Graham Rice's New Plants Blog

New echinaceas on the way

2013-06-18T21:31:00Z

Every so often, here on my RHS New Plants blog, I like to give you glimpse into the future. We haven’t done that for quite a while, so here goes.

We've seen an unseemly rush of new echinaceas in recent years - some superb, some not so... These two unnamed echinaceas will be named later in the year and will be available to gardeners… well, probably another couple of years after that. It takes time, even using the latest tissue culture laboratory techniques, to propagate enough to sell.

Spotted at a show in France by Dutch perennials wizard Luc Klinkhamer (they’re his pictures – thank you, Luc), the all-green flowered plant with its multiple rows of petals is a double selection of ‘Green Jewel. It’s going to be an essential for cut flower growers. And the extraordinary colouring of the strawberry blonde double (left, click to enlarge) - it looks like Cornish ice cream drizzled in raspberry juice. And as long as it has good strong stems to support those fat double flowers that is going to be sought after too.

I’ll let you now when they’re available…

And next time, here on my RHS New Plants blog, I’ll be looking back over the last few years to see which new plants have captured the most attention.

Chelsea Plant Of The Year - Where to buy the contenders

2013-05-25T21:05:00Z

Last time I told you about the winner and the two runners up for the Chelsea Plant of The Year 2013. This time, I’m going to set out where you can buy all twenty of the shortlisted plants, or who will be selling them when they become available. These are twenty of the best new plants around, and all are well worth trying.

Chelsea Plant of the Year 2013
Mahonia eurybracteata subsp. ganpinensis 'Soft Caress'
Crocus
Gardening Express

Chelsea Plant of the Year 2013 Runners-Up
Clematis 'Lemon Dream'
Thorncroft Clematis

Tropaeolum 'Fruit Salad'
Thompson & Morgan

Chelsea Plant of the Year 2013 Shortlised Plants
Aeonium 'Poldark'
Trewidden Nursery (available to order in June 2013)

Allium schoenoprasum (Chives) 'Cha Cha'
Suttons

Billbergia 'Hallelujah'
Every Picture (not available to order at the time of writing)

Clematis 'Kaiser' (top, click to enlarge)
Thorncroft Clematis

Diascia Sundiascia Rose Pink
Dobies
Hayloft Plants
Suttons
Unwins

Heuchera 'Thomas' (Fox Series)
Plantagogo (not available to order at the time of writing)

Lathyrus odoratus 'Chelsea Centenary'
Mr Fothergills

Lavandula angustifolia Platinum Blonde ('Momparler')
Gardening Express

Leucanthemum x superbum 'Real Neat'
Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants
Simply Seeds and Plants

Lilium 'Sweet Desire'
H W Hyde & Son (not available to order at the time of writing)

Lilium 'Zirconia'
H W Hyde & Son (not available to order at the time of writing)

Lupinus nanus 'Snow Pixie'
Not yet available

Chelsea Plant Of The Year – 2013 winners

2013-05-25T19:09:00Z

On the Monday afternoon of the Chelsea Flower Show, this year’s award for the best new plant at the show, the Chelsea Plant of The Year, was announced – Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’ (above, click to enlarge). The runners-up were Clematis 'Lemon Dream' and Tropaeolum 'Fruit Salad'.

I wrote about Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’ here on the RHS New Plants blog back in September last year. It’s outstanding in combining the long attractive spikes of fragrant yellow flowers, and the blue-black berries that follow, with slender, soft and spine-free foliage. It also makes a more maneagable plant than many mahonias, and its slightly silvered evergreen foliage is attractive in a container or border all year round.

You can order Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’ from Crocus, and also from Gardening Express.

In second place came Clematis 'Lemon Dream' (left, click to enlarge). Unique in having large, fragrant double flowers in pale lemon, the most prolific flush of bloom on this self-clinging alpine clematis is in late spring with a second flush later. Needing little or no pruning, and it’s easy to grow.

You can order Clematis 'Lemon Dream' from Thorncroft Clematis.

The plant voted into third place is very different, a nasturtium. Tropaeolum ‘Fruit Salad’ (below) took twelve years to develop after a customer passed a plant with serrated petals to Thompson & Morgan. The result is the first bicoloured nasturtum with serrated petals. And it’s also sterile so it flowers continuously for a long season on bushy, slightly trailing plants.

