Extraordinary History Behind Twist of Lime™ Abelia

 Twist of Lime™ Abelia’s backstory is an enthralling one of arrogance and disappointment.

The genus contains about 30 species. It was named for noted British physician and naturalist-author on China, Dr. Clarke Abel, 1780 – 1826, who served as Chief Medical Officer and Naturalist to the Embassy of Lord Amherst at the Court of Peking and in Canton in 1816-17.  During this time there was resentment on the part of the Chinese due to perceived British arrogance and because of British involvement in the opium trade. The British were technically limited in plant collection to the Portuguese-controlled island of Macao.

In his role as naturalist, Dr. Abel had collected many unfamiliar plants and seeds, all new to Western science at the time. He also wrote a book of his observations and corresponded with renowned English botanist Sir Joseph Banks.

Lord Amherst’s objective in China was to improve British-Sino relations. To this end, the Embassy staff traveled to the capital, and Abel made detailed observations and collected wild and cultivated plants along the way. However, the mission backfired when Amherst refused to kowtow to the Chinese Emperor and the entire party was banished from China. Before departing on the hazardous journey back to England, Abel entrusted a small portion of his extensive botanical collection to a colleague, Sir George Staunton.

The ship ran aground on uncharted reefs and was badly damaged, causing some of the cargo to be jettisoned, including Abel’s botanical collection. Returning to the site the next day to try and rescue some of the botanical chests, they were attacked and captured by Malay pirates. Eventually, Abel did make it back to England and Staunton returned the remaining small portion of Abel’s collection. One of the specimens was named Abelia chinensis in Abel’s honor posthumously in 1844, and is an ancestor of Twist of Lime™ Abelia. .

Meanwhile, Robert Fortune, another famous plant collector, was also sending back live specimens from China, including one that later would be named Abelia uniflora. The first Abelia chinensis x A. uniflora crosses were made at the Rovelli Nursery in Italy producing a hybrid named Abelia x grandiflora in 1886 and was the best Abelia of its time.

This is the fascinating history behind my favorite Abelia, Abelia x grandiflora, Twist of Lime™ by Garden Debut®. I’ve planted my Twist of Lime™ Abelia an area of the garden I call the “golden triangle” planted with specimens having gold or yellow variegation or yellow flowers. In the photo, Twist of Lime™ Abelia is in the foreground, flanked by Euphorbia x martini ‘Ascot Rainbow’  and Forsythia koreana ‘Ilgwang’.  The brilliant leaves of Twist of Lime™ is perfect for lighting up the partial shade. Other landscape uses for Twist of Lime™ Abelia include specimen plantings in gardens and/or in a mixed border with other shrubs, as a low, informal hedge plant, or as a cascade.

The honey-scented, tubular blossoms of Twist of Lime™ Abelia are one of my greatest butterfly and hummingbird attractors, and are actually edible in salads or candied. In Astrological reports, the shrub Abelia is placed under the dominion of the planet Moon, if you go for that sort of thing. Folklore tells that many baby girls were named after the plant Abelia because of its continually fresh, evergreen nature. Post a photo if you’re growing Twist of Lime™ Abelia too.

White Frost™ Birchleaf Spirea Invites History to the Garden

Now and then the landscape gardener comes across a must-have shrub that fits nicely into smaller scale urban and intown gardens. First choice this spring is White Frost™ Birchleaf Spirea from Garden Debut®. White Frost™ is named for the fountains of white flowers that cover the plant each spring like a beneficent late frost. Flat-topped corymbs composed of tiny white flowers envelope the shrub’s arching branches and closely resemble another Spirea known as Bridalwreath.

In days gone by, brides cut the arching branches of Spirea and wove them into bridal crowns that lasted only a day. Since Spirea and Hawthorn were annually in bloom around the first of May, they were often selected as the flowers of choice. The flower crowns were employed still earlier in the Celtic festival of Beltane, a spring-time festival of optimism mid-way between the Spring Equinox and Midsummer Night.

