Want Some New Blooms for 2017? 

Check out some of these beautiful, award winning perennials!

Best New Perennial Flowers of 2017

Article Courtesy of George Weigel-  http://georgeweigel.net

A showy new ornamental grass, a new dark-leafed succulent, and new disease-resistant phlox and beebalms headline the list of perennial flowers debuting in 2017.

Let’s take a look at some the best of the best of these perennial newcomers showing up now in catalogs and primed to go on sale in garden centers this spring:

Japanese forest grass SunFlare
Credit: HarkAway Botanicals

Japanese forest grass SunFlare

Pennsylvania author and “perennial diva” Stephanie Cohen is a fan of the basic, compact, arching, shade-preferring Japanese forest grass (a.k.a. Hakone grass), but she’s particularly enamored by an even more compact and colorful variety called SunFlare coming to garden centers by fall 2017.

“It starts out with a colorful, showy chartreuse that blends well with other perennials,” Cohen says. “The morning sun makes the leaves glow a golden yellow with deep crimson flecks in the blades. But this little grass has one more trick up its sleeve. The chartreuse and gold mingle, and its fall flare bursts into a rainbow of color with a simmering burnt-orange and one of my favorite fall colors, burgundy-red.”

SunFlare grows 12 to 18 inches tall and does best in well-drained soil (no wet clay), ideally in morning sun and afternoon shade. Cohen also likes it for use in a container. It’s being introduced by Canada’s HarkAway Botanicals.

Sedum ‘Firecracker’

Fans of dark foliage will love this new drought-tough, succulent groundcover for hot, sunny spots.

“I love the foliage saturation of purple,” says Erica Shaffer, manager at Highland Gardens in Lower Allen Twp., which plans to carry ‘Firecracker’ this spring. “I can never have enough purple in my garden.”

Introduced by Michigan’s Perennial Resources, ‘Firecracker’ plants grow only about 6 inches tall in a dense, tight mound that doesn’t flop apart like some sedums.

Small pink flowers in late summer are a bonus.

Foamybells Fun and Games

For afternoon-shade garden beds, check out this new three-version series of foamybells (Heucherella) that rate as the favorite new perennial of Carleen Vorisek, the perennial manager at Ashcombe Farm and Greenhouses in Monroe Twp.

Vorisek especially likes the colorful, deeply lobed foliage of the ‘Red Rover’ variety. “This plant stays green in summer but changes to a copper-red color in the fall,” she says.

Foamybells Leapfrog, left, and Red Rover
Credit: Proven Winners

‘Leapfrog’ has wider chartreuse leaves with burgundy markings (“mellowing” to green and purple by summer), while ‘Hopscotch’ has leaves that emerge red in spring, soften to green in summer, then turn bronze-red in fall.

All three varieties grow 10 to 12 inches tall with creamy white bottlebrush flowers in May. All also are coralbell/foamflower hybrids of U.S. native perennials.

Anemone Wild Swan

Breeders keep trying to extend the bloom time of perennials. This Scottish hybrid is one of the longest yet, producing its white petals with the unusual soft-lavender back sides nearly non-stop from June through October.

I saw Wild Swan in plantsman David Wilson’s Lower Paxton Twp. garden last summer, and it was happily blooming away in July’s dry heat.

Anemone Wild Swan

The plant is related to the better known Japanese anemone that blooms in early fall, but this one blooms much earlier (as well as longer) and is more compact at 18 to 20 inches tall. Anemone Dreaming Swan is also new and very similar.

These anemones are sterile and so don’t seed around. (Best in morning sun, afternoon shade.)

Liriope Purple Explosion

Liriope is a grass-like, workhouse perennial that’s usually used as a groundcover for its versatility and hard-to-kill reputation.

Purple Explosion is a new variety that turns the corner on liriope to make it an attractive bloomer, worthy of ornamental use alongside the coneflowers, lavenders and salvias of the garden.

The variety not only produces significantly more purple flower spikes than older liriopes, but it produces them earlier, longer and on stems that poke up more prominently above the bladed green foliage.

Plants grow 10 to 12 inches tall, and clumps spread slowly – no over-aggressive “runners” as some liriopes produce. (Full sun to part shade.)

