New year, new plants
Plant association awards give gardeners much to be excited
about in the wait for spring
January 7, 2017
By Colleen Zacharias
Proven Winners
Brighten up a shady area of your garden with Golden Treasure dwarf birch, which retains its
colour in the shade.
Announcements of new plant introductions
cascade down upon us at this time of year like
flower petals blown by the wind. It’s an
exhilarating feeling for gardeners — even for
those who are required to dream a little longer
while waiting for winter to be over.
Rotary Gardens
The Perennial Plant Association's
2017 perennial of the year is
Asclepias tuberosa, a butterfly
weed that is sure to attract
pollinators to your garden.
Rarely is the first consideration that we have
run out of space in our gardens for more
plants. An embarrassment of riches can often
be accommodated in a container display or by
dispensing with more of your lawn (which, after
all, takes up valuable space that could be
better served).
This year, as our country celebrates its 150th
birthday, it seems reasonable to predict that
demand by homeowners for the new Canadian
Shield rose could exceed supply.
Named as the flower of the year by Canada
Blooms (who are hosting their 21st annual flower
and garden show in Toronto, March 10-19), this
made-in-Canada rose is the first of a series of
roses called Vineland’s 49th Parallel Collection,
marketed by Ontario’s Vineland Research and
Innovation Centre in Ontario.
Vineland and Research and
Innovation Centre
Celebrate Canada's 150th
birthday with the Canadian
Shield rose, named flower of
the year by Canada Blooms.
Proven Winners
Celtic Pride Siberian cypress has
superior cold hardiness and is
shade tolerant.
Manitobans, however, can trace the lineage of this
stellar new rose to the legendary rose breeding
program that was once the mainstay of Morden
Research Station.
A richly scarlet coloured floribunda with as many
as 50 petals, Canadian Shield was developed in
Morden in 2001 by acclaimed rose breeder Larry
Dyck. In 2009, the Canadian Nursery and
Landscape Association (CNLA) acquired the rights
to the rose germplasm at Morden and in 2012, in
partnership with Vineland, planted Canadian
Shield in Vineland’s field in 2012.
Michel Touchette, sales manager at Jeffries
Nurseries in Portage la Prairie, and a member of
a consortium of rose growers that work under the
umbrella of the CNLA, says that Canadian Shield
has been released by Vineland to coincide with
Canada’s 150th birthday.
It is a vigorous, cold hardy rose (zone 3b) with
repeat blooming qualities and striking, glossy
foliage.
Importantly, Touchette adds, the Canadian Shield rose has demonstrated in field
trials that it has the preferred traits of high resistance to black spot and powdery
mildew. With a mature height of 1.5 metres and a mature width of 1.25 metres,
this new rose introduction is no shrinking violet, either.
Each year since 1990, the Perennial Plant Association
(PPA) names the Perennial Plant of the Year (PPOY).
Headquartered in Ohio, the PPA is composed of seven
regions, including Canada.
Chosen for their outstanding qualities, many past PPOY
selections have become garden staples, such as the
now-ubiquitous Karl Foerster feather reed grass (winner
in 2001) or Palace Purple coralbells (1991).
At the same time, previous varieties — including the
2005 selection, Lenten Rose helleborus, and the 2015
selection, Biokovo geranium — failed to captivate a
large number of local gardeners, if only because of a
general lack of zone hardiness and overall dowdiness,
respectively.
Ed Lyons
Hefty, but not overly
large, Brother Stefan
hosta is the 2017 Hosta
of the Year according to
the American Hosta
Growers Association.
It comes as no surprise, given some of the dire
circumstances facing our native pollinators, that
Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly weed) has been named the
2017 Perennial Plant of the Year.
This low-maintenance, zone 3 perennial is native to
North America and produces an abundance of pollen and
nectar for visiting Monarch butterflies, hummingbirds and bees. Flat-topped clusters
with up-facing, tangerine orange five-petalled florets have a long bloom period
throughout the summer.