A Queen of the May was crowned on the church steps each year, with the ritual circular crown signifying both virginity and the unending cycle of the seasons. Fertillity of crops and livestock was an important aspect of the agrarian society, and  the hanging of May Boughs on the doors and windows of houses and barns and in farmyards was observed, often composed of Hawthorn or Mountain Ash. In the garden the flowers are attractive to bees, butterflies, pollinators and birds.

Bring history into your garden with White Frost™ Birchleaf Spirea, a compact, mounded, dense shrub maturing at about 3 feet tall and wide. This tough-as-nails, spring-flowering shrub is also known for its striking fall color. Enjoy a second season of color each autumn with its long-persistent bronze, purple, yellow-gold and red fall foliage colors. Landscape uses of this durable, romantically old-fashioned shrub include low hedges, foundation plantings or containers.

Visit Garden Debut® Retailers Page and click on your state to find a retailer nearby who is carrying White Frost™ Birchleaf Spirea.

Ruthie’s Bridal Wreath Blog http://ruthie822.blogspot.com/2009/05/bridal-wreath.html

How to Make Lilac Sugar with Sweet Treat™ Lilac

I am enamored of fragrance in the garden. Poetry is written and paintings are painted in celebration of the rose, the sweet violet, lavender, heliotrope, gardenia, jasmine, magnolia and especially the lilac. In addition to transforming my garden into a pleasure, one of my favorite uses for all this sweetness is flower-scented sugar made with lilac or lavender whole lowers, or with petals from violets or fragrant roses. Flower sugar is useful in teas, sugar cookies, pound and angel food cakes, coffee cake and blueberry muffins.

Though I am the strongest proponent of fragrance in the garden and always opt for fragrance over many other characteristics, until now I had been bereft of the perfume of lilacs. The common lilac just doesn’t thrive in my Zone 8A Atlanta garden. Until now! Enter Sweet Treat™ Lilac, an improved form of the well-known variety of Miss Kim Lilac, Syringa pubescens subsp. patula from Garden Debut®. It grows well in a wide range of soil conditions and is hardy in Zones 3-8, making it the most versatile lilac in the country.


Sweet Treat™ reliably displays clean foliage and vigor with no disease or die-back even during the hottest Atlanta summer temperatures that normally sound the death knell for the older varieties. The intoxicatingly sweet lilac fragrance so beloved of generations is combined with superior disease resistance performing flawlessly in the brutal heat and humidity (and often drought) of southern summers. Plus it’s burgundy fall color is an added bonus.  

Sweet Treat™ presents a profusion of fragrant blossoms each spring that are dark lavender in bud and fade to a soft lavender-ice blue when fully opened. They smell like warm sunlight and the breath of spring, seasoned with vanilla and sweet-smelling roses. The plant is particularly floriferous when planted in full sun, and its fragrant blossom trusses stand out beautifully against dark green, glossy leaves. To preserve this fleeting aroma I capture it in sugar; it’s very simple to make.

Super-Easy Lilac Sugar

I take about a cup of clean, dry flowers that have been grown organically and are entirely free of pesticides of any kind, 

and gently macerate or crush them with a wooden spoon to release the fragrance. 

Then I combine them with 2 C. granulated sugar and stir well to distribute the petals evenly. 

The flowers and sugar are poured into quart canning jars with screw-on lids  (in this case a decorative storage bottle with a fitted, ground glass lid).

It mellows our for a few weeks and when the sugar smells just like the flowers it is ready to use. 

Flower sugar may be substituted for plain sugar in any recipe, and you may leave the flowers in or sift them out as you choose. Sprinkle tea sandwiches with Lilac Sugar, or mince up some of the flowers and add to cream cheese for a yummy spread.

Have you planted versatile Sweet Treat™ Lilac in your garden? Mine is really new. 

Companion Planting with Daylilies

About a decade ago, I devised a strategy to interplant tough, drought-resistant daylilies on an embankment, although my idea will work in any garden situation, in sun or part shade. My objective was to prolong the bloom season from January until June.  I selected two other perennials of approximately the same size with similarly-shaped leaves for this companion planting.  