Yarrow New Vintage series

Yarrow New Vintage Red, left, and Violet
Credit: Penn State Trial Gardens

This four-color series of heat- and drought-tough yarrows from Darwin Perennials was one of the best-performing perennials of any kind in the 2016 Penn State Trial Gardens in Lancaster County.

The Red and Violet colors did particularly well in 2016’s hot summer, earning nearly perfect scores from trial Director Sinclair Adam.

New Vintage plants grow to a compact 12 to 14 inches tall. They bloom for weeks in late spring, then rebloom nicely in late summer, especially if you cut spent flower stalks back to the ground after the first bloom fades. (Best in full sun.)

Phlox Fashionably Early series

Amanda Bastiaanse, a perennials grower at wholesale Quality Greenhouses near Dillsburg, likes this new four-color line of early-flowering, disease-resistant, native tall garden phlox introduced by Michigan’s Walters Gardens.

“Old-fashioned garden phlox, while they have beautiful flowers, tend to have a short bloom time and are prone to all kinds of fungal diseases that make them look ugly much of the season,” says Bastiaanse. “Many of the new hybrid phlox that we have grown in the last couple years, including the Fashionably Early series, are really great improvements in terms of the length of time they flower and disease resistance. These bloom a little earlier, too.”

The Fashionably Early series includes ‘Princess’ (fuchsia pink), ‘Flamingo’ (lavender pink), ‘Crystal’ (white), and ‘Lavender Ice’ (lavender with a pink eye). Plants grow 28 to 36 inches tall and perform best in full sun.

Coneflower Butterfly ‘Postman’

Coneflower Butterfly Postman
Credit: Plants Nouveau

This new heat- and drought-tough U.S. native offers both a short, 18-inch size and bright-red blooms as opposed to the traditional lavender-pink of coneflowers.

“Fiery red flowers and a contrasting brown cone make for a lovely combination in this compact, long-blooming addition to the Butterfly series,” says Angela Treadwell-Palmer, co-owner of Plants Nouveau, which is introducing the plant. “It’s a true red with slightly dropping petals. ‘Postman’ stands out in any planting like a red-lighted beacon.”

Treadwell-Palmer says it looks especially nice with blue ornamental grasses, white- and orange-flowered perennials and coarsely textured leaves like ‘Black Ripple’ elephant ear. Best in full sun.

Monarda Bee-You series

Treadwell-Palmer also likes this new pollinator-friendly line of beebalms with the excellent disease resistance, compact 18- to 24-inch size, and range of five colors.

“These new beebalms are mildew-free, covered in flowers, the perfect size, and available in colors to bring any outdoor space to life,” she says. “Bees, butterflies and hummingbirds can’t resist their sweet nectar and fragrance.”

Monarda BeeTrue
Credit: Plants Nouveau

Varieties include ‘Bee-Merry’ (coral pink), ‘Bee-Free’ (maroon), ‘Bee-Happy’ (red), ‘Bee-Lieve’ (pale pink), and ‘Bee-True’ (purple). Best in full sun.

Lamium Purple Chablis

Ashcombe’s Vorisek suggests this Proven Winners newcomer as a colorful groundcover in shady to partly shaded areas.

She says lamium Purple Chablis has “silver-green foliage that’s attractive all during the growing season. The purple flowers add flare.”

Plants grow only 10 to 12 inches tall and bloom a long time, starting in late spring and running most of the way through summer.

“It would be a great option for shade perennial containers, too,” Vorisek adds.

Purple Chablis is heat- and drought-tough, isn’t bothered by deer, and tolerant of nearly full sun as well as nearly full shade.

Rudbeckia American Gold Rush

The black-eyed susan variety ‘Goldsturm’ is one of America’s best-sellers, but it’s increasingly troubled by a septoria leaf-spot disease that blackens its leaves many years in late summer.

American Gold Rush is a new rudbeckia variety from Illinois’ Intrinsic Perennials with much narrower leaves and far better disease resistance. It’s also debuting as an HGTV brand under the name Everlasting Sun.

