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Back in 2008, I wrote a piece here about a flurry of new crocosmias - some of which turned out not to be new at all! Now, as a result of new breeding work carried out in Oregon, we have two genuinely new crocosmias added to the 2013 RHS Plant Finder, which came out in April.

'Twilight Fairy Crimson' (above, click to enlarge) and 'Twilight Fairy Gold' (below left, click to enlarge) are both short, as crocosmias go, reaching only about 40cm, and both have the same smoky bronze foliage that makes the old favourite ‘Solfatare’ so much appreciated. So, like ‘Solfatare’, the leaves make a valuable contribution to the border tapestry long before the flowers open.

'Twilight Fairy Crimson' has rich red, flared flowers carried in branched  heads on dark stems and with that bronze tint to the foliage. The foliage of 'Twilight Fairy Gold' has more of a coppery colouring, and orange-yellow flowers open from orange buds.

Both are good towards the front of sunny borders, in mixed containers, and even as neat cut flowers. Although drought tolerant, they’re best kept moist to keep them flowering well, to help the flowers last as long as possible, and to help prevent spider mite attack.

You can order Crocosmia 'Twilight Fairy Crimson' from these RHS Plant Finder nurseries.

You can order Crocosmia  'Twilight Fairy Gold' from these RHS Plant Finder nurseries.

Other crocosmias added to the RHS Plant Finder this year are: 'Butterball', 'Eggs and Bacon', 'Sherbert Orange' and 'Suzanna'.

 

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While working on site yesterday, a very sick looking Viburnum sargentii caught our attention. It's not cold damage as other viburnums are not affected. Our plant pathologist, Liz, is going to take a look later today but has anyone any ideas? Will post shortly with her findings.

  

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Just thought I’d let you have some more facts and figures about the new RHS Plant Finder, which came out last month. In particular, news of some of the new entries in the 2013 edition, new plants available for the first time.

First of all, there are exactly 4,329 new entries. As last year, Hemerocallis show their surge in popularity with two hundred and fifty new entries, more than any other plant, with tulips following on at two hundred and eight. The next few are not surprising – Primula (178), Narcissus (148), Iris (128) and Dahlia (119).

Next on the list, in seventh place, is Brugmansia (Datura as was) with an amazing ninety eight new additions, almost all from a nursery that is also new in the Plant Finder, Naieus Exotics. Then comes Fuchsia (88) followed by another surprise – Tillandsia with seventy seven new additions. In tenth place are hellebores with fifty three new additions.

I discussed the ten new plants with the most suppliers in the 2013 Plant Finder in a recent post. But one was left out of the list because it is by some long way not a new introduction. Rose 'Madame Boll' (right, click to enlarge), listed by seven suppliers, is an old Damask Portland rose, pink and highly scented originally introduced in 1859 by the German breeder Kordes. Now it’s back.

To follow on from my earlier post abut the new plants listed by six or more suppliers, here’s the list of new entries listed by five different suppliers.
Allium 'Cameleon
Clematis Giselle ('Evipo051')
Clematis Samaritan Jo ('Evipo075)
Cornus alternifolia Golden Shadows ('Wstackman')
Crocosmia 'Twilight Fairy Crimson'
Fragaria x ananassa (strawberry) 'Buddy'
Helenium 'Hot Lava'
Helenium 'Ruby Charm'
Mahonia eurybracteata subsp. ganpinensis 'Soft Caress'
Nandina domestica 'Seika'

I’ll be looking some of these over the next few months, starting with Crocosmia 'Twilight Fairy Crimson and its new sister 'Twilight Fairy Gold' next time.

You can order the 2013 RHS Plant Finder from the RHS Bookshop.

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The time of year is now upon us when we get on and fill any gaps in the Plants for Bugs trial beds. First to go in are the bulbs and tubers

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The Illumination Series of foxgloves is an impressive addition to our range of hardy perennials and a fine example of the plant breeder’s art and science.

Created by Thompson & Morgan plant breeder Charles Valin, who earlier this month was awarded the RHS Cory Cup, the Society’s award for excellence in plant breeding, the series combines our familiar purple-flowered biennial foxglove and its uncommon relative from the Canary Islands, Digitalis canariensis (formerly Isoplexis canariensis), with its orange flowers and rather woody habit.

