My Garden

We all know what wonderful shrubs mahonias are. They're statuesque, making imposing plants in the garden; their bold evergreen foliage is invaluable all year round; their long strings of dainty yellow flowers brighten any winter garden; and finally those flowers are followed by long strings of blue berries.

The only problem is that they only come in yellow. And they get quite tall if you don't prune them. And wouldn't it be good to extend the season a little? Not possible - until now.

The flowers of ‘Cabaret' are, actually, yellow (I have to say) but they emerge from furnace-red buds which for many weeks transform the colouring of the plant. And the foliage develops red tints as well. I'll let Peter Clay of Crocus, who are introducing this excellent shrub to Britain, tell you more:

"‘Cabaret' has fabulous colouring: with those glowing beads of molten steel on dark green holly-like leaves trimmed with red. But what we like most is that it flowers from August through to November. Most mahonias are winter flowering but this would be a valuable addition to a hot autumn border. It's nice and compact, so suitable for most people's gardens and would look great with rudbeckias or tall red (annual) salvias and grasses such as Anementhole leesonia (Stipa arundinacea as was) or dahlias like 'Ragged Robin'.

"In fact, it is a pretty good all rounder. During the spring and early summer it's architectural foliage provides a structural foil for more flamboyant neighbours. In late summer it starts it's valuable pyrotechnics and during winter it develops attractive bluish grey berry-like fruits that stand out well against the foliage."

You can order Mahonia ‘Cabaret' from Crocus.

 

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I first saw this gorgeous new fragrant verbena on The Sun's exhibit at this year's Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. I wrote it up in my Hampton Court coverage of new plants. It was tucked away in a corner, and I have to say, it didn't look too happy. But for colour and fragrance and sheer charm this is a special plant. And now it's available to order.

The way the flowers on this lovely bicolour are held creates a ring of dark colour around the centre of each flower head with skirt of paler colour below. It's a very pretty combination.

'Strawberry Kiss' is a trailing variety, raised from cuttings. It's not one of the stocky little verbenas which are more often raised from seed. The stems hang downwards but the flower heads themselves turn to face upwards. ‘Strawberry Kiss' is ideal for tubs and hanging baskets by the front door, on the patio or by gates where you can enjoy the bicoloured flowers and especially rich fragrance.

Just one thing: In my Hampton Court piece I mentioned the striking similarity of ‘Strawberry Kiss' to an older variety, ‘Pink Parfait'.  I still haven't managed to resolve this with any certainty - but if ‘Strawberry Kiss' should be sold out, try ‘Pink Parfait' instead.

You can order plants of Verbena ‘Strawberry Kiss' from Mr Fothergill and Unwins. It's also available in a Verbena collection from Thompson and Morgan.

You can order Verbena ‘Pink Parfait' from Thompson and Morgan.

 

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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 over 6in/15cm long and 3in/7.5cm wide, with a bold cream central splash tinted with green as each leaf unfolds and which matures into bright white with rich creamy yellow and greeny cream flashes at the edge. The contrast between the consistently deep green edge and the bright centre is very striking and made more stylish by those neat flashes and the slight variability of the central splash.

Maturing to a clump about 21in/53cm across by about 131/2in/34cm high, pale lavender tubular flowers are held above the foliage in mid summer.

‘Color Festival' is a sport of ‘Enterprise' registered in 2007.

‘Border Street' is a bold variegated hosta with a very attractive pattern of harmonising tones. The green rippled foliage, about 10-12in/25-30cm long and 8-10in/20-25cm wide at maturity, with a slight bluish tint and edged with a variable margin of cream, is bold without being too garish. It also has tubular pale lavender flowers. The plant itself matures into a clump about 40in/1m  across and 24-28in/60-70cm high .

‘Border Street' was raised from open-pollinated seed of a streaked seedling of ‘Lakeside Roy' and registered just last year.

You can order ‘Color Festival' from Bali Hai Nursery and also from Sue Proctor Plants. You can order ‘Border Street' from Bali Hai Nursery.

 
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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 new combinations of size, leaf shape, colour and pattern - not to mention flowers - valuable new types are appearing.

Bali Hai Nursery in Northern Ireland make a point of bringing many new hostas to British gardeners. But they also bring over from the United States varieties which have somehow been ignored over here.

‘Big John' has been around in the States for some time (it was registered in 1986) but it's not been available here before. And it really is big. Mark Zilis, writing in his superb Hosta Handbook, says: "'Big John' is synonymous with "huge" in hostas. Not only does the mound of foliage become massive, but the individual leaves are the largest of any hosta, narrowly beating out ‘Sum and Substance' for that honor. The record breaking 21in x 163/8in (53.3x41.6cm) leaf was measured in 1988... Since then no leaf I have measured (probably more than 5,000) has exceeded those dimensions."

