the street from the gardens, the Montreal Biodome houses four distinct habitats filled with plants and animals. In the tropical rain forest habitat, heat and humidity are balm for my itchy winter skin and static-filled hair. Macaws and hummingbirds fly among the vine-laden trees and golden lion tamarinds sit on branches eating fruit. Water runs under the boardwalk and tumbles down a cliff into a pool inhabited by a flock scarlet ibis and schools of tropical fish.
In another Biodome habitat, I can sit on a rock and stare into a tidal pool filled with anemones, starfish and scuttling crabs and listen to gentle waves on the shore. Overhead, terns and seagulls cry and circle. Beneath the surface (viewed from a comfortable amphitheater), sea turtles and fish swim lazily through seaweed along the rocky ocean floor.
I don’t always have time to take a whole day off. When I have only an hour or two to indulge my tropical vacation fantasy, I head to a local greenhouse. The University of Vermont has a nice conservatory and I enjoy looking at the plant science experiments, too. Garden center greenhouses aren’t very crowded at this time of year, either, and they have one advantage over public conservatories: I can buy the plants I like and take a bit of my vacation home.
To find a warm, leafy winter retreat near you, try the search tool at the American Public Gardens Association . For links to conservatories and public gardens in the U.S. and around the world, start your search at Gardening@Closerange.
-Ann Whitman
Horticulturist, Gardener's Supply
The start of a new year feels like a chance to take charge and start over with new goals and a new attitude.
My garden and I share some shortcomings, so this year I’m writing resolutions for both of us. We have some lofty goals for 2009. We resolve to lose weight and get in shape, become less cluttered and better organized. We will finish projects — one or two, at least — and fulfill a few dreams. By solving some of my garden’s problems, maybe I’ll make some headway on a few of my own.
Years ago, I rototilled swaths of lawn and planted new gardens with abandon. Fifty tomato plants at a time and row upon row of carrots, corn, beets, potatoes, beans, and onions filled our vegetable patch. I ordered dozens of seed packets of new flower and vegetable varieties and scoured the local nurseries for shrubs, trees, and perennials. Unfortunately, I left maintenance out of my grandiose plans.
Resolution #1: Plant vegetables more efficiently in raised beds.
Resolution #2: Replace a flower bed or two with shrubs.
No matter how early and earnestly I begin, the weeding and edging get away from me sometime in June. Seemingly overnight, the crisp edges and new mulch I slaved over in April and May are overrun with grass, chickweed, goldenrod, and Jill-over-the-ground. By August, I’ve nearly given up.
My New Year's gardening resolutions start in early spring. |
Resolution #3: Weed for ten minutes every day. Keep the tubtrug, kneeler, and gloves by the back door.
My grandmother would say that “my eyes are bigger than my stomach”, which means, among other things, that I tend to accumulate more plants than I have clear ground to put them in. Although some of my gardens are well designed and even lovely, other areas look like a Sunday afternoon yard sale. Our barn loft is littered with discarded nursery pots and all sorts of gardening equipment that seemed like a good idea at the time.
Resolution #4: Shop with a list and a small, clean car. Leave the trailer at home.
Resolution #5: Finish past projects before starting new ones.
The start of a new year feels like a clean slate. It’s a chance to take charge and start over with a fresh set of goals and a new attitude. The gardening year ahead is bound to get weedy in patches, but as long as I manage to grow at least some of my own food and share the flowers from my garden, I’ll call it a success. Happy New Year!
-Ann Whitman
Horticulturist, Gardener's Supply
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