Featured Plants for the Week of August 30, 2010

Artemisia ‘Silver Mound’ and Angelonia ‘Dark Blue’

Artemesia ‘Silver Mound’
10”-12” tall
24” wide
Full Sun, heat tolerant, somewhat drought tolerant
For use as a vertical component in large
containers, or for height in landscape bedsweather. They like full sun to part shade and as an added bonus, the foliage will stay silvery throughout most winters

		Angelonia ‘Bandana White’ 12” tall 24” wide Full Sun, heat and drought tolerant Strong color, prolific bloom For use in containers or landscape

Cleome hybrid ‘Señorita Rosalita’ is a welcome new addition to my garden. In the past I had appreciated the height that cleome would lend to my borders, but found them difficult to work around. The sticky leaves, thorny stems, and the rather skunky scent of the old cleome varieties were reason enough for me to banish them from the garden. Enter ‘Señorita Rosalita’! The first thing I noticed about this plant was the beautiful dark, green foliage, noticeably more substantial than the cleome of bygone days, and no thorns, no scent. As the season progressed, I was thrilled to see large heads of clear, pink blooms, no dead-heading required. The spidery flowers are attractive to both butterflies and birds. Since Cleome ‘Señorita Rosalita’ is also drought tolerant, it provided a stellar companion to Salvia ‘Carradona’, and Lychnis ‘Gardener’s World’. A large container would be required to accommodate ‘Señorita Rosalita’ and a few companions, but the combination of stately pink cleome, hot pink geraniums, and royal purple callibrachoa to trail down the sides is a certain winner.Artemisia has lacy, fern-like foliage in tones of blue-green, grey-green, or silver depending on how your eye picks up those color tones. A. schmidtiana ‘Silver Mound’ looks wonderfully lacy in front of a flower border with its finely cut foliage and mounding 6-12” habit. After a heavy rain or during flowering, ‘Silver Mound’ will need cutting back to return it to lacy foliage.

If you are looking for a taller, fine textured plant, take a look at A. ‘Powis Castle’. This artemisia will get about 3 feet tall. It can be a stand alone specimen plant or it can be used to softened really bright (too much orange or red) or garish plantings (orange and purple/blue) that are already in place in the garden. If three feet is too tall, there are other shorter artemisias available to fit any situation.

Lantana camara ‘Bandanda White’ is the star of my patio containers. At night the abundant white flowers are visible as dusk settles. During the day, the noticeably larger flowers glisten above crisp, green foliage with a casual elegance. Paired with lotus vine, or dichondra, as a trailer, it may be all you need for a medium-sized container. Though the flowers aren’t scented, the foliage emits an evocative grapefruit scent when brushed. The ‘Bandana’ series of lantana is known for its upright, mounding habit, prolific branching, and earlier flowering than other varieties of lantana. Lantanas, in general, are heat and drought tolerant and low maintenance. In the xeric garden, ‘Bandana White’ would be absolutely stunning when paired with any of the ‘Profusion’ series of zinnia, or the vibrant blue of Salvia patens ‘Blue Angel’. Since the color white plays so well with others, it makes Lantana ‘Bandana White’ an especially versatile addition to your garden. The ever growing list of colorful heat loving plants certainly makes it easier to grow beautiful gardens in our sunny arid climate.   Angelonia, the summer snapdragon, has rapidly developed a reputation for blazing through the most challenging conditions as the summer heat soars.   Many varieties are tall, graceful specimens, but topping last summer’s list at the CSU trials were two dream plants, Alonia Dark Blue and Serena White.

 Alonia Dark Blue reaches just 12 inches tall, spreading a phenomenal 24 inches or more.  It’s a social sort, mingling well with others, adding to its versatility.  Their strong color, spreading habit, prolific blooms and self cleaning nature has earned this plant much attention.  It’s a low maintenance, heat loving, drought tolerant dream come true.  