Narcissus

Several types of daffodils were selected, and planted in groups of about seven bulbs (all the same for maximum impact) next to each daylily clump. I chose some of the earliest yellow bloomers for January, as well as mid-sized white and pink varieties to extend the flowering season into February and March. Narcissus are long-lived, and since they are in the Amaryllidaceae, they are poisonous and therefore unappetizing to chipmunks and pine voles. 

Iris

Next, I planted starts of Siberian Iris and non-bearded iris next to the daylily clumps to follow the daffodils and continue the flowering season into March/April. Iris siberica are every bit as tenacious as Hemerocallis in terms of toughness and drought resistance. Although their sword leaves look a lot like the fans of slender daylily leaves, the flower spectrum is in the blue-to-violet-to-white range and the iris flower shape is completely different, providing variation.  

Hemerocallis

Finally, the old varieties of daylilies took center stage. Before the new repeat-blooming hybrids, my daylilies would begin flowering about Father’s Day – mid June—and give a burst of color for about a month.

Today, by replacing the old varieties with continuously-blooming daylilies like those  from the Enjoy 24/7™ Daylily Collection from Garden Debut®, my daylilies start blooming in early April and don’t quit until Thanksgiving!

•          A strong-growing bi-color Kokomo Sunset™ PP22181 provides brilliant color with blazing gold and a burgundy-red eye.
•          Montego Melon™ PPAF is a compelling soft yellow on a short plant that increases rapidly and has triple the number of flower scapes. 
•          Ruffles and frills of Bermuda Peach™ PPAF are irresistible, with low-growing, rust-resistant foliage on a rapid increaser.
•          The haunting Jamaica Sunrise™ PPAF, delivers an eye-catching lavender-rose hue.

These daylilies were developed by award-wining daylily breeder Dr. Ted Petit for incredible bloom cycles stretching from April through late fall and healthy, rust-resistant foliage with low, grassy-like leaves and flowers held above compact plants. I find planting in groups of the same variety gives the biggest impact, particularly those with bright- or light-colored flowers, with each plant becoming a attention-magnet or “visual bouquet” in the landscape.

So share a photo if you give my daylily companion planting strategy a try and let us know your own long-blooming efforts! You’ll have flowers from Januany through November by including daffodils, Siberian iris and choices from the new iEnjoy 24/7™ Daylily collecton from Garden Debut®. Or perhaps you have a different set of plants to include for a continuous bed of blooms?  Let’s hear it!

Evergreen Crown Jewel(R) Gardenia Drenches the Landscape with Fragrance!

                  

Beautiful dwarf flowering broadleaf evergreen provides exquisite fragrance in summer and is the jewel in the crown of the winter landscape. 

Crown Jewel®Gardenia PP19896 is a low-growing, spreading to prostrate gardenia with intensely fragrant, white, medium-sized double flowers beginning in early summer and repeating until frost.  The heavy May flush of blooms is followed by repeat blooming throughout the summer, until fall brings another heavy flush of blooms. Light pruning after the first bloom-period will stimulate even more blossoms. Crown Jewel® Gardenia blooms on both old and new wood, so late frosts will not harm the crop of fragrant white flowers

Highly perfumed Crown Jewel(R) Gardenia is an easy care broadleaf evergreen hybrid in a versatile dwarf size, and requires little if any pruning to stay in shape. This garden jewel grows about 6 inches per year with the potential to reach 2 or 2 ½ feet in height and a spread of 4 to 6 feet wide, ideal for garden beds. The plant is hardy to zone 6 and bright green evergreen foliage is medium to small-sized for the species, with a soft texture overall.  

Crown Jewel® Gardenia is the very best selection from a controlled cross between dwarf ‘Kleim’s Hardy’ (dwarf habit, heavy bloom set) and ‘Chuck Hayes’ (cold-hardiness, twice-blooming, double flowers) by Philip Dark of Oakmont Nursery in Chathem County, North Carolina. Dark is a member of the consortium of growers, breeders, retailers and marketers that make up Garden Debut®, and he reports that cold testing is ongoing in Zone 5.