An excellent cut flower, this perennial is a modest 60 centimetres tall and wide.
The rough surface of the deep green, lance-shaped foliage and the narrow seed
pods that develop after flowering adds to this handsome plant’s landscape appeal.
Place butterfly weed in full sun. For an energetic colour scheme, combine it with red
and yellow.
Another much-anticipated announcement is made yearly by the American Hosta
Growers Association (AHGA), which established the AHGA Hosta of the Year in
1996. Brother Stefan hosta, developed by hybridizer Olga Petryszyn, has been
named 2017 Hosta of the Year.
In comparison with last year’s selection, Curly Fries (a miniscule 15-cm tall hosta
with skinny, rippled leaves), Brother Stefan boasts voluptuous, heavily corrugated
leaves and grows to a height of 55 cm and a whopping width of 88 cm.
Cindy Deutekom owns Goldenbrook Hostas, a specialty hosta nursery in Blackstock,
Ont. Deutekom describes Brother Stefan as a tri-coloured hosta with a chartreuse
maple leaf pattern in the centre and margins that are deep green. She recommends
pairing it with a medium to large solid yellow hosta variety such as Sunpower,
Golden Friendship or Cup of Joy, or combining it with a solid dark green hosta such
as Lakeside Ripples, Lakeside Surf Rider or Clear Fork River Valley.
"Definitely look for more red petioles and wavy, ruffled edges in new hosta
introductions in the coming year as smaller-tissue culture labs produce a greater
variety of hostas from up-and-coming hybridizers," Deutekom says.
The Pantone Color Institute, based in Carlstadt, N.J., and recognized as the
worldwide authority on colour, has announced that its colour of the year for 2017 is
Greenery.
Citing a "tumultuous social and political environment", the choice of greenery is
meant to symbolize the reconnection that we seek with nature and one another.
Gardeners, of course, have always known the restorative power of greenery,
associating it with the arrival of spring and a sense of renewal.
Jan Pedersen, sales representative with Bylands Nurseries, suggests adding
greenery to the landscape with a plant selection that offers a range of textural
qualities.
Golden Treasure dwarf birch (60-120 cm tall) is a great plant to consider for moist
areas, Pedersen says. In addition, it maintains its unique golden chartreuse colour
in part shade and is useful for brightening up a dark corner of the garden.
The new growth appears in shades of yellow, red and orange. Golden Treasure’s
miniature leaves resemble that of a true birch. Notably, Golden Treasure can be
pruned readily into a small hedge.
Microbiota decussata, commonly called Siberian cypress, is perhaps not the
catchiest name, but Pedersen says that there are two varieties — Celtic Pride and
Fuzzball — that are garnering favourable attention for their unique russet-plum
colour in winter and superior disease resistance.
Rodney Wohlgemuth, owner of Green Oak Gardens Greenhouse and Nursery in
Beausejour makes effective use of microbiota decussata in his home garden.
"Cypress has a very soft texture in comparison to junipers," says Wohlgemuth, who
adds it is also more shade tolerant.
Celtic Pride is low-growing, with a height of 30-90 cm and a spread of 120-150 cm.
Fuzzball has more of a vase shape and is a similar size, although slightly smaller.
As its name implies, it has fuzzy, green foliage, which changes to a purplish–brown
in winter. Interestingly, both Celtic Pride and Fuzzball have adapted to the extreme
climate of the boreal forest and are exceptionally cold-tolerant.
This spring, Pedersen says, look for Koralle lingonberry, another plant that is native
to the boreal forest.
Grown in some parts of northern Manitoba, lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) likes
protection from direct sunlight.
Grow lingonberry in an area of the garden that receives bright, dappled light,
Pedersen suggests.
Highly ornamental, this deliciously small groundcover (20-30 cm in height) has
dainty, pink flowers in spring followed by brilliantly red, edible berries with a tartyet-pleasing flavour. Lingonberry’s paddle-shaped leaves are glossy green and have
smooth edges.
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