Setting aside what we'll charitably call the "dedication" of someone who measures over 5,000 leaves of just one variety of hosta - that really is an impressive plant.

‘Big John' reaches a massive 32in/81cm high by 6ft/1.8m wide! The leaves are bluish green at first, becoming dark green by early summer and have the puckered look of H. sieboldiana parentage; in fact ‘Big John' is a seedling of H. sieboldiana ‘Mira'. It also features bell-shaped white flowers striped in lavender which are held just about leaf level in summer.

If your garden is large enough to feature such an impressive plant, or you have a huge container, you can order Hosta ‘Big John' from Bali Hai Nursery.

Two more new hostas next time.

 
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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 in Oregon as long ago as 1991, Photinia x fraseri Pink Marble (‘Cassini') is a relatively upright, evergreen shrub whose foliage opens reddish green with irregular deep pink margins then as the foliage matures it becomes a rich green with white edges and with splashes of white on the green part of the leaf. With leaves in all colour stages on the plant at the same time the effect is dramatic.

Pink Marble is less vigorous than other photinias, which is not bad thing, and so will not only make a more accommodating garden plant but is suitable for large containers. It can also be grown as a low hedge and each trim will be followed by a new flush of pink-edged red leaves.

Pink Marble was found as a sport on a plant of P. x fraseri at a wholesale nursery in Salem, Oregon. I would guess the parent would probably have been ‘Red Robin' but this is not confirmed.

You can order Photinia x fraseri Pink Marble (‘Cassini') from Gardening Express.

 
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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, has been bred as a cut-flower dahlia but its special features make it a great garden dahlia too.

So Karma dahlias are not only prolific, and with flowers carried on strong straight stems, but each bloom lasts up to twelve days in water. And of course the flower form is excellent and the colours are tempting.

The latest to be introduced is ‘Karma Choc'. Reaching about 90cm/3ft high, everything about the plant is dark: the foliage is rich purple-bronze in colour, the stems are reddish-black and the elegant 5in/12.5cm water lily flowers open deep a Bourneville chocolate colour and mature to deep black-tinted crimson.

‘Karma Choc' was raised in The Netherlands by Aad Verwer and was selected in 2002 from seedlings resulting from the pollination of an unnamed dahlia seedling by the rich red ‘Karma Naomi'.

You can order Dahlia ‘Karma Choc' from these RHS Plant Finder nurseries and from Mr Fothergill's.

 

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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 Trials and Awards blog as well as at my RHS New Plants blog and my Transatlantic Plantsman blog. And I’ll occasionally bring you other news - such as when I have an article in the RHS magazines The Garden or The Plantsman.

But, you may ask, how do you follow me on Twitter? Well, there’s a page of ideas on the Twitter website. And for real newbies there’s a handy video on the Twitter help pages.

Twitter is just another way of keeping in touch and passing on the news. First there were drawings on the walls of caves, now there's Twitter!
 

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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 can order it from Gardening Express.

Buddleja 'Blue Chip' (Lo and Behold^TM Series) has a number of good things going for it

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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 other news - such as when I have an article in the RHS magazines The Garden or The Plantsman.

But, you may ask, how do you follow me on Twitter? Well, there’s a page of ideas on the Twitter website. And for real newbies there’s a handy video on the Twitter help pages.
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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).

In recent years nicotiana have been plagued by a highly destructive disease, tobacco blue mould. It wiped out the last nicotiana trial at Wisley and, especially for parks but for home gardeners too, there's always a risk that the nicotiana season will be cut short.

‘Whisper' is a completely new type with two unique qualities. Firstly, its flowers change colour as they age - they open pure white, then blush and turn pink then deep pink. With all shades on the plant together the effect is delightful. Plus - it's disease resistant.

Nick Bellfield-Smith, the Floranova plant breeder responsible for creating ‘Whisper', told me: "It's derived from a cross between the rarely seen N. mutabilis and the familiar type, N. x sanderae. It's been about five years in development. We were looking for different routes to disease tolerance/resistance as well as the characteristic of the N. mutabilis flower starting white and turning to pink.

"In our trials this year ‘Whisper' has done extremely well remaining healthy and showing plenty of colour well into September. And at 80-100cm/32-40in it gives height and elegance to the back of the border. In contrast the standard bedding types became infected at the beginning of August and were dead sticks within three weeks!"

You can order seed of Nicotiana ‘Whisper' from Mr Fothergill's Seeds and from Plants of Distinction or order plants from Dobies.

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