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Last time I looked at an old American hosta coming to Britain for the first time. Now two brand new hostas from Belgium, both raised by Danny van Eechaute. ‘Color Festival' (left, click to enlarge) is a very dramatic hosta in spite of its medium size. It features rich, deep green foliage, a little...
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Every year new hostas arrive on the scene. You'd think that with so many being grown already - there've been almost two thousand listed in the RHS PlantFinder over the years - that we wouldn't need any more. Well, some perhaps we truly don't need. But as hosta enthusiasts bring together...
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In recent years we've all got used to those photinias with their bright red young growth. They're evergreen, vigorous, easy to grow, and colourful, and when their clusters of hawthorn-like flowers appear, followed by red berries, it's an added treat. Now we have a new variegated form. Discovered...
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Dahlias are enjoying a new resurgence and rich dark colours are also becoming increasingly popular. Bring the two together and you have a sumptuous new dahlia - ‘Karma Choc'. The Karma Series of dahlias, developed by the same Dutch breeder that created the popular Happy Single series of garden varieties...
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Earlier this year I mentioned the excellent new dwarf hybrid buddleja from America both over on my RHS Trials and Awards blog , and also on my Transatlantic Plantsman blog . It's also bveen a big hit at the RHS Buddleja trial. It's not been available in Britain till now but as of yesterday you...
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You can now follow me on the micro-blogging service Twitter at http://twitter.com/Graham_Rice ! This will help me let you know when new posts go up here at my RHS New Plants blog as well as at my RHS Trials and Awards blog and also at my Transatlantic Plantsman blog . And I’ll occasionally bring you...
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The Norfolk-based plant breeding company Floranova has been a pioneer in the creation of new annuals and container plants for the last thirty years. Many of the best annuals that we grow have been developed by them and this years see another breatkthrough - a new type of Nicotiana (flowering tobacco...
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At the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show this summer, Suttons showed their expanding range of grafted vegetable plants . Now you can order them. Grafting tomatoes is not a new idea, far from it, but this whole new generation of grafted vegetables will transform your veg growing. There are tomatoes of...
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Zinnias have developed into one of our easiest and most colourful of summer annuals - as long as you sow the seed direct into the soil. And it's not so much the large flowered types that remind us of show chrysanths that are so successful, it's the bushier, more prolific, smaller flowered varieties...
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The range of colours available in both old-fashioned Grandiflora sweet peas and the modern Spencer sweet peas is simply amazing and for this new season Thompson & Morgan are releasing two exclusive blends that bring together a huge range of varieties. ‘Heirloom Bicolour Mixed' (left) is exactly...
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We've seen some lovely rudbeckias appear in recent years but this one is a little bit special. Selected for planting all over the great American city of Denver, Colorado, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the city, Rudbeckia ‘Denver Daisy' is now available in Britain from...
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Cosmos seem to be enjoying a surge in popularity at the moment, I think that not only are gardeners realising what dependable flowers they are for the mixed border but are also beginning to value them as cut flowers. There are number of new cosmos from various seed companies this year, I'll look...
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Onions are not the most difficult vegetables to grow but there's one problem which can destroy a whole crop in no time - downy mildew. So as we're all now so reluctant to spray our vegetables the arrival of the first onion variety which is resistant to downy mildew is quite a breakthrough. ‘Santero'...
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As the new seed catalogues start to drop on to the doormat, the time is right to take a look at some of the new varieties appearing in the mail order catalogues for the coming season. So the next few posts here will concentrate on new seed introductions. Thompson and Morgan have a number of interesting...
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Most of the altroemerias we see in gardens and as cut flowers were bred in Europe as are most of those in the current trial at Wisley. But over at Cornell University in New York, a breeding programme is developing some excellent varieties. ‘Mauve Majesty' is the first from the Cornell programme run...
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