Artemisia information by Betsy Kelson
Jared's Nursery, Gift and Garden

Angelonia information by Krystal Keistler

Echter’s Greenhouse and Garden Center

Soothing Panicums

Photo: Panicum virgatum ‘Prairie Sky’.
Photo Credit: Keith Williamson, Little Valley Wholesale Nursery

Switch grass (Panicum virgatum) has found a home in many gardens in spite of its humble beginnings as a dominant plant species of the tall grass prairie. Imagine a clumping warm season grass reaching 4 to 7 feet tall. Imagine a light breeze making the grass sway and rustle gently in its caress. Then, imagine the late afternoon or early morning sun shining through the silver highlights of the seed heads. Run and get the camera. And as if that was not enough, in the winter, the light snows and frosts are caught like powdered sugar on the seed panicles and leaves. Or bring it inside as filler for fresh or dried arrangements.

Depending on the variety, switch grass can reach a height of 3 to 7 feet leaving it available as a background plant or as an accent in the middle of a border. Adding to its appeal, switch grass will produce beautiful seed panicles beginning in July, shooting 12 to 24 inches above the foliage. To finish off the season, the interesting blue to grey green foliage turns to shades of yellow, orange, or red.

To make more of your favorite switch grass, get the shovels and garden forks out in the spring. Like many garden perennials, the switch grass clump can be dug up, and cut or literally ripped apart into smaller pieces. This method ensures an exact copy of the parent plant. Many of the named cultivars of switch grass like ‘Heavy Metal’ will not produce seed that grows into the original plant. Plant the pieces into fertile well-drained soil in full sun. However, most switch grasses can tolerate light shade as well as sandy or heavy clay soils if watering is carefully monitored.

Another method is to plant seed. As mentioned above, the seed from named varieties may not look exactly like the parent plant or may not germinate at all due to sterility. But if you want to give it a go, collect the seed in the fall and plant into the garden in the fall or spring. OR if more control is needed, plant in pots outside for the winter.

Betsy Kelson, CCNP
Jared’s Nursery & Garden Center

The Wright Buckwheat for your Xeriscape

Year round interest, amazing seasonal transformations, color changing flowers, and the ability to withstand blazing heat and the driest conditions. Is this the tagline for the next superhero movie??? NO, it’s the tagline for one of the most fascinating western native plants about to become the star of your garden. Eriogonums are widespread in the western landscape and can be found in almost any vignette. Snow Mesa Buckwheat (Eriogonum wrightii) starts the season off as a soft textured ever-silver mat that creeps along pathways and hugs close to rocks or containers. In late July, the low tight mat grows long tortuous stems akin to the Mormon teas with which it is often found growing. You look and wonder what could possibly happen next, can this plant get any stranger? Then it explodes with a frothy exuberance that changes the nature of the plant into a dancing cascading masterpiece of clean white. Not yet out done, the floral display transforms in fall to rust colors welcoming the changing season, softening your border and making a full turn for the year.

This indigenous plant has an incredible distribution throughout the Colorado Plateau with great variability in form and variety. From miniature mats only a couple of inches around that grow to the edge of tree line, to the stately form that Plant Select™ is proud to bring you that is found jutting out of the blackened earth in the alien rockscape of the El Malpais in New Mexico. They are easy to grow and thrive in challenging areas of the garden. Plants at Denver Botanic Gardens have been a staple of our Watersmart garden as well as the Rock Alpine garden and the Conifer berm. When they are blooming they take center stage and command visitors’ attention. This is one of the best plants for your xeric garden and dry sections of the perennial border. Don’t wait for the sequel - this one tops the charts now.

Mike Bone
Denver Botanic Gardens

Featured Plants for the Week of 6/18/2010

Fireworks Gomphrena and Pacifica Burgundy Halo

Are you looking to create some fireworks in your garden this year? Look no further than the new introduction Fireworks Gomphrena! This vigorous, tough-as-nails plant has proven itself to be a sparkling gem in the landscape. Fireworks is drought-tolerant and low-maintenance. With its bright yellow anthers poking out of long-lasting hot pink flowers, the flowers themselves look like miniature fireworks exploding in the garden. Use this plant at the back of the border or anywhere you might like to create a dramatic vertical exclamation point in your garden.

Another wonderful choice for mid-summer flower power is Pacifica Burgundy Halo XP. This plant is a 2009 All American Selection (AAS) award winner and for good reason. Burgundy Halo is outstanding in hot, dry, sunny conditions making it a perfect fit for Colorado gardens. These durable, stress-tolerant plants meet the increasing demand for water-wise crops all while showing off some of the largest, most vibrant, burgundy and white bicolor blooms found in Vinca. Burgundy Halo is a versatile plant that can be used in containers or at the front of your border to create an eye catching display. So go on, create a few fireworks in your garden this year!

