2013 Plants of the Year

 

**UPDATED**

The votes have been counted. The red carpet is ready. No, it’s not the Oscars, the Emmys or even the technical award for the most convincing use of groundcover in a science fiction movie.  No, this is much bigger – the 2013 Plants of the Year.

 

These are the best of the best. They're tough, reliable and easy to grow. You can keep your debutantes – those new plants introduced into polite gardening society this time every year. I’ll take those with a proven track record when deciding what to add to my garden this spring.

 

The 2013 honorees as selected by various organizations are listed below. Most of the plants -- especially the All-America Selections®  -- have flourished in various locations around the country.

 

Some, however, are more regional in nature. PlantSelect©, for example, focuses on the Rockies although many of its plants will do well in other areas as well. Live Oak (Quercus virginiana), chosen as the 2013 Urban Tree of the Year by the Society of Municipal Arborists, is only hardy in zones 7b-10.

 

And for those keeping score, this will be last rose of the year from the All-America Rose Selections™ as that group has disbanded.

This list is not all inclusive as some organizations will be announcing their winners before the gardening season begins in earnest. It will, however, provide some good candidates to consider in the coming months as you review what worked and what didn't in your garden during 2012.

So without further ado, the envelopes please....

 

 (A key to the various organizations and links to their Websites are at the bottom.)

 

Annuals
 

Canna 'South Pacific Scarlet'
Photo courtesy of All-America Selections®

Canna ‘South Pacific Scarlet’ (Canna generalis) – AAS Flower Award
Cheyenne Spirit Cone flower (Echinacea hybrida)-- AAS Flower Award
Geranium ‘Pinto™ Premium White to Rose’ – AAS Bedding Plant Award
Bubblegum Supertunia Vista (Petunia ‘Ustuni6001’) -- POM
Silver Shield plectranthus (Plectranthus argentatus ‘Silver Shield’) -- POM
Snow Princess sweet alyssum (Lobularia ‘Inlbusnopr’) – POM

 

Edibles



'Melemon' Melon, 2013 AAS® Vegetable Award
Photo courtesy of All-America Selections®

Melon ‘Melemon’ F1 -- AAS Vegetable Award
Cherry Tomato ‘Jasper’ F1 -- AAS Vegetable Award
Watermelon ‘Harvest Moon’ F1 – AAS Vegetable Award





Clove currant
Photo courtesy of Missouri Botanical Garden

Clove currant (Ribes odoratum) -- POM

Malabar spinach (Basella rubra ‘Red Stem’) – POM

Starkspur® Arkansas Black dwarf apple (Malus pumila ‘Lonacre’) – POM

 

Perennials
 

Variegated Solomon's Seal
Photo from Missouri Botanical Garden

 

The Perennial Plant of the Year™ -- Variegated Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum odoratum ‘Variegatum’) – PPA

Perennial of the Year -- Queen of the Prairie (Filipendula rubra ‘Venusta’) – GP

Chieftain Manzanita (Arctostaphylos x coloradensis ‘Chieftain’) – PS
Curly Leaf Sea Kale (Crambe maritima) – PS




Tennessee Purple Coneflower
Photo courtesy of Northscaping.com

Tennessee Purple Coneflower (Echinacea tennesseensis) – PS

Caramel Coral Bells (Heuchera ‘Caramel’) – POM
Narbonne Blue Flax (Linum narbonense) – PS
Turquoise Tails Blue Sedum (Sedum sediforme) – PS
 

Rainforest Sunrise, 2013 Hosta of the Year
Photo courtesy of AHGA member Made in the Shade Gardens

 

Hosta of the Year -- Rainforest Sunrise – AHGA

 

Grass of the Year – Blue Heaven™ Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium ‘MinnblueA’) – GP

Blue Zinger sedge (Carex glauca ‘Blue Zinger’) – POM

Palm sedge (Carex muskingumensis) – POM



Francis Meilland™ , 2013 AARS Rose of the Year
Photo from The Conard-Pyle Co.

Rose – Frances Meilland™  (Rosa 'Meitroni' PP#19970) by The Conard-Pyle Co. – All-America Rose Selections™. The first traditional hybrid tea rose to win under no-spray conditions. Also has won the ADR Award in Germany under no-spray tests.