American Gold Rush plants bloom just as heavily as ‘Goldsturm’ with 3-inch golden, daisy-like flowers that produce over about 2 months from mid to late summer. Plant height is just under 2 feet. (Best in full sun.)

Ligularia King Kong
Credit: Walters Gardens

Ligularia ‘King Kong’

If you like both dark leaves and very big ones, you’ll hit the double jackpot with ‘King Kong,’ a hefty new shade-preferring perennial introduced by Michigan’s Walters Gardens.

‘King Kong’ is similar to an existing head-turner called ‘Britt-Marie Crawford,’ except this one’s leaves are nearly twice as big – checking in around 16 inches across. They’re also leathery and nearly black.

Plants grow about 3 feet tall, produce a few stalks topped with golden flowers in summer, and do best in damp soil and afternoon shade.

Read Best New Fruits and Vegetables of 2017

Read Best New Annual Flowers of 2017

Read Best New Trees and Shrubs of 2017

Peony-One of the Most Beloved Flowers

Peonies are outrageously beautiful in bloom, with lush foliage all summer long. These perennials may live longer than you do—some have been known to thrive for 100 years. The plants require little maintenance as long as they are planted properly and establish themselves; they do not respond well to transplanting.

Peonies take your breath away every spring. They’re hardy to Zone 3 and grow well as far south as Zones 7 and 8. In most of the country, the rules for success are simply full sun and well-drained soil. Peonies even relish cold winters, because they need chilling for bud formation.

Peonies make fine sentinels lining walkways and a lovely low hedge. After its stunning bloom, the peony’s bushy clump of handsome glossy green leaves lasts all summer, and then turns purplish or gold in the fall, as stately and dignified as any shrub.

In mixed borders, peonies bloom with columbines, baptisias, and veronicas, and combine well with irises and roses. Plant white peonies with yellow irises and a froth of forget-me-nots; set off pink peonies with blue Nepeta or violets.

Planting

• Grow peonies in deep, fertile, humus-rich, moist soil that drains well.  Soil pH should be neutral.
• The soil will benefit from the addition of organic material in the planting hole. If the soil is heavy or very sandy, enrich it with compost. Incorporate about 1 cup of bonemeal into the soil. Tamp soil firmly.
• Peonies are not fussy but choose your location wisely as they resent disturbance. Provide shelter from strong winds. Plant away from trees or shrubs as peonies don’t like to compete for food and moisture. Space them three to four feet apart for good air circulation.
• Peonies like full sun, and though they can manage with half a day, they bloom best in a sunny spot.
• Peonies are usually sold as bare-root tubers with three to five eyes, divisions of a three- or four-year-old plant.
• Plant peonies in the fall: in late September and October in most of the country, and even later in the South. (If you must move an established plant, this is the time.)
• Peonies should be settled into place before the first hard frost. Spring-planted peonies just don’t do as well, experts agree; they generally lag about a year behind those planted in the fall.
• Dig a generous-sized hole, about two feet deep and two feet across in well-drained soil in a sunny spot. If the soil is heavy or very sandy, enrich it with compost. Incorporate about one cup of bonemeal into the soil. Tamp it firmly.
• Set the root so the eyes face upward on top of the firmed soil, placing the root just 2 inches below the soil surface. (In southern states, choose early-blooming varieties, plant them about an inch deep, and provide some shade.)
• Then backfill the hole, taking care that the soil doesn’t settle and bury the root deeper than 2 inches.
• Water thoroughly.

Tip: Don’t plant too deep! In most of the country, the peony’s eyes (buds) should be no deeper than 1-½ to 2 inches below the soil line!

Care

Like children, young peonies take time to develop. They usually need a few years to establish themselves, bloom, and grow.

Peonies thrive on benign neglect. Unlike most perennials, they don’t need to be dug and divided.

