GARDENING:
Colourful new annuals are ready for you.
Visiting local greenhouses to see what is new and exciting is something I look forward to every spring.
I love to have a lot of colour in certain areas of my garden, and one of my favourite gardening activities is creating my own hanging baskets or patio pots filled with colourful annuals. There is never a shortage of brightly coloured new annuals, and 2018 is no exception.
Calibrachoa is one of those smaller flowers that comes in many different colors, blooms profusely and performs very well in a hanging basket or a mixed container. Calibrachoa ‘Can Can Pink Bumblebee’ is a new cultivar. A bright yellow, starshaped throat surrounded by deep pink and lighter pink petals is truly an eye catcher. Calibrachoa flowers will remain open even under lower light conditions, making them versatile flowers for shade or sun.
Sweet potato plant (Ipomoea) is a common filler plant for baskets and containers. The lime green, brown or almost black leaves provide perfect contrast for other annuals or grasses. ‘Solar Tower Black’ and ‘Solar Tower Lime’ are new additions to the Ipomoea series.
Unlike previous Ipomoea cultivars, these will climb when provided with a supporting structure. The densely branched plants are full of heart-shaped leaves that hold their colour throughout the season. These cultivars perform well in sun or shade.
Another new foliage plant that does well in sun or shade is the Hypoestes ‘Red Hippo’ or ‘Pink Hippo’. Sometimes called the polka dot plant,‘ Red Hippo’ has dark green and red speckled foliage, whereas ‘Hippo Pink’ has light pink and green foliage. These upright cultivars measure 45 cm high with a 30 cm spread when fully grown.
Just when you thought there couldn’t possibly be any new varieties of petunias, a couple of new cultivars have made it to the market and are definitely worth mentioning. ‘Amore Queen of Hearts’ is a bicolour petunia that displays five pink hearts on a 6 cm blossom with a striking contrast of yellow separating each heart. The plant is semitrailing and definitely eye-catching.
‘Night Sky’ was a new petunia introduction last year. The new introduction this year in this Headliner™ petunia series is ‘Pink Sky’. Whereas ‘Night Sky’ was primarily purple blooms with splashes of white and cream on the petals, ‘Pink Sky’ petals are bright pink with splashes of white and cream. These new petunia cultivars are mounding; about 60 cm when full grown.
The Bloomify™ lantana series is the first certified sterile lantana on the market. It continues to flower through the heat of the summer. This lantana series has better branching than previous lantana, is upright and has a mounding habit. ‘Bloomify™ Red’ and ‘Bloomify™ Rose’ are currently the only colours available in this series.
If you are looking for a tall plant as a centerpiece or backdrop for your flowerbed, consider Salvia ‘Mystic Spires Blue’. With a 75 cm height and spread, the dark purple and violet flowers attract butterflies and hummingbirds. This annual loves the sun and will bloom from early summer through fall. The spiked flowers also work well in fresh cut flower arrangements.
Digiplexis is a new annual. First planted in experimental gardens in North America in 2013, this cross between foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) and Canary Island foxglove (Isoplexis canariensis) has produced a 90 cm plant that is heavily branched. ‘Illumination Flame’ is densely packed with an array of reddish-orange tubular flowers with yellow throats. The sterile flowers and production of side branches ensure that plants bloom continuously from late spring to early fall. This annual will grow in full to part sun and attracts birds, bees and hummingbirds.
Although there are many new annuals available for 2018, the above mentioned cultivars are recommended for their colors, uniqueness and ease of maintenance. Hopefully you will find one of your new favourites in these selections.
This column is provided courtesy of the Saskatchewan Perennial Society (SPS; saskperennial@hotmail.com ). Check our website (www. saskperennial.ca) or Facebook page (www.facebook.com/saskperennial).