Twist of Lime™ Variegated Abelia Dances through the Landscape

       Abelia hybrids are rounded, spreading, multi-stemmed shrubs in the honeysuckle family. They typically grow on gracefully arching branches to a mature height of 4 - 5 feet, most reliably in the warm winter climates of the South (USDA Zones 6 - 10). They are extra special because after the long-blooming flowers are past, persistent sepals add interest for months longer. 

      A new introduction by Garden Debut, Twist of Lime™ Variegated Abelia is a high-accent, low maintenance selection for the border or large containers. An outstanding choice, this pretty summer cooler is a compact, evergreen shrub with glossy variegated leaves that bring added value to the garden. the leaves are bright yellow with green centers when young, maturing later in the season to a rich ivory and green. 

      Another plus, Twist of Lime™ Abelia produces a heavy bloom of fragrant white-tinged-pink clusters of trumpet-shaped flowers (to 5/8 inch long) which appear over a long and continuous period from late spring to fall and are attractive to pollinators and hummingbirds. Dusty pink “ruffs” of sepals last even longer, after the petals are gone.

     Twist of Lime™'s botanical name is Abelia x grandiflora ‘Gretol’. It has no serious insect or disease problems and is useful as a specimen or grouped in shrub borders or foundations. It is also effective when massed as a shrubby ground cover, particularly on slopes or banks where plants also can provide erosion control. Twist of Lime™ Abelia may be used as a low, informal hedge in southern areas where winter die-back is not a concern, although plants lose their attractive graceful shape if pruned or sheared. Twist of Lime™ is also a creative choice for permanent containers on terraces and balconies. 

Look for this new Abelia in garden centers this spring in the Garden Debut pot.   

Signs of Spring

All week I have been commenting on Facebook and  happily tweeting
about the signs of Spring. Foremost are the warm sun and soft breezes (finally!), made for luxuriating and gardening.  Although the first Narcissus ('Rijnveld's Early Sensation') opened back on January 4 and are just now fading, additional trumpets have been opening all month, and the incredibly fragrant Hyacintha Blue 'Delft' are adding scent all over the garden.

Chaenomales speciosa 'Nivalis" white Quince is in full flower at the corner of the house (albeit 3 months late), while


the Helleborus x hybridus (Lenten Roses) look even better now that I have trimmed off a few winter-burned leaves, allowing the flowers to take center stage a' la Rosemary Verey.

The Iris unguicularis has 5 blooms today (admittedly late for the winter-blooming Algerian Iris), Iberis sempervirens (Candytuft) is opening its white flowers, as is the unfortunate-smelling Pyrus calleryana (Bradford Callery Pear) futher down the street. Forsythia and Star and Saucer Magnolia are all in bloom.

Viburnum dentatum and Aesculus pavia buds are swelling into leaves.


Hydrangea quercifolia leaves look less like silver candles (that was so last week) and more like young leaves coated with pearlescence. The Oakleaf hydrangea is a wonderful native addition to the garden with 4 seasons of appeal, not the least this Spring.
Tomorrow is officially the First Day of Spring! What's going on in your neck of the woods? 

New Ever Blooming Kokomo Sunset(TM) Daylily Challenges Old Stella d'Oro

Tough as Nails, Reliable Daylilies

If there ever was a sure thing in the gardening world, it has to be daylilies. They are easy to grow, drought-tolerant perennials and are a familiar sight in gardens around the country. They tolerate a wide range of soils, are not troubled by diseases or pests, and bloom faithfully every summer, typically around Father’s Day in Atlanta. They also thrive in containters, great for gardeners with limited space.

Their botanical name, Hemerocallis, means “beauty for a day”. It’s true, each flower lasts only one day. But since there are many buds on each flowering stalk, the blooming season for individual plants lasts several weeks, as they open one-by-one in turn. The American Hemerocallis Society lists thousands of named daylily varieties.

