What's hot in new annuals

01.05.2008 03:00 Home - Source: Home Envy

Black-eyed Susan's are like hamburger helper in many gardens, they provide reliable filler, when more exotic plants are being temperamental.

It would be easy to fall punch drunk in love with the little South African daisy called osteospermum. In the University of Guelph annual trial beds there is a heartbreaking beauty called 'Orange Symphony'. If you put cantaloupe and mango in a blender and ladled it on a daisy shape you have a hint of the colour of 'Orange Symphony'. But then imagine the centre of the plant with a celestial ring the colour of indigo, Midnight in Paris perfume and cobalt. I'm telling you it leaves one breathless.

I got down on all fours to immerse myself in this flower-there were hundreds of blossoms in the gentlest mounding shape, it was stunning and captivating.

Annual trial beds, and you can find them all across Canada, give us love-starved gardeners the latest fix on what's new, what's nutty and what's hot. There was a lot of heat in the Guelph trial garden starting with those little daisies. The knock against osteospermum used to be their tendency to collapse in hot weather. You'd buy a spit-polished plant in the spring, and watch it wither like the witch in the Wizard of Oz in the middle of the summer.

The Symphony series according to Roger Tschanz rises above such coarse behaviour.

"This series really holds up to the heat. It's been out for a few years, but I wanted to test it in our beds," says the Manager of the Trial Gardens at the University of Guelph.

There are over 200 different cultivars in the trial beds, but cagey man that he is, Roger won't pick his favorites, "Ask me in the fall, when I've watched them all season."

Roger doesn't get poetic when he makes his plant observations; he's looking for sturdiness, number of blooms, bloom time, uniformity, disease and bug resistance. He does like the "fresh look" of the celosias, was impressed with the vigor of violas and learned that zinnias grow better when seeded in the ground, rather than in the greenhouse.

The smartly kept trial beds on Victoria Road near the Guelph Turfgrass Institute are open to the public Monday to Friday during business hours. The plants are labeled and Roger is looking for feedback.

"I'm working on a system where visitors can vote for their favorites," he says. The annuals are growing in an open, windy location, in full sun and watered and fertilized as needed. The seed companies pay the University to grow their plants, and evaluate their performance. Some of the annuals won't be available to the public for at least a year, others, like the 'Purple Majesty' millet are slowly making their way into home gardens now.

'Purple Majesty' was looking stately in the trial beds. The deeply coloured leaves are dramatic against a blue sky. 'Purple Majesty' had already produced striking looking purple plumes, wonderful I'm told for sticking in flower arrangements. This grass will get 4 to 5 feet tall and would turn heads in a bold planting with black-eyed Susan's and Russian Sage.

I saw another foliage plant screaming for attention. "Are you familiar with this amaranthus?" Roger asked as we approached Amaranthus tricolor 'Perfecta'. With leaves of yellow, orange and crimson, it looks like an unattended fire. Some people call it summer poinsettia, which is depressing, because poinsettias in winter are bad enough. But this plant had a certain Coney Island charm with its flaming presence. The native of India and the Philippines should be placed in a hot, dry location, then stand by with the fire extinguisher.

Black-eyed Susan's are like hamburger helper in many gardens, they provide reliable filler, when more exotic plants are being temperamental. Now the annual members of the rudbeckia family are adding more glitz to the garden.

At the Guelph trial gardens I was impressed with Rudbeckia hirta 'Autumn Colors'. It was a sturdy plant with big 4 to 5 inch flowers of bronze, yellow and gold. Benary Seeds (www.benary.de/) of Germany has been breeding fabulous rudbeckias; in "Autumn Colors" they wanted to capture the colour of fall leaves.

Rudbeckia grows well in loamy soil with adequate moisture. A cool break from the hot colours of summer was splashed up by a lovely planting of violas. How starling to see these traditional flowers of spring looking so dewy and fresh. 'Lavender Antique' by Takii Seed (www.takii.com) turned back the clock to May when Violas usually look their best. But these new introductions claim they can take the heat of summer, and so far the observations confirm their more robust nature. So when you're beds are in a midsummer slump, an expedition to a trial garden can rekindle the romance of gardening.

Take a camera, a notepad, or better yet a good guide like Roger.

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