CrownJewel® Gardenia prefers well drained, moist soil and full sun to partial shade (a bit of afternoon shade is great) and good air circulation. A cooler, woodsy environment protects from the harsh reflective heat of concrete or asphalt. Shelter from cold winter winds helps to prevent tip dieback at the colder edge of the plants’ range. Organic compost is excellent or light applications of commercial azalea fertilizer or diluted acid-forming fertilizers are good, although too much can burn tender roots.

Among its many landscape uses, Crown Jewel® Gardenia is perfect as a specimen adding color, fragrance, form and texture, a low accent plant in the garden; for winter interest; or as part of mass plantings. It is an excellent evergreen plant for containers where the fragrance can be enjoyed on decks and patios. While cold-climate gardeners must over-winter their gardenias indoors (can be grown as a houseplant or a patio plant moved indoors in winter), in U.S.D.A. Climate Zones 6 and warmer, gardenias are grown outdoors, permeating the garden with fragrance. (Testing in Zone 5 is ongoing.) 

This genus is native to the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, southern Asia, Australasia and Oceana. Gardenias are easily grown in the southeastern U.S. because they demand high humidity and rich, acidic soils to thrive. 

Statistics Chart for Crown Jewel® Gardenia, PP19896 Gardenia augusta ‘Crown Jewel’

Plant Category:	Spreading broadleaf evergreen shrub
Mature Height:	2 – 2 ½  feet in 10 years
Mature Spread:	3-5 feet, ideal for garden beds
Mature Form:	Low-growing, spreading to prostrate shrub
Branching:	Twiggy growth hidden by shiny dark green leaves, tight brown bark
Growth Rate:	Naturally dwarf variety, 6 inches per year to 2 feet
Sun Exposure:	Partial or dappled sun (recommended), will tolerate either full sun or light shade
Soil Type:	Prefers rich, deep, well-drained, slightly acidic soils with a good moisture supply
Soil Moisture:	Best on moist, well-drained soils rich in organic matter. Follow a regular watering schedule during the first growing season while plants are getting established to promote a deep, extensive root system. Keep roots cool with a thick layer of organic mulch.
Flowers:	Fully double, medium-sized, waxy white flowers, measuring 2-3 inches in diameter begin in early June with heavy bloom, and flower throughout the summer until frost. Flowers perfume the landscape with a sweet fragrance. Crown Jewel® is a cross between Kleim's Hardy Gardenia (dwarf,  heavy bloom set) and Chuck Hayes Gardenia (cold hardiness, double flowers, double bloom season)
Fragrance:	Most outstanding characteristic of the Gardenia: the intense fragrance; flower scent is sweet, sweet, sweet! and surprisingly strong; The natural fragrance of gardenia cannot be distillated and in perfumery, fragrances of orangeblossom, jasmine and tuberose are substituted for gardenia.
Foliage:	Broadleaf evergreen shrub with beautiful, shiny, deep green, oval leaves that contrast sharply with classic white gardenia flowers. Gardenia maintains beautiful, deep, rich green coloring all year long, foliage during winter
Landscape Uses:	Place near door, courtyard, patio, gate or entrance, in garden beds, along walkways or in containers on the deck, where handsome foliage and fragrant flowers may be enjoyed at close range.  Landscape uses include specimen, groundcover, border, container, woodland, cut flowers or indoor plant Fragrant flowers with thick white petals are traditional for corsages or hair ornaments, for cutting, to float in a bowl of water on the dining table. Bring into the greenhouse or home during winters in cold weather zones
Floral Symbolism:	Gardenias symbolize purity and sweetness. They indicate secret love. They convey joy. They tell the recipient "you are lovely"
Root system :	Vigorous once established, with a moderate salinity tolerance
pH Level:	5 – 6.5, best on rich, deep, well-drained slightly acidic soils
Climate Zones:	6 – 11 (winter lows 0 degrees F.  to above 40 degrees F.) (Zone 5 testing is ongoing)
Heredity:	U.S., Philip Dark of Oakmont Nursery, Chathem County, NC

                         Garden Debut® great new plants!