The most common way to group daylilies used to be by season of bloom: early, mid-season, or late. However, the "ever blooming" category surmounts this classification. Arguably the most well know of these daylilies was “Stella d’Oro” with small, 2-3 inch and glaring “school bus yellow” flowers. Move over, Stella. A new introduction by Garden Debut(R) launching this spring brings added value.

Kokomo Sunset(TM) Daylily is a win-win for gradeners and the landscape industry with three seasons of bloom through 9+ months. The continously reblooming, carefree daylily delivers brightly colored, 4-inch, lightly ruffled golden flowers with a burgundy red eye. Bloom starts 6 to 8 weeks early, during cool spring nights, a plus for gardeners and for retailers whose customers will be captivated by the colorful display on their springtime shopping trips. Short grassy foliage is rust resistant and compact plants make a welcome addition to the perennial border.   


Normal daylilies with loads of smaller flowers have 22 chromosomes and are called “Diploids”. “Tetraploids” have double the number, with 44 chromosomes and are noticeably more vigorous, with larger, more intensely colored flowers on stronger scapes. Kokomo Sunset(TM) Daylilies are vigorously growing Tetraploids with a heavier substance.

Daylilies flower best when planted in sun (6 hours/day). They prefer moist, yet well-drained soil. Amend the soil with compost when first planting, and space plants 12 to 18 inches apart. Plant at the same level they were growing in the pots, or with bare root daylilies, plant the crown about an inch beneath the soil. Water in thoroughly, mulch, and later scratch some compost in around the root zone once a year. But if you cannot meet these conditions, go ahead and plant daylilies just about anyplace, under any conditions including large containers, and they will do their best to provide you with a marvelous show.

Look for Kokomo Sunset(TM) Daylilies from Garden Debut(R) in garden centers this spring. I'm getting some for my garden.

Train a Tree Form Lavender Falls Wisteria

Garden Debut is introducing the beautiful reblooming Lavender Falls Wisteria in Spring 2010. To train a young Lavender Falls Wisteria vine into a tree form, first pound a strong, 5-foot post or pipe into the soil next to the plant. Choose the most vigorous, strongest stem to train vertically, and prune back all others flush with the main stem. Use soft ties to train the selected stem upright on the stake, supporting it so it will grow a single trunk. 
Throughout each season, keep an eagle eye out for lateral shoots and prune them to maintain the single-stem tree effect. When the wisteria reaches the desired height (typically 4-5 feet) pinch out the growing tip in order to promote branching at the top forming a small tree.


Once the tip is pruned out, lateral branches will form a head or crown, dripping with lavender flower trusses. Over the years, the Wisteria will mature, developing a 4 - 6 inch trunk. The advantage of using Lavender Falls Wisteria is its continual bloom throughout the season.Underplant with Homestead Purple Verbena to echo the color and to form a protective planting ring to protect the trunk from lawnmower blight.
(Image credits: Drawing after online.ohioline.OSU.edu, Lavender Falls Wisteria photo from Garden Debut.)

Too Much Chocolate?

      Just last Tuesday I attended the Culinary Historians of Atlanta meeting to explore the history of chocolate. Culinary Anthropologist Deb Duchon gave a presentation entitled "Chocolate in the Wake of Christopher Columbus" and told us that the demand for chocolate is increasing but the locations where the Cacao trees may be grown is finite. Evidently Cocao trees are hard to grow, requiring a hot, humid climate that never falls below 65 degrees and has approximately 80 inches/year rainfall. This is mainly found within 20 degrees latitude of the equator. Furthermore, trees must be sheltered from wind and shaded from the sun. Deb told us that chocolate chocolate from Hawaii is comparatively expensive because it must be grown in greenhouses, lest it get too cold.

Ripe Cacao pod grows right out of the trunk. Inside are cocoa beans and cocoa butter.

     
       We learned interesting factoids like Kit Kat is the top chocolate bar seller world wide (often flavored with wasabi or green tea for exotic markets). We learned that Mayan noblemen drank cocoa flavored with hot peppers from ceremonial vessels 4,000 years ago, and that when the Europeans arrived, they jazzed it up with sugar, anise, cinnamon, vanilla, flour and eggs to make a hot chocolate beverage.

