December's Mystery Plant

Who am I?

  Hopefully someday I have prizes for the winners, but until then you just get to show off your superior plant geek knowledge!

Green Heuchera

Heuchera 'Sashay'

Who wants a green Heuchera?  Well, I do for one.  While Heucheras are great for adding color to gardens, they also add foliage texture and contrast.  They also make great filler around accent plants where you might be looking for green space so you don't detract from a specimen plant.  Or in some cases, they might be the specimen plant, or they might echo color of the specimen plant. 



H. 'Bressingham Hybrids'

Heuchera 'Bressingham Hybrids' is a seed strain from the 'Brizoides' group with lots of variability.  In theory.  Usually the ones I see are green with pink or red flowers.  Mine is green with bright pink flowers, and identical to all of its siblings in the group I bought it from.  It's been a great performer, maxing out at 10" tall x 30" wide. 

H. villosa 'Autumn Bride' is a great variety for foliage texture.  It has huge fuzzy light green leaves, and is a fairly large plant.  Mine hit 18" tall x 30" wide, white flowers were easily to 24" but I usually break them off.  They're a little unruly for me.  This one has also self seeded for me in the past, but isn't a pest. 



Heuchera 'Sashay'

H. 'Sashay' is a great variety for texture.  It's a dense mound of ruffled foliage that stays fairly compact.  Mine is about 8" tall x 10" wide right now.  I expect eventually it will be 10" x 15".  Foliage is green on the top and burgundy beneath.  The undersides show at the margins where the leaf curls up.  This one is pretty distinct.  H. villosa and H. micrantha are in the background.

H. 'Malachite' is a new variety for 2011 that has a nice mid-green color and ruffled foliage.  I saw this at a trade show this summer, and I think it's quite nice.  Lots of potential for use as a container plant!

H. 'Apple Crisp' is another new one that's hitting the scene in 2011.  This one is even more dissected and ruffled than 'Sashay' or 'Malachite'.  This one is a nice grass-green with silver overlay.  Not sure of the background of this one, I would guess H. micrantha and H. americana.

Heuchera 'Green Spice'

H. 'Mint Frost' is a nice minty green variety with silver overlay.  This one picks up nice plum tones for the winter as well.  White flowers on 15" stalks.  This one has been a little slow growing, but is worth the wait for its nice foliage color.  H. americana is in the background.



H. 'Green Spice' is one of my favorites.  This fantastic beauty has green leaves with a silver overlay and red veins.  Great fall and winter color as well, generally red to burgundy for me, but may have orange as well.  Dense mound to 10" x 18" over time.  White flowers.  This one is a selection of H. americana.

 

Another selection of H. americana, 'Marvelous Marble' is a seed strain that is similar to 'Green Spice' but has far more red and less silver. 

This is a new one for 2011.



Heuchera 'Green Spice'

There are a number of other fantastic selections with green foliage, many with beautiful flowers: 'Dale's Strain', 'Paris', 'Chatterbox', 'Strawberry Candy', 'Lipstick', 'Mint Julep', 'Paris', 'Peppermint Spice' and more.  Many of these can't be beat for flower effect. 

Next time you see some green Heuchera for sale, take a closer look.  I'm sure there's a spot in the garden for at least one of these!

Hypericum androsaemum 'Albury Purple'

'Albury Purple' is a nice form of St. Johnswort that is generally grown for its purple-tinged summer foliage and yellow flowers.  It is much more purple on the new growth, turning more green as the summer progresses.  Seed pods start out a beautiful shiny black and change to gray.  One thing I hadn't read about before planting was the fantastic dark purple fall color.  It holds its color well into the fall, and still looks great in my garden.

While Hypericum androsaemum 'Albury Purple'

is a woody shrub in zones 6 and above, it is root hardy to at least zone 5.  For me it dies back mostly to the ground in the winter, and returns in the spring.  It has been a little bit slower to establish than most of the other plants in my garden, but is growing fairly well now.  I have it growing in full sun for the best color, but H. androsaemum is reportedly quite shade tolerant.  Hypericum species in general appreciate well drained soils, but I haven't had any problems with growing a number of them in clay-loam.  As long as the soil isn't too wet in the winter, 'Albury Purple' seems fairly adaptable.

