First Annual Showing, June '06

On Thursday and Friday, June 22-23, 2006, we had our first annual showing of the Epic New Plant Trial, with attendees including on those first two days, customers, suppliers, garden talk-show hosts, garden writers and photographers. On Sunday, June 25th, the trial was open to the public during our annual open house, the Epic Festival of Plants.















For our industry guests, we provided each with a trial booklet containing an entry (example below) for each of the 100+ varieties in the trial.

Plant Name: Salvia 'Eveline'
Source: Darwin Plants
Plant Origin: Future Plants introduction; hybrid involving S. pratense
Planted: Fall '05
Flowering: May
Winter Loss: little or none
Comments: bloomed very early; some cut back to see if re-blooms


In addition, we were also kind enough to provide them with some timely refreshments:













Finally, we asked all attendees to vote for their favourite. The "Top 12" results of which are as follows:

1. Sedum 'Hab Gray'
2. Sedum 'Chocolate Sauce'
3. Leucanthemum 'Sonnenschein'
4. Heuchera 'Hollywood'
5. Campanula 'Royal Wave'
6. Campanula 'Plum Wine'
7. Heuchera 'Chinook'
8. Heuchera 'Rave On'
9. Veronica 'Twilight'
10. Verbascum 'Gold Nugget'
11. Calamagrostis 'Elderorado'
12. Echinacea 'Sunset'

Mid-Summer '06

By mid-summer (late June and into July), most perennials are past their peak -- here's a few that exceed that expectation.

Here's Veronica 'Twilight' (bred by Jan Verschoor of the Netherlands), which did quite nicely, but did not re-bloom later after a cut-back.















Heuchera 'Rave On' (bred at Terra Nova Nurseries in Oregon) was simply outstanding -- an excellent combination of foliage and flower -- and beyond it is one of the earliest and longest-blooming Heuchera I have ever seen.















I grew a variegated sport of Euphorbia polychroma in my Queenston garden for years and simply loved it, particularly for it's pink-tinged spring foliage and it's relative sun tolerance for a variegated plant. This version, called 'First Blush' (bred/discovered by Liesl Thomas) is also a super plant. Note that a light-coloured mulch does not compliment this plant well.















There are so many new Sedums these days...almost too many...but one that I was impressed with was S. 'Cloud Walker' as it was intermediate in form and size, and had some impressive and unique colouration.















I've rarely been impressed with Gaillardia 'Goblin' in the garden, as a planting typically seems to quickly appear "messy". So I was pleasantly surprised with the performance of the new 'Oranges and Lemons' which was had a neat habit, was a reasonable size, and bloomed forever. Cutting it back in mid-summer made little difference to the non-stop flower production.