Array of chocolates from many countries with green apple slices (far right) to cleanse the palate between each taste!

    
       The grand finale was the chocolate tasting! We sampled 10 types of 65% Cacao bittersweet chocolate single bean varietals from all over the world, generously donated by Guittard. My favorites were from Venezuela, Columbia and the Ivory Coast. Other locations included Bali, Ecuador, Ghana, Madagascar, Peru, and Sao Tome, and I sampled them all.
     I never would have believed it before last week, but there really is such a thing as too much chocolate! I had a headache and queasy feeling the following morning, like a hangover, but from chocolate! I'm ready for some more, now though. 
      What's your favorite flavor, dark or milk chocolate?

Winter Blooms and Seed Sowing

Flowers Blooming in My Garden Today

Although it is late February with a cold, cloudy aspect today, there are more than a dozen flowers in bloom in my Atlanta garden.

                                                             Edgeworthia

You may notice a theme here. I think plants ought to be fragrant as well as pretty. Camellia Magnoliaflora, Camellia Nuccio’s White, fragrant Winter Honeysuckle Lonicera fragrantissima, fragrant Paperbush Edgeworthia papyrifera, strongly fragrant Wintersweet Chimonanthus praecox, Lenten Rose Helleborus x hybris, Christmas Rose Helleborus niger, Bearsfoot Hellebore Helleborus foetidus, Fatshedera lizei, extremely fragrant Leatherleaf Mahonia Mahonia bealei, fragrant Rosemary Rosmarinus officinalis, upright White Quince Chaenomeles speciosa Nivalis, Johnny Jump Ups, Pansies, extra-fragrant Blue Hyacinths and Daffodils that have been in bloom non-stop since about January 5.

          Winter aspect of lavender

In addition to that, not exactly blooming, but lively additions to the garden are Flowering Cabbage and silver foliage of Lavender Lavendula angustifolia.

Also too good to omit is the implied promise of swelling buds on my Native Azaleas Rhododendron austrinum, R. canescens, R. alabamense and on Bay Laurel Laurus nobilis. I think it’s the first time I have had bay in bud, although these evergreen shrubs were covered with flowers on a late November trip to the south of Spain.
  
Winter Seed Sowing


Twitter is aflutter with people tweeting about #supersowspring, but I’m not waiting until March 21. Last weekend I scattered seeds of Shirley and Ornamental Poppy directly into the garden. I saved a whole bin of them last spring. They prefer bare soil but I have a lot of mulched areas, so I am hoping they will still come up all over the place. In the vegetable garden I cleared out excess swamp sunflower roots and I shared a clump of late chrysanthemums in order to make room to sow oakleaf lettuce seed too. It rained them in nicely the day after, but they haven't sprouted yet. Tomorrow snow and rain are expected, so it’s just as well. 

                Saved Poppy seed from last spring.


Fat buds of Native Azalea, out of focus due to wind

Arbor Day and What To Plant

SMALL NATIVE DECIDUOUS TREES

Who doesn’t love a tree?
To encourage tree planting, Arbor Day was started by J. Sterling Morgon back in 1872. Nice to think he was concerned about it even back in the day. Arbor Day is celebrated nationally on the last Friday of April (April 30 in 2010). However, in southern climates trees are best planted earlier in the spring, so Local Arbor Day comes sooner (it’s the third Friday in February [Feb. 20] for Georgia). This cool interactive map http://www.arborday.org/arborday/arbordaydates.cfm lets you find your own local Arbor Day.

So what tree to plant?
Not everyone has enough room to plant a large shade tree (James Cameron’s “Home Tree” in Avitar comes to mind), but there are small-scale ornamental trees that are perfect for home landscapes.