Susan Stauber
Ball Seed Horticulture

Sophora japonica – Japanese Pagoda Tree, also known as Chinese Scholar Tree

Photo: ‘Regent’ Japanese Pagoda (Sophora japonica).
Photo Credit: Jeff Lafrenz, J. Frank Schmidt & Son.

If you’ve been looking for an interesting ornamental tree that’s not too fussy, this plant may be the answer! Softly textured foliage, summer-time flowers, bead-like seed pods and pretty winter twigs make Sophora japonica a tree for all seasons!

Japanese Pagoda Tree flowers during the heat of summer when few other trees are in bloom, but that’s only part of its appeal. In its native China, this medium-sized tree can grow to 65 feet when fully mature, usually with a broad rounded crown. However, in Colorado Japanese Pagoda may still be relatively small in stature after 30 years of growth, reaching perhaps 30 to 35 feet high. As a result, it is a good choice for planting in city or suburban settings where space may be limited. It grows rapidly while young, and tolerates city conditions, heat, and drought.

Japanese Pagoda Tree casts an attractive, light, dappled shade in youth, but offers much denser shade with maturity. Its foliage is graceful and somewhat fernlike, with 6 to 10 inch long compound leaves, each with 9 to 13 small leaflets. The tree holds its lustrous bright green leaves well into fall before the foliage turns a soft yellow. Its young twigs remain bright green and provide interesting winter color.

Large, lightly fragrant, creamy-white to yellowish-green sweet pea-like flowers hang in long clusters, blanketing the tree for about three weeks in mid to late summer. Young seedling Pagoda trees, especially in northern areas of its range, may not flower for the first ten or so years of its life. In areas with warm summer nights, though, the tree starts flowering sooner. If patience isn’t your virtue, other named options include varieties like ‘Regent’ and ‘Halka’ Japanese Pagoda, which flower at a younger age.

Japanese Pagoda flowers turn into bright green pods that mature to yellow-green. The pods are flattened with the seeds within appearing as a string of beads inside the pods. The pods persist into December or beyond, and the seeds are readily eaten by birds. Japanese Pagoda Tree is hardy in zones 4 to 8, and prefers an open, sunny location.

Mona Dyer, CCNP
Bookcliff Gardens

Agastache

Photo: Agastache ‘Desert Sunrise’.
Photo Credit: Panayoti Kelaidis, Denver Botanic Gardens

Looking for a bit of drama for that hot, dry, typically Colorado spot in the yard? It’s Hyssop to the rescue! Hyssop (Agastache) is a member of the mint family (though not invasive) which offers lovely fragrant foliage like its relatives, but topped with a colorful array of trumpet shaped blossoms in late summer.

Sunset Hyssop (Agastache rupestris) is a Plant Select® introduction, especially well suited for our area. The blooms are bi-color, rosy-pink and sunset orange with thread-like grey-green leaves and a delicate appearance. A good companion plant for this variety is Salvia ‘Cardonna’, whose purple spires (to 36 inches) look great with all the Hyssops. This combination is a show-stopper when planted together and both are drought tolerant!

For backdrops/screens, ‘Blue Fortune’ is great. It can reach a height of 36 to 48 inches and behaves more like a shrub than a typical hyssop. Its anise scented foliage is topped with blue flower spikes that bloom from June until frost. It makes a great companion for Shasta daisies or silvery Artemisias.

A beautiful sunset effect can be had by mixing the ‘Sunset’, ‘Coronado®’, and ‘Double Bubble’ varieties with a ‘Blue Fortune’ backdrop. Add some Gaillardia and Aurinia for all season color! Remember to plant where you’ll be able to enjoy the scented foliage as you brush against it and to watch the butterflies and hummingbirds it attracts. You’ll be treated to mint, root beer, anise, or bubble gum scents, depending on variety.

When you plant a hyssop you are creating a magnet for wildlife and a feast for the senses.

Gay Bechir
Echter’s Garden Center

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