• Spare the fertilizer. Work the soil well before you plant, mixing in a little fertilizer, and that should be enough.
• If your soil is poor, the time to apply fertilizer (bonemeal, compost, or well-rotted manure) is early summer, after the peonies have bloomed and you have deadheaded. Don’t fertilizer more than every few years.
• Help the stems. If peonies have any structural weakness, it is their stems, which are sometimes not strong enough to support their gigantic blossoms. Consider three-legged metal peony rings that allow the plant to grow through the center of the rings.
• Deadhead peony blossoms as soon as they begin to fade, cutting to a strong leaf so that the stem doesn’t stick out of the foliage. Cut the foliage to the ground in the fall to avoid any overwintering disease.
• Don’t smother peonies with mulch. Where cold temperatures are severe, for the first winter after planting you can mulch VERY loosely with pine needles or shredded bark. Remove mulch in the spring.

Pests/Diseases

Peonies are generally very hardy. They are prone to Verticillium wilt, ringspot virus, tip blight, stem rot, Botrytis blight, left blotch, Japanese beetle, and nematodes.

Many gardeners wonder why so many ants crawl on the peony buds. They are eating nectar in exchange for attacking bud-eating pests. Never spray the ants; they’re helping you nurture peonies to bloom.

Tip: Peonies make wonderful cut flowers, lasting more than a week. For best results, cut long stems when the buds are still fairly tight.

Article Courtesy of The Farmers Almanac

All You Need to Know About Endless Summer Hydrangeas....

Planting Hydrangeas

Endless Summer® Hydrangeas is a collection of Hydrangea macrophylla perennial shrubs that have
the unique ability to re-bloom throughout the spring and summer months, giving more color and
visual appeal to your garden for a longer period of time. Endless Summer hydrangea are known to bloom 10 to 12 weeks longer than average Hydrangea macrophylla plants and show well in colder climates since they are able to bloom on the current season’s new growth. Here are some basic guidelines to follow that will teach you how to grow hydrangeas:

When determining where to plant your Endless Summer hydrangeas, take a walk through your yard and make note of existing garden plants, spacing availability, areas that need splashes of color and amount of sun. We recommend planting your hydrangeas in a location that allows for full morning sun with dappled shade in the afternoon. The further south you live, the less tolerant the plants are to the intense sun. Allow for 2-3 hours of morning sun with afternoon dappled or part shade.

Soil Preparation

Other than climate, soil is the most important aspect of growing these plants that is naturally occurring. Making sure that your soil is properly prepared will hugely affect your overall plant health and bloom production. To begin, you have to determine what type of soil you have. Ask your local nursery for a soil test kit. Another home test is called the “Jar Test”. Dig down 4” and remove ¼ cup of your soil. Place that soil, along with 2 cups of water and a couple drops of dishwashing detergent, in a clear jar or plastic bottle. Shake the jar for approximately one minute and then let the contents settle for approximately 24 hours. The bottom layer to settle out is sand, with the next layer silt and the top layer (which may look like yellow-brown, red or tan water) being clay.

    Sand: Sandy soil is determined if your jar is over half sand.

    Silt: If you have very little clay and over half silt, you have heavy silt.

    Clay: If you have ¼ clay and a good amount of silt, you have clay soil.

    Loam: Loam soil will be 2/5 sand, 2/5 silt and a narrow layer of clay.

Once you’ve determined what type of soil you have, you can more effectively prepare the soil for your hydrangeas. The ideal soil type for these plants is loam. If you have a heavy clay soil, add gypsum to the soil to break up the clay and allow for drainage. A good rule of thumb is to apply 5 – 15 pounds of gypsum per 100 square feet. In sandy soil, peat moss can help absorb moisture. Additionally, good soil should have at least 5 percent organic matter, compost material also known as humus. This should be spread 2 – 6 inches deep across the entire bed. Hydrangeas typically grow best with a higher level of organic material. Especially in clay soil, organic matter creates air pockets that greatly help with water drainage.

Planting Hydrangeas:

Once you have prepared your soil, lay out the plants in your intended design. Be sure to keep in mind

full mature size of the plants, ensuring that they will barely touch at full size. This will make your garden look full and allow for air to still circulate through the garden. Dig your planting hole slightly larger than the pot size, and place any fertilizer (see below), organic material or nutrients needed to improve your soil mix in the hole before putting your hydrangeas in place. If the roots are tightly packed, loosen them gently with your fingers before planting hydrangeas to encourage root growth