Turn to independent ratings to pick reliable plants

Mid-winter and there’s the urge to take off for warmer climes. Not me, I’ll be tending houseplants, tuning up the grow lights, and especially scanning seed catalogues.

I start out highlighting all the plants I want to grow, then after the whole catalogue is full of yellow stripes, I go through again with a green marker until I’ve pared down the list to a manageable number. I know I’m not alone in this process. It happens with all serious gardeners.

There are simply too many plants and never enough space.

Whatever the plant, it’s easy to be overwhelmed with all the varieties. For instance, there are 15,000 known tomatoes and about 3,000 of them are being cultivated around the world. It’s worse with peppers. Only a limited number are commonly grown, but someone calculated there are more than 50,000 of them.

In the flowering plant world, there are about 20 species of petunia and, thanks to hybridizing, countless varieties with new ones introduced every year. Whether it’s a same old tomato or a same old petunia, or any old plant, they simply don’t sell like the new ones, even though newer ones don’t always perform as well.

What the newer plants have that the old ones don’t is a massive marketing budget. Many of the new plants are exceptional, but we don’t always know for sure until they’ve been around for a few years or have been reliably tested.

This is why, when selecting plants for the season ahead, it’s worthwhile to look for ones that made the list of independent organizations. The Perennial Plant Association is one such group. It’s been around since 1984 and selects a perennial to designate as Perennial Plant of the Year®.

They’re chosen after having been shown to: be suitable for a wide range of growing climates, low maintenance, relatively pest- and disease-free, and provide longterm interest throughout the growing season.

Last year’s selection was an allium called ‘Millennium’ and it sure grew well in my garden. Selected for 2019 is a stachys called ‘Hummelo.’

Chicago Botanic Garden evaluated a number of stachys and rated this one the highest for vigour and winter hardiness. It has bright green, trouble-free foliage and produces spikes of magenta flowers that attract pollinators. You can learn more about the organization and see a list of previous winners at perennialplant.org/.

Another group that thoroughly tests plants is All America Selections. Each year it trials new varieties of flowers and vegetables at test sites across North America, including ones in Canada.

Picks for the upcoming season include a new begonia called Red on Chocolate. It’s a mounding, extra large wax leaf type with bright red flowers and bronze foliage that grows in excess of two feet (60 centimetres) high in sun or part shade.

If you love nasturtiums, there’s a new one called ‘Baby Rose.’ It must be something because AAS haven’t chosen a nasturtium since back in the 1930s. It’s a compact plant that, unlike older varieties, doesn’t flop — and the leaves and flowers are edible. I’d say that would make it ideal for a planter by the kitchen door.

There are highly ranked vegetables on the list — including a pepper called ‘Just Sweet.’ The plant is bushy and produces smaller, vivid yellow fruit ideal for snacking. Stick this one on the deck as well.

If you really want to grow tomato number 15,001, here it is. ‘Chef ’s Choice Black’ is a disease resistant, indeterminate vine that will grow five feet (1.5 metres) and produce lots of blemish-free fruits.

That should get you off to a good start. For more AAS plants, visit the site at all-americaselections.org

•••

To chat with local gardeners, share tips, pics, discuss seeds, see Grand Gardeners on Facebook.