Herb – Elderberry (Sambucus ssp.) – IHA
 

 

 

Shrubs and Vines



Spring leaf color on Redwing™ viburnum

 

Mellow Yellow® spirea (Spiraea thunbergii ‘Ogon’) – POM

Doublefile viburnum (Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum) -- POM

Redwing™ American Cranberrybush Viburnum (Viburnum trilobum ‘J.N. Select’) – GP 

Cross vine (Bignonia capreolata) -- POM

 

Trees





Flowers on Royal Raindrops™ crabapple
Photo courtesy Northscaping.com



Royal Raindrops™ crabapple (Malus ‘JFS-KW5’) – POM

Vanderwolf’s Pyramid limber pine (Pinus flexilis) – POM

Northern Pin Oak (Quercus ellipsoidalis) – GP

Chinese tree lilac (Syringa reticulata ssp. pekinensis) -- POM

Urban Tree of the Year – Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) – SMA

Conifer of the Year – Border Pine (Pinus strobiformis) – GP

**UPDATE 3/4/13**

If you're still searching for good plants, here are some additional winners that have been announced since this was originally published.

AAS has added two zinnias in its bedding plant category. They are Zinnia 'Profusion Double Deep Salmon' and Zinnia 'Profusion Double Hot Cherry.' Both get about 8-14" tall and are resistant to Alternaria and powdery mildew.

The Delaware Nursery and Landscape Association named Autumn Bride coral bells (Heuchera macrorhiza 'Autumn Bride) as its 2013 Herbaceous Plant and Gro-Low sumac (Rhus aromatica 'Gro-Low') as its 2013 Woody Plant.

The Elisabeth Carey Miller Botanical Garden in Seattle selected 29 plants for its 2013 Great Plant Picks list. Included are 13 different clematis, three geraniums and three salvias.

The Garden Club of America will honor the Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) with its Freeman Medal at the organization's centennial annual meeting May 2. An honorable metnion will go to Black gum (Nyssa sylvatica) while special recognition will go to Gopherwood (Torreya taxifolia).

 

 

AAS = All-America Selections™
 

AHGA = American Hosta Growers Association

GP = GreatPlants™ (Nebraska Arboretum and the Nebraska Nursery and Landscape Association). Hardy to zone 4.

IHA = International Herb Association

POM = Plants of Merit (Missouri Botanical Garden). Chosen for their outstanding quality and dependable performance for the lower Midwest -- Missouri, central and southern Illinois and the Kansas City metro area (Zones 5-6).

PPA = Perennial Plant Association

PS = PlantSelect© (Denver Botanic Gardens and the Colorado University Extension). Promotes the best plants for gardens from the intermountain region to the high plains.
 

SMA = Society of Municipal Arborists


By Karen Geisler

The Lurie Garden in Fall

Toad lilies in the Lurie Garden

The greens of summer have faded at the Lurie Garden in downtown Chicago, replaced by splashes of yellow, gold and various shades of brown. Yet, despite the shorter days and near-freezing temperatures at night, there's still plenty to see.

The toad lilies (Tricyrtis 'Tojen'), with their delicate spotted orchid-like flowers, are a delight. You'll also find Japanese anemones (Anemone hupehensis 'Praecox') backed by goldenrod (Solidago 'Fireworks') along the garden's easternmost edge.

And what would any respectable garden be without a few purple asters? There's the tatarian aster (Aster tartaricus 'Jindai') reaching for the skies and the much lower 'October Skies' (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium).



Asters in the Lurie Garden

Over on the other side of the boardwalk, several plants are sporadically reblooming – including the salvia that creates the garden’s famous “River” in early summer. A few coneflowers (Echinacea ssp.) can be found hiding here and there. Hyssop (Agastache rupestris) and calamint (Calamintha nepeta var. nepeta) have fewer flowers than at the height of summer but still look pretty good.

You'll also see some unusual seedheads popping up everywhere in the calamint. According to the garden's horticulturalist, Laura Ekasetya, these are bottle gentian (Gentiana andrewsii), a native Illinois prairie plant.




Bottle gentian seedheads in the calamint

Bottle gentian generally blooms a brilliant blue in late September, although it was a month early this year, she reported. This plant is unusual in that it takes seven years to go from seed to bloom. Now that the garden is in its eighth year, visitors will be seeing more bottle gentian in the future.

Of course, the garden's ornamental grasses are in their full glory, seed heads waving proudly in the wind off nearby Lake Michigan. The northern sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium) especially rustle in a stiff breeze. These will eventually come to dominate the garden during the winter, but for now they are content to bide their time.

The amount of life still left in this garden surprised me last weekend. My suburban Zone 5 garden is all but finished for the season. If I needed any reminder that downtown Chicago was switched to Zone 6 in the recent revision of the USDA's plant hardiness map, I certainly got it.
 