You can order Tropaeolum ‘Fruit Salad’ from Thompson & Morgan.

Demand for all three of these plants is high so, although orders can be placed now, delivery of some plants may be delayed while stock is built up.

Two brand new crocosmias

2013-05-20T14:45:00Z

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'.

New plants in the 2013 Plant Finder

2013-05-01T20:20:00Z

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.

Digitalis ‘Illumination Raspberry’: Latest in the popular series

2013-04-21T12:26:00Z

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.

2013 RHS Plant Finder is out – with over 4,000 new plants

2013-04-09T13:20:00Z

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.

Impatiens ‘Sun Harmony’: Mildew resistant sun lover

2013-04-08T11:55:00Z

In the last couple of years, our Busy Lizzies have been devastated by disease so this year they will – and should be – hard to find in garden centres and largely unavailable by mail order. Frankly, there’s no point growing them.

But what to grow instead? Well, how about a different kind of Impatiens?

New Guinea impatiens have long been grown as indoor plants, and with their attractive foliage and large, bold and bright flowers have been much appreciated as pot plants. Developed from I. hawkeri, which grows wild in from Papua New Guinea, recent developments have adapted them to being grown outside in summer containers and even in sunny summer borders.

It is the African species, I. walleriana, the species from which the familiar Accent, Super Elfin and other busy lizzies have been developed, that suffers from the devastating downy mildew which has made growing busy lizzies pointless.

But the four colours of the Sun Harmony Series of New Guinea impatiens were outstanding last summer; their vigorous growth, tolerance of both full sun and partial shade, and their long flowering period really made them stand out. And, of course, no mildew.

You can order Impatiens Sun Harmony Series from Gardening Direct.

Also look out for…

Impatiens Divine Series – nine colours, no mildew, tolerates cool conditions better. From Dobies.

Chilli Pepper ‘Bhut Jolokia’ – one of the world’s hottest, and previous world record holder. From Simply Seeds and Plants.

Petunia Eliza – bushy fragrant bicolour, new in the Tumbelina Series. From Mr Fothergill's.

Hydrangea aspera ‘Hot Chocolate’: New dark foliage form

2013-03-21T11:59:00Z

Hydrangea aspera is a lovely shrub with large and colourful summer lacecap flowers and interesting peeling winter bark. ‘Hot Chocolate’, with its chocolate brown foliage, adds another colourful feature.

It’s the broad, 20-30cm, lacecap flowers which are the plant’s main appeal. The ring of large pink florets around the rim of the flower heads surrounds a broad mass of much smaller violet florets in the centre, and when the plant is covered with them in July the effect is dramatic. Flowering may continue into September.

In ‘Hot Chocolate’ there is a valuable additional feature, the foliage. The leaves open in spring in dark chocolate brown, eventually becoming dark green and making an ideal background for the flowers. Then, in autumn, the foliage changes to amberish yellow with orange highlights. And all the way through, the underside of each leaf is wine red.

‘Hot Chocolate’ makes an impressive specimen up to about 3m high and 2m wide, if necessary it can be pruned thoughtfully in spring. It is happiest in light shade in well-drained soil, and is unusual amongst hydrangeas in growing well on chalk; wet soil should be avoided.

You can order Hydrangea aspera ‘Hot Chocolate’ from Gardening Express and also from Hayloft Plants.

Also look out for these new plants…

Antirrhinum ‘Twinny’ - a new double flowered form from DT Brown, from Mr Fothergill’s and from Thompson & Morgan.

Crocosmia ‘Twilight Fairy Gold’ – golden flowers and bronze foliage, from Cotswold Garden Flowers.

Tomato rootstock ‘Estimo – if you’d like to try grafting your own tomatoes, from Kings Seeds.

Cosmos ‘Pink Popsocks’: New from Nicky’s Nursery

2013-03-07T13:00:00Z

Cosmos is one of the easiest annuals to grow. The seeds are relatively large, and easy to handle; seeds germinate quickly; young plants are strong and vigorous; flowering plants are prolific. And there are varieties in a wide range of colours and flower forms. They’re great in borders and good for cutting. Convinced? You know there’s a “but” coming, right? Right – well, kind of....

