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 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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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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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.

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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).

 

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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’.
 

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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.

 

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