Gentiana scabra 'Zuki Rindo'

Nobody even wants to GUESS at the mystery plant?  Well, it's an incredibly beautiful fall bloomer that everyone needs to go out and buy.  Gentiana scabra 'Zuki Rindo'.  There are many great gentians out there, also check out G. septemfida var. lagodechiana, G. 'True Blue', G. clausa, or G. 'Blue Cross'.  All make great garden plants for partial sun and orgainic rich soil with consistent moisture. 

Grasses



RtoL: Panicum 'Shenandoah', Miscanthus 'Malepartus', Calamagrostis 'Brachytricha' and Calamagrostis 'Avalanche'



The incredible rise in popularity of ornamental grasses has been no surprise.  They offer forms and textures that are hard to accomplish when just using other herbaceous or woody plants.  Grasses provide interest during the fall and winter season as the rest of the garden is winding down. 

Most of the grasses we grow in our gardens are warm-season grasses.  They prefer warm temperatures, and often come up fairly late.  I've found the best time to plant them is early June.  Planting earlier is ok, but there isn't much advantage since they don't grow much when the temps are cooler.  Planting late in the fall can be even more problematic, the cooler temperatures in fall slows the grasses down and signals dormancy.  They don't have enough time to establish a root system before winter, and often frost-heave out of the ground or die altogether.  This is especially true for grasses such as Miscanthus sinensis, which often times when planted too late in the season can be pulled out with no effort in the spring after they've died. 

Some grasses are cool-season grasses and can be planted in early spring or fall.  The various Calamagrostis varieties fall under this group, and represent the most popular of the cool-season grasses.  Festuca, Chasmanthium, Koelaria, Molina, and some Carex (I know, they're sedges not grasses) species also fall under this group.

I don't have a favorite, but I do like some better than others.  Calamagrostis 'Brachytricha', Panicum 'Northwind', Chasmanthium latifolium, Hakonechloa macra (all varieties), Sporobolus heterolepis, Schizachyrium scoparium,  Koeleria glauca 'Blue Sprite', Miscanthus sinensis, and Andropogon gerardii.







Calamagrostis 'Brachytricha'

 






Panicum 'Northwind'

 


Miscanthus 'Silberfeder'

 



Chasmanthium 'River Mist'

Whatzat?

Here's this month's mystery plant.  Any guesses?

Who am I?

What a beauty!(berry)

Beautyberry is an often overlooked plant at the garden center all season.  It's just a green bush most of the season.  You might notice some minuscule pink flowers in late July to August if you pay attention when you're standing or working next to it, but they certainly don't stand out.  As soon as mid-September hits, those flowers have turned to berries that quickly mature to a beautiful amethyst color.  There's nothing quite like it for fall fruit effect. 

There are a number of Callicarpa species (over 40) but only 4 are readily available.  The best species for us in the north is C. dichotoma, which is also becoming the most readily available.  The cultivars 'Issai' and 'Early Amethyst' are readily available to gardeners and have both performed well in zone 5.  In my gardens they reach 4' or less with a nice arching habit, and die back to the ground each winter.  There is also a white-fruiting form, 'Albofructa', and a selection which leafs out gold and changes green with the obvious name 'Spring Gold'; neither of which I have seen. 

C. japonica will also possibly grow in the north similarly to C. dichotoma.  There is a fantastic variegated selection that I will growing next season.  Similar size, habit, and hardiness to C. dichotoma.  C. japonica also dies back to the ground.

C. americana is the only US species I can find information on.  This one is less hardy, to zone 6, and I have not tried it.  I'm all for native plants though, and will give it a try some day.

C. bodnieri is represented in the trade by the variety 'Profusion'.  Though some attribute this variety to C. giraldii.  Either way it is also listed as zone 6 and I would like to give it a try some time.  This variety has larger leaves than the others, and great fruit set.  (another obvious name)

Give a beautyberry a spot in your garden, it's a great choice if you want to move beyone viburnums and crabapples for fall fruit effect.

C. dichotoma 'Issai' with Penstemon 'Dark Towers'