The problem is that varieties tend to deteriorate over the years, as it’s expensive for the seed companies to keep them as good as they should be. In particular, season after season, they can get taller, and develop more leaves and fewer flowers. So cosmos varieties are often at their peak when they’re new, or soon after.

‘Pink Popsocks’ is new out this year and this is the time to grow it. With its intriguing range of flower forms including singles, doubles and anemone-centred forms as well as flowers in pure colours and two-tone flowers - and all in soft pink - not to put too fine a point on it, but in five years time it may not be quite so impressive.

Reaching about 60cm in height, ‘Pink Popsocks’ integrates well into mixed borders in sunny sites, and can also be grown as a cut flower – what better way to liven up the allotment than a row of ‘Pink Popsocks’ between the cabbages? Sow indoors in March in gentle heat and keep the plants growing well, or sow outside in May.

You can order seed of Cosmos ‘Pink Popsocks’ from Nicky’s Nursery.

Weigela Magical Rainbow: New from Hayloft Plants

2013-02-28T16:07:00Z

We’ve seen quite a few new variegated weigelas in recent years, some have been very colourful while some have been disappointing. Magical Rainbow ('Kolmagira') is different in that as well as the attractively cream-edged foliage there’s a strong pink or reddish tint in the summer growth.

Reaching about 3-5ft/0.9-1.5m in height, and about the same in width, Magical Rainbow branches well to create a bushy plant. The leaves are wider than those of most weigelas and retain their variegation from when the leaves open in April till they fade and fall in October. The red colouring of the shoots harmonises with the red tinted summer leaves.

In May and June, the flowers open. In the usual flared trumpet shape, each bloom is pale pink and a darker shade, almost red, on the backs – especially towards the base of the tube of the flower. This dark colouring shows through into the throat of the flower. The flowers are sterile, they produce no seed capsules or seeds, which helps encourage prolific flowering.

Happiest in full sun, the foliage does not scorch, and in any reasonably fertile soil, trials at the RHS Garden at Wisley revealed that it does not thrive in shade. Prune after flowering, or not at all.

Magical Rainbow was developed by Dutch plant breeder Peter Kloster in a breeding programme designed to develop attractive new variegated weigelas.

Weigela Magical Rainbow ('Kolmagira') has been available very occasionally in the past, but is now available more widely from Hayloft Plants.

‘Candy Love’ hellebore: New from Cotswold Garden Flowers

2013-02-25T13:22:00Z

Some of the best new hellebores of recent years have been hybrids involving the Christmas rose, Helleborus niger, and this new one, ‘Candy Love’ is a fine newcomer.

Described by Bob Brown who runs Cotswold Garden Flowers, and is also vice chair of the RHS Herbaceous Plant Committee ,as “better than any I've grown so far” - which considering he named an earlier plant of this type ‘Bob’s Best’ is quite an accolade.

The leathery, boldly toothed, evergreen foliage is deep green overlaid in pewter with contrasting purple stems and veins. Then from late December well into April and May the clusters of creamy buds open to pale apricot flowers steadily darkening to pink then misty purple with red and pink tints.

Flowering well as a young plant, ‘Candy Love’ is vigorous and soon develops into a specimen for a container or the front of a sunny border.

Helleborus ‘Candy Love’ was created in Belgium by Thierry Van Paemel who crossed his own selections of H. niger and H. lividus. This plant was picked out from the resulting seedlings in 2005 for its prolific flowering, its long flowering period and for its vigorous growth as well as its exceptional flower colour. Considering that it has the relatively tender H. lividus in its background, it’s very heartening to see that ‘Candy Love’ has proved hardy down to -20C.

Helleborus ‘Candy Love’ is available from Cotswold Garden Flowers (scroll down).

Alpine clematis in new colours and styles

2013-02-24T02:15:00Z

We tend to think of those valuable spring flowering Alpine clematis (sometimes known as Atragene clematis) – C. alpina, C. macropetala and their hybrids – as, basically, blue. Or perhaps white, or maybe, occasionally pink. But this spring sees the arrival of two new large-flowered double pink forms, as well as a new double flowered purple, and single- and double-flowered varieties in pale yellow.

All these new clematis are being introduced by Thorncroft Clematis, who in recent years have established a reputation for bringing fine new clematis from Europe to British gardeners. These new alpine clematis have all been developed in Poland by Szczepan Marczyński, a clematis breeder who’s introduced fine new varieties of all kinds.