• Small trees are ideal and will provide colorful foliage, flowers, bark and fruit for year-round interest, and choice selections or unusual forms add landscape value. Noticeable and distinct flower- and leaf-color variations are found throughout the growing range. These variants are starting points for the selection of cultivars and varieties that are useful for almost any landscaping situation (http://gardendebut.com/).

• Match the exposure and water conditions at the proposed site to the requirements of the tree variety.

• Coordinate with other plants and elements of the overall landscape design.

• Consider native tree varieties to connect to the natural environment and enjoy lower long-term maintenance costs due to improved plant hardiness and survival of natives.

• By choosing natives, reduce water use, decrease the need for pesticides and fertilizers, and enhance habitat for butterflies, birds and other native wildlife.

Recommended Trees
After considering available space, growth rate and soil and moisture adaptability, I came across two new varieties of small trees that are quite intriguing. These are both cultivars of the native Redbud or Cercis canadensis, and they fit the bill with four seasons of color and interest, and small size. They are offered by Garden Debut® and will be in garden centers this spring.

The first, Burgundy Hearts® Redbud, is a quick-growing native tree selection that is an attention magnet for the landscape. The attention-grabbing, outsized, heart-shaped leaves of Burgundy Hearts® Redbud are ornamental all season long. Extra large leaves resemble wine-red “hanging hearts” and retain their attractive deep coloration from the emergence of shimmering new growth in the spring, throughout the summer and through the end of the season.

Perfect wine-red hanging hearts won'e burn in the summer sun.

Appearing before the leaves in early spring (March-April), myriads of showy rosy-purple, pea-shaped flowers attract bees and humming birds. The redbud blooms up and down branches and mature trunks for two to three weeks. Cut branches make good cut flowers and may be forced indoors for earlier bloom.

With a vigorous growth rate and a practical mature height of 20 - 25 feet, this sweetie of a flowering tree matures quickly to the perfect size for suburban landscapes, lawns or streetscapes, and draws attention when planted as a specimen or grouped in commercial landscapes.

What makes it really special: the dark leaves of Burgundy Hearts® Redbud have proved much more resistant to summer leaf scorch than older maroon-leaved cultivars such as ‘Forest Pansy’ Redbud, and gardeners and the landscape industry will find this Garden Debut® introduction to be a sweet improvement. It will be available in Garden Centers this spring.

The second small tree, The Rising Sun™ Redbud, is an outstanding golden form, vigorous in growth and very heat tolerant. This peachy keen new introduction, The Rising Sun™ is destined to light up the landscape with appealing tangerine and peach-colored leaves, contributing brilliant, golden-orange, heart-shaped foliage all summer with no burning, even in full sun. With a mature height of only 12 feet, The Rising Sun™ is perfect for smaller gardens and in-town neighborhoods as well as for specimen and accent plantings.

Incredible color on small tree in the nursery.

The Rising Sun™Redbud is a vigorously growing small tree with a full, rounded shape, whose leaves hold their tangerine/gold color into autumn. Spring, a third season of interest, delivers sweet pea-type flowers, rosy-orchid in color. The flowers appear before the foliage very early and are attractive to bees and butterflies. New foliage is a brilliant rosy-apricot. Even the bark is a smooth tan with a yellowish cast, distinctive from other Redbuds.

So perhaps one of these two new native selections will be just tree you've been wanting to give your landscape a boost.

Quick List of Planting Tips
• When placing a new tree, allow adequate width to keep walkways, entryways, driveways or buildings clear of interfering branches. Many small trees, although short, can spread as much laterally as vertically. Most can be sited beneath power lines with little or no need for pruning to maintain clearance.

• Prepare the soil before planting. Loosen it several feet in all directions from the spot you wish to plant, creating a wide, saucer-shaped planting hole.

• Mulch with an organic mulch after planting to conserve moisture and to create a ring of protection around the young tree.

• Keep the tree watered during the first season while it is getting established, and enjoy a carefree bonus to the landscape in years to come.

Feedback
What are your choices for a favorite small ornamental tree? It would be great if you could let me know by commenting on this blog!