Gardening, on any scale, is a financial investment. Most of us start out with a sensible list of plants to guide us in our purchases. When we walk into a garden centre in the springtime, though, best intentions are often taken over by an overwhelming need to try this one and that one and another.
Plant guilt is usually addressed with the explanation to ourselves (or our more budget-conscious significant other) that our garden will look fabulous. What sensible gardener is going to pass up on that opportunity?
What if our new plant purchases, though, fall short of our expectations during the growing season? Or far exceeded them? This is when it becomes important to keep the plant tag. It isn't enough to vaguely recall that the plant you love is an ornamental grass or a coleus if you hope to find the same variety again next spring.
Mahogany Splendor Hibiscus is a must-have annual in my container garden. Next year, though, I plan to use it as an accent plant in my perennial beds as well. Impressed by the red foliage and finely textured leaves of non-hardy Japanese maple but not the price tag? Try Mahogany Splendor instead. The maroon-red foliage is a standout in the garden all summer long. In the fall, its long-lasting energetic beauty when other annuals have long faded will have you wondering why you only bought one.
Mahogany Splendor grows as tall as 152 centimetres and about 61 cm wide. Pair it with a proportionate size container or grow it at the back of the border.
This spring, after fruitlessly searching for Silver Sage (Salvia argentea), I called Claire Berube at Jardins St-Leon Gardens on St. Mary's Road, and bought 16, some of which I shared with another silver sage devotee.
This is the ultimate specimen plant for a container's edge or along the border, en masse, in a raised bed. Its giant, velvety soft, silvery green leaves are a magnet for every visitor to your garden and a stunning foil for pastel or hotly coloured plants.
It doesn't look like much, though, when you first buy it. Plant it in full sun and water two to three times weekly until it is established. You will love the drama of Silver Sage once it matures in the heat of summer to its full size.
Impressed by the performance of gaura in last year's containers, I experimented with Karalee Petite Pink in a vacant spot in one of my flower beds where I pulled out an underperforming perennial. The plant tag shows a height range of 31 cm to 61 cm. Within a short while, Karalee filled out into the size of a small shrub and bloomed non-stop the entire season. It's on my list for next year!
Dipladenia, a mandevilla hybrid, is another annual that will be invited back. A low-growing climber with glossy green foliage that is much neater in size than its cousin, the more vigorous mandevilla vine, dipladenia is very useful as a spiller in a container design. The large blooms are instantly noticeable and it was its performance this fall when temperatures cooled that totally sold me.
On a visit to Toronto this summer. I noticed its use as a vibrant groundcover in public greenspace.
Not all plants produce unstoppable blooms. I picked up Jacobinia pink this spring at Fryfogel's, intrigued by the tag's description of a showy pink bloom for part to full shade. The bushy dark green foliage is striking and so, too, are the large, distinctive buds before the plant blooms. It is not a prolific bloomer, though, but the uniqueness of the plume-like petals is guaranteed to satisfy. I paired it with a hosta and other pink blooming plants such as abutilon (flowering maple) and dragon wing begonia for a pretty display in a part-shade location.
My favourite coleus proved to be Gold Anemone, a unique coleus by Bob Bors of the University of Saskatchewan's department of plant sciences, and sold as part of Hort Couture's Under the Sea series. Picture uniquely fringed lime-gold leaves edged in scarlet. I trialed it in my garden this year in a shade container together with deep purple elephant ears, scarlet dragon wing begonia and trailing lava rose coleus.
Of course, plant lust when we visit someone else's garden is a powerful motivator. A friend, Susan Southern, used Lascar compact white verbena to great effect in her containers. I don't know what is compact about it other than the finely textured foliage. The prominent white blooms are profuse and lively. She found it at Vandermeer's Greenhouse in Ile-des-Chênes and both of us have placed requests for several next spring.
Sharlene Nielsen, container gardener extraordinaire and owner of Front Door Stories, has occasion to see many stunning plants in her job as a Gardener One in the English Garden at Assiniboine Park.
"Begonia Whopper Red with bronze leaf looks fantastic in either beds or containers," said Nielsen, adding their bright red blooms and dark green, paddle shaped leaves are showstoppers even when viewed from a distance.
Nielsen discovered Pirates Pearl, a new white-flowered bidens, this spring at T&T Seeds and planted it into containers she created for the Reh-Fit Centre. Partial to white in container designs, Neilson said this new variety provided a summer-long show of pearl-coloured daisy-like blooms.
An usual favourite that she finds at Shelmerdine is star jasmine, a fragrant vine suitable for trellises. Nielsen always purchases it early in the season because it soon disappears. This year, she twined it on curly willow for a unique effect.
This summer, I heard from many gardeners who tried Kent's Beauty ornamental oregano and loved the rounded layers of blue-green foliage with dainty pale pink and green flowers. Nielsen combined it with elephant ears and creeping lemon thyme for a lovely textural display.
Madeline Nield has an enviable job as one of the growers at Lacoste Garden Centre. When Stewart McLeod, greenhouse manager, receives plant samples, Nield, McLeod, and co-owner Jordan Hiebert each trial them in their own gardens first, rating their performance in different exposures.
When Nield tried Sparks will Fly begonia, she knew it would always be on her list of plants to grow in her shade garden. "The bloom is small but becomes a stunning mass of bright orange flowers," said Nield who is wild about the dark bronzy foliage.
Nield is also passionate about salvia and recommends some of the larger varieties as background specimens. Favourites include Black and Blue Salvia guaranitica, a hummingbird magnet, and Wendy's Wish salvia with shrimp-like peachy pink blooms. Both are sizeable annuals and can dwarf smaller plants but give them the space they need and their interesting foliage and blooms will make a statement in a larger container or flower bed.
Nield fell in love with a plant she was previously unfamiliar with -- Cassia didymobotrya or popcorn plant. I can understand why after seeing it this summer for the first time in the English Garden. A tall plant that is a member of the legume family, it features pinnately compound leaves and lemony yellow blooms with startling black buds.
It costs more than a typical annual but what other plant smells just like hot buttered popcorn when you run your fingers along its leaves?
Sometimes an annual's performance depends on how a gardener uses it. Where you situate a plant, how often you water, what you pair it with -- all of these factors affect a plant's performance in your garden. If any plant proved disappointing, consider trying it in a different location or use it in another way before scratching it off your list.
Take the osteospermum, for example. Don't like it because it prefers cool temperatures and stops blooming in the heat of summer? Joanne Jones, greenhouse manager, St. Mary's Nursery, recommends pairing it with other heat-loving plants. Enjoy osteo's beautiful showy blooms in May and June, and then trim back the pretty foliage to half its size when the weather turns hot. In fall, your osteo will shine once again as it renews budding out and blooming. Fall is a great time, too, says Jones, for adding mums or ornamental cabbages to your osteos and taking out the heat-loving plants.
Look for Voltage Yellow osteospermum. Alternative varieties abound in the world of annuals.Gardeners are already looking forward to next time, next spring.
colleenizacharias@gmail.com