I have now visited and photographed this garden, designed by famed Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf and built over a parking garage, in all four seasons. It's been amazing each time. I'm always impressed by how a garden of this size and beauty is maintained with no chemicals using mostly volunteer labor. It shows no ill effects from this year's drought.

You hear a lot about sustainability these days. This garden is living proof it can be done. It gives me something to aspire to in my own, much more modest garden.

To see the Lurie Garden in other seasons, please click on one of the links below.

                             Winter                 Spring               Summer


By Karen Geisler

 




Amsonia 'Blue Ice' with Allium 'Summer Beauty' in front and common eulalia grass
 (Miscanthus sinensis 'Malepartus) at left back.



Arkansas bluestar




Northern sea oats



Japanese anemones with goldenrod in the background



Mixing Bulbs and Perennials

 

Bulbs and perennials can be a lot like brothers and sisters.

You love them both but they don’t always play well together.

Spring bulbs always insist on going to the head of the line and can stifle the younger, impressionable plants. Perennials, on the other hand, are quick to throw a tantrum when they are stuck with the ugly, dying foliage that bulbs leave behind. What’s a gardener to do?

There's lots of information out there about combining either bulbs or perennials. Mixing the two together, however, not so much.

I’m especially interested in the topic because I need to revamp several of my garden beds this fall. That's partly due to the drought, but also because my tulips are close to the end of their useful lives.

With bulbs due in the stores any day now and catalogs already in my mailbox, I decided it was time to re-examine the way I use them with perennials.

In the past, I've had mixed results combining daffodils and daylilies. I've also occasionally planted bulbs near hostas and ferns. Both of these latter two plants, though, require shade which is a rare commodity in my young garden.

There must be a better way.

Much of the information I found was extremely general, suggesting that you plant bulbs behind perennials that will emerge later. That unfortunately doesn't always work. Often, the perennial partner is either too fast or too slow, too early or too late. The combination pictured at the top -- pink tulips with  Early Bird catmint (Nepeta 'Early Bird') in front and Little Grapette' daylily (Hemerocallis 'Little Grapette') at right -- is one that doesn't quite work in my garden for those reasons.

The National Gardening Association has a few suggestions. You're out of luck though if your bulb aspirations go beyond flowering onions (Allium), spider lily (Lycoris) or purple and lavender tulips.

 

The late, great British plantsman Christopher Lloyd, in his book Succession Planting for Year-Round Pleasure, had many suggestions in a chapter devoted to perennials and bulbs that share the same space.

 

"You need to consider the habit and vigour of both the protagonist and its partner(s)," he wrote."What you must never use in any part of a mixed border are broad-leaved daffodils, but I constantly see this mistake being made. They are far too aggressive...."

One of his combinations that lasts for several months: Narcissus ‘Dove Wings,’ a Triandrus type of daffodil, plus Hemerocallis ‘Marion Vaughn’ and Phlox paniculata.

Alas, many of the plants he mentioned won't grow in my Zone 5 garden. He did, however, pair bulbs with plants that bloom later in the season. I especially think that his suggestion of Allium cristophii and Japanese anemones would work well.

Online, there are some other interesting combinations on an industry-sponsored Website, www.digdropdone.com.  (Just ignore the female stereotypes, which garnered a lot of criticism when the site went live last spring.)

About a third of its suggested pairings, though, can also be found on a more extensive site, www.hort.cornell.edu/combos. That site includes a number of mixtures tested by the Cornell University's Department of Horticulture. It includes pictures of each combination in various stages of growth.



Hyacinth 'Jan Bos' with Penstemon 'Husker Red'
Photo used with permission of Cornell University Department of Horticulture

Suggested pairings cover tulips, narcissus, crocus and miscellaneous bulbs. I especially like the combination of Hyacinth ‘Jan Bos’ with Penstemon ‘Husker Red.” The red foliage of the Penstemon complements the flowers nicely.



Tulip Ballade with Geranium 'Mayflower'
Photo used with permission of Cornell University Department of Horticulture

Tulip Ballade with Geranium 'Mayflower' also may get a trial run next spring in my garden. I love geraniums in general, but hadn't thought about pairing them with tulips before.

In any event, I still have plenty of time to do some planning. The drought is still hanging on and the ground temperature has a long way to go until it falls to the 55-degree mark preferred for bulb planting.

My goal is a simple one: peace in the garden next spring, with everything working together like one big, happy -- and beautiful -- family.

By Karen Geisler