Augusta Lavender tops ’22 list
Heliotrope that can perform over a long, hot summer is a must-have for spring
If someone had told me that there was a heliotrope that could hang with a lantana over a long, hot and wet summer, I would have said sure, when pigs fly. Well, clear Runway One because Augusta Lavender is arriving for spring 2022.
I am writing this as much for the greenhouse grower as the home gardener; this plant is a winner and put it in production plans ASAP. As a gardener in the South, it has been a dream to have a heliotrope that could perform over a long hot summer and not disappear by June 15.
When it was suggested that I put these in The Garden Guy’s trial, I quickly responded that heliotropes were basically losers in the South. You know: too hot, too humid and every heliotrope I had ever tried perished as if it encountered a flame thrower.
Augusta Lavender is like none you have ever tried. I’ll happily go with the name lavender, but to be honest, blue or sky blue would have worked too. But this isn’t the only color you will see as each little floret has a center that is orange to deep yellow. You’ve got your own complementary color scheme in each flower.
There is a good chance you aren’t familiar with heliotropes. Botanically speaking, they are in the borage or forget-me-not family, and if you looked at the long list of genera or family members, I doubt all but the ardent botanist could recognize more than five. But don’t let that throw you, I assure you this will be a new plant for your pollinator arsenal.
If visiting pollinators don’t float your boat, then just look at it as a great lavender plant that reaches 24 inches tall with a 36-inch spread. It kind of looks like a lantana and is tough-as-nails so you can go golf while the nerds like me are shooting photos and shouting the names of butterflies we see feeding on the blossoms.
Like I tend to do, I simply went with color partnerships with my trial plants. Don’t forget I was expecting them to die. I planted Augusta Lavender with Color Coded Orange You Awesome echinacea and Luscious Marmalade lantana in another area that was close. They were also combined with Vermillionaire cuphea. You can see how in my eyes I was seeing the blue hues in the lavender. I’ll admit I could not have picked better combos from my standpoint.
Young’s Plant Farms in Auburn, Alabama, also had some beautiful combinations in their 2021 Annual Trial Garden Tour. They used August Lavender, Truffula Pink gomphrena and the new 2022 Luscious Citron lantana. Then they went vertical with the white climbing Thunbergia Coconut A Peel. This look was picture-perfect too.
Augusta Lavender heliotrope, a hybrid with South American DNA, has been everything I could have wanted. It is expected to be an annual north of zone 9, meaning it should not return in my zone 8a garden. You can bet I’ll be
watching, and if indeed it doesn’t return, you can bet I’ll be replanting in the spring. Everyone needs Augusta Lavender.
It has continually brought in a variety of bees, skipper butterflies and the big boys, too, like eastern tiger swallowtails and the treasured pipevine swallowtails. You’ll have to take my word on it, hummingbirds have paid regular visits too.
I hinted at this above, but this is such a great plant you may want to alert your hometown garden
center now that you’ll be looking for it in the spring. They may not know about Augusta Lavender heliotrope and your request may help. Next year looks so exciting and a great time to be a gardener.
Norman Winter, horticulturist, garden speaker and author of “Tough-as-Nails Flowers for the South” and “Captivating Combinations: Color and Style in the Garden.” He receives complimentary plants to review from the companies he covers.