There are two new double pink flowered forms. The flowers of ‘Pink Dream’ (below, click to enlarge) are pink on the outside and a creamier pink shade on the inside, while in ‘Pink Swing’ the flowers are lovely subtle blend of cream and pink. Both are have an attractive grapefruit scent. ‘Purple Dream’ (above, click to enlarge) is also double, and again it’s grapefruit scented, with a flush of creamy purple flowers in May, and then again in summer.

In pale yellow there’s ‘Lemon Dream’ and ‘Lemon Beauty’. ‘Lemon Dream’ has exceptionally large flowers with lime green buds which open to pale lemon yellow, fading to white. ‘Lemon Beauty’ features very large double flowers, again with limey buds opening to lemon yellow.

All these varieties reach about 6-8ft/1.8-2.4m in height, they enjoy full sun that is not too scorching or open positions without full sun. Little pruning is needed, simply tidy them up after flowering.

All these new clematis are available from Thorncroft Clematis. Click on the names to order ‘Lemon Beauty’ or ‘Lemon Dream’ or ‘Pink Dream’ or ‘Pink Swing’ or ‘Purple Dream’.

Two new self fertile runner beans set pods in all weathers

2013-02-20T13:26:00Z

One of the most irritating things about runner beans is when they flower – and then the flowers just drop off without the beans actually setting. It happens in dry weather, and it happens when there are no bees around to pollinate. And with our increasingly unpredictable weather, and with fewer bees, it seems to happen more and more often.

A Surrey-based vegetable specialist has been working on solving this problem by crossing runner beans with climbing French beans. Climbing French beans are self fertile, they don’t need bees, and also happily set pods in a wide range of growing conditions. But runner beans have the flavour. Bring the two together and you have tasty stringless beans that reliably produce pods.

White-flowered ‘Moonlight’ was the first. Then last year came red-flowered ‘Firestorm’. Now this year we have we have two more white-flowered varieties, ‘Snowstorm’ and ‘Stardust’. Both are improvements on ‘Moonlight’, both have an even greater ability to set pods in difficult conditions.

‘Snowstorm’ has better flavour than ‘Moonlight’, better texture, smoother skin and longer pods – and of course it’s stringless. ‘Stardust’ is similar to ‘Moonlight’ but has pods that are longer and although it’s a little later to start cropping once it gets going it’s much more prolific.

Grow these new runner beans in just the same way as traditional runner beans, but you’ll probably need even fewer plants as there’s far less chance of flowers dropping off without producing any beans. And of course that long succession of white flowers brings a fresh and colourful look to the veg garden.

You can order seed of runner bean ‘Snowstorm’ from Thompson & Morgan.

You can order seed of runner bean ‘Stardust’ from Marshalls.

Gerbera Spider Series: New from Hayloft Plants

2013-02-16T12:18:00Z

We’ve seen a lot of talk about hardy gerberas over the last few years, and quite a few new plants have appeared that claim to meet the description. And, though uou may be surprised to hear it, some really are hardy. These new spider types have survived -20C in two different Worcestershire trial sites.

Developed in The Netherlands, like all gerberas they form a bold rosette of rich green leaves from which the stems arise, each carrying a single flower. Flowering from May to November on 12-18in/30-45cm stems, the long-lasting flowers just keep coming, especially if dead-headed or picked for the house.

There are five colours (above, click to enlarge), Lemon, Orange, Pink, Red and Salmon, all with the same mass of slender rays surrounding a golden eye. When planted in containers, this distinctive flower formation can be more easily seen in close up.

These Spider Series gerberas appreciate good drainage, especially in winter. In containers, use a compost that drains well and stand the pot on pot feet as container composts tend to be mostly peat or peat-substitute and can hold too much winter moisture. Allow the plants to become a little dry before watering. In the garden plant in a sunny border with fertile soil that drains well.

These Spider gerberas also make long lasting cut flowers. Cut them as the ray petals are unfolding but before you see pollen in the central eye. Gerberas are especially susceptible to the build-up of bacteria in the water so be sure to use a flower food.

You can order these Spider Series gerberas as a collection or as individual colours from Hayloft Plants.