Wine Spritzer™ Beautyberry is the Toast of the Town

With its distinctive variegation, landscapers are clinking wine glasses over this beautiful new shrub. 

Wine Spritzer™ Beautyberry is the spectacular new variegated beautyberry with dazzling leaves that are heavily speckled and splashed with green and cream on wine-colored stems.  Beautyberry has rough or coarse leaves and rough stems similar to its close relative Lantana, also in the Verbena Family. In the case of Wine Spritzer™ the large leaves are almost white with green speckles and are the ornamental feature of this new introduction. The leaves look like they have been heavily painted or “spritzed” and in autumn the cream and green leaves turn yellow and green.

Slender branches arch gracefully on this Asian beauty and in summer tiny, pollen-laden, pink to pale-lavender flowers appear in the axils of the opposite leaves, appealing to butterflies and bees. Wine Spritzer™ is not a prolific bloomer or fruit setter. The foliage carries the full burden of beauty and interest, and it does it very well indeed. When berries do appear, they persist as a late-season fruiting food source for birds after other berries are gone. Mature berries are not damaged by frost.  

This moderate to vigorous growing shrub matures at 5-6 feet tall with a slightly larger spread. Wine Spritzer™ is cold hardy to USDA Zones 5-8, since the species is more cold tolerant than species native to the southeastern U.S. WineSpritzer™ Beautyberry prefers well-drained soil, and color is terrific in sun to partial shade.

Use Wine Spritzer™ by Garden Debut(R) as a specimen in the landscape for the outstanding variegated leaves, also perfect for mass plantings or screens. Multiple plants in close proximity will boost berry production. Shrub size can be controlled with yearly pruning in late winter; The Manuel of Woody Landscape Plants recommends cutting beautyberry to the ground before growth begins to take full advantage of vigorous leaves on new growth.

An interesting but little-known fact about beautyberry; modern research by Ag Research Services of the U.S.D.A. has substantiated the “old mouse’s tale” that rubbing beautyberry leaves on human skin or on animals is an effective repellent against mosquitoes and ticks.  

For more information on Wine Spritzer™ Callicarpa and other superior plant introductions from GardenDebut® brought to gardeners by Greenleaf Nursery Company, visit www.greenleafnursery.com.     

Statistics Chart for Wine Spritzer(TM) Beautyberry PPAF, Callicarpa dichotoma 'Shija Murasaki'. 

Plant Category:	Coarse textured, deciduous shrub
Mature Height:	4-5 feet;  if cut to the ground each winter (to promote  large leaves on new growth), then shrub may not reach full height
Mature Spread:	4-5 feet
Mature Form:	Rounded
Branches:	Rough, but does not carry spines or thorns
Growth Rate:	Vigorous
Sun Exposure:	Versatile; direct sun to partial shade Full sun (recommended) will bring out the strongest color, but light shade will help with drought resistance
Soil Type:	Sand, loam, clay; very adaptable
Soil Moisture:	Well-drained soils, dry to average, drought resistant once established
Flowers:	Pink or light lavender in leaf axils; attracts bees and butterflies
Native:	Native to China
Foliage:	Papery thin
Fruit:	This variegated cultivar fruits sparsely; increase fruit production by planting multiple plants together
Fall Color:	Variegation stays true until leaves drop
Landscape Uses:	Wine Spritzer is a tough plant that tolerates heat, humidity, deer, rabbits and slopes; use as specimen or accent plant, border, in front of the foundation planting, container, massing, screening, and striking when planted next to pastel flowers or yellow- or silvery- blue foliage plants to contrast with the burgundy foliage.
Root system :	Vigorous once established, with a moderate salinity tolerance
pH Level:	6.0 – 7.5 neutral to slightly acid soils
Climate Zones:	6-9 (winter lows  -10 degrees F.)
Heredity:	Japan, cultivar introduced by Southern Plant Group, Atlanta, GA

Garden Debut® great new plants!

Fragrant, Long-blooming, Asian Moon Butterfly Bush is Sterile

Doesn't set seeds, so flowers keep on blooming Spring-through-Fall for butterflies and hummingbirds. 

Looking for a way to invite butterflies and hummingbirds into the garden? Fragrant yet tough Asian Moon Butterfly Bush is a classic summer-flowering shrub (sometimes called summer lilac) that begins flowering in June and continues in profusion through late fall. Tiny, bright lavender tubular flowers have orange throughs and are clustered on upright panicles that are held out like candles all over the shrub. 

The flowers are very attractive to butterflies, bees, hummingbirds and other nectar drinkers, outcompeting most native plants, and are a keystone of the butterfly garden. Long, narrow leaves (6 inches long by 1 1/2 inches wide) are finely toothed along the edges and gray-green above, with silver undersides; the shrub is coarse in texture overall.  

Originator Jon Lindstrom of the University of Arkansas is a member of the Garden Debut(R) consortium of breeders, growers, retailers and marketers. His Asian Moon Buddleia is a large, symmetrical shrub that can reach 7 feet, but is easily cut back to maintain size and promote reblooming on new wood. Asian Moon's special advantage is its sterile flowers that do not set seed, a great alternative for U.S. gardeners in parts of the U.S. that have prohibited fertile Buddlieas. The sterile flowers have a prolonged bloom period compared to fertile varieties, a gardening bonus! 

Like the rest of its tribe, Asian Moon Buddleia is a fast growing deciduous shrub that will require some pruning each spring to keep it fresh.It is best kept within bounds by coppicing or cutting to the ground in late winter, while in late July cutting the shrub back by half will control size and encourage heavy reblooming. Also like other members of the genus, Asian Moon is nearly indestructible, adaptable to gardens from Boston to Florida (USDA Zones 5-9). Consider Asian Moon Butterfly Bush as an easy-care selection that provides plenty of garden color and fragrance in full sun.  

Useful in the landscape for summer bloom and to attract butterflies, used in masses, not as a specimen, can be treated as a herbaceous perennial to give height in the mixed border, or underplanted with low perennials. 

For more information on Asian Moon Butterfly Bush and other superior plant introductions from GardenDebut® brought to gardeners by Greenleaf Nursery Company, visit www.greenleafnursery.com.  

                   

Statistics Chart for Asian Moon Butterfly Bush, Buddleia davidii cv. Asian Moon.

Plant Category:	Deciduous woody shrub
Mature Height:	Reaches 7 feet, can be cut back to 3 feet in mid-summer or to the ground in late-winter
Mature Spread:	Symmetrical shrub about 6 feet wide
Mature Form:	Upright, with upright panicles like candles covering the shrub
Stems:	Squarish stems, bark light gray- brown with orange streaks, exfoliates slightly with vertical shreds
Growth Rate:	Rapid
Sun Exposure:	Full sun is recommended, will tolerate a little light shade
Soil Type:	Clay, silt, sand; very adaptable
Soil Moisture:	Adaptable, semi-arid to moist; will withstand dry soils once established
Flowers:	Tiny, individual purple or orchid tubular flowers with orange throats clustered on upright panicles, attractive to nectar feeders, very fragrant
Native:	Native to China
Foliage:	Coarse texture, narrow leaves about 6 inches long x 1 ½ inches wide, opposite arrangement along an angled stem
Foliage Color:	Dark green above, silvery glaucous beneath
Fall Color:	Negligible
Bark:	Light brown and brittle, with orange streaks
Tolerant:	Tolerant of deer and drought
pH Level:	5.5 – 7, very adaptable
Climate Zones:	U.S.D.A. Zones 5-10 , (winter lows  -10 to 0 degrees F.) Can sometimes die back to ground in colder climates, and resprout, reaching 7 feet in one season.
Heredity:	U.S., Dr. Jon Linstrom, University of Arkansas

 Garden Debut® great new plants!