The first result of bringing these two unlikely relatives together was ‘Illumination Pink’. This was followed by ‘Illumination Chelsea Gold’, which won the Plant of The Year award at last year’s Chelsea Flower Show, and now the latest to appear is ‘Illumination Raspberry’.

‘Illumination Raspberry’ has the same upright habit, and the same long long season of flower spikes, this time in a rather purplish raspberry red with a pale speckled throat, And it has the same impressive attraction to bees as its predecessors in the series.

Good in sunny borders that are well-drained, and also in containers, the plants are sterile, no seed is produced, so they flower continuously for many months.

Digitalis ‘Illumination Raspberry’ will be available in a collection with ‘Illumination Pink’, on Richard Jackson’s Garden on QVC TV, on Saturday 26 April at 9am. You’ll find QVC on Sky Digital (channel 640), on Virgin TV (channel 740), on Freesat (channel 800) and on Freeview (channel 16). The same collection will then be available on the QVC website while stocks last.

 

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Driving around Oxfordshire these last few weeks and looking at the countryside, I do not see a ‘green and pleasant land’ – it is brown. The trees are brown and so is the grass. Here we are in the second week of April and there is almost no new plant growth. The wildlife are hungry and deer have taken to rural gardens in their search for food. Plants I have lovingly tended are being stripped of their foliage, stems roughly pruned. You can’t blame the deer. It’s not their fault that this winter has dragged on for so long and if there are evergreen shrubs and bulb foliage they can get at they’re bound to do their best to get at them. It’s been interesting to see what plants attract deer in a domestic garden. The mossy mounds of Saxifraga x arendsii were one of the first to be sampled, the green rosettes nipped off. They didn’t eat all of them and some were left scattered, so maybe they weren’t too keen.

Also palatable is Euonymus fortunei, this one being ‘Silver Queen’. This plant has lost nearly all its foliage and is looking distinctly twiggy. I know deer also enjoy the small leaved Euonymus japonicus microphyllus, because a few years ago they ate one of mine down to the ground.

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Yesterday saw the launch of the 2013 RHS Plant Finder, now with over 75,000 entries and over 4,300 new additions for this year. Of course, some of these additions are plants that are returning but the majority are new plants, first time entries.

It’s always instructive to take a look at the new plants that are listed by the most nurseries, it’s a good gauge of their value, and top of the list this year, with ten stockists, is Geranium Azure Rush™. If this pale blue, white-eyed hardy geranium is as good as its parent, Geranium Rozanne™, then it’s going to be a popular success.

Joint second on the list with eight stockists listed is, perhaps unexpectedly, a 1m high thistle. Cirsium rivulare ‘Trevor's Blue Wonder’. “It's not blue but it is bluer (than 'Atropurpureum')…,” says Bob Brown of Cotswold Garden Plants. He continues: “the stems are a mixture of white pubescence and purple staining with silvery-green basal foliage.”

Also in the Top Ten most widely stocked newcomers is a plant I wrote up here last year, Choisya x dewitteana 'Aztec Gold', with white flowers and narrow golden evergreen leaves. More recently, just a few weeks ago, I wrote up another popular newcomer for 2013 Hydrangea aspera 'Hot Chocolate' with its dark foliage a large lacecap flowers. One of a number of new Shasta daisies, Leucanthemum x superbum FREAK! ('Leuz0001'), is also in the Top Ten.

The other four places are all taken up with new roses from David Austin Roses: Boscobel (‘Auscousin'), Heathcliff (‘Ausnipper'), Tranquillity (‘Ausnoble') and The Lark Ascending (‘Ausursula').

You can order Geranium Azure Rush™ from these RHS Plant Finder nurseries

You can order Choisya x dewitteana 'Aztec Gold' from these RHS Plant Finder nurseries

You can order Hydrangea aspera 'Hot Chocolate' from these RHS Plant Finder nurseries

You can order Leucanthemum x superbum FREAK! from these RHS Plant Finder nurseries

You can check out all four new English Roses on the David Austin Roses website.

Cirsium rivulare ‘Trevor's Blue Wonder’ is listed in the RHS Plant Finder as available from these nurseries, but at the time of writing none actually list it on their websites as available to order.

 

And you can order the 2013 RHS Plant Finder from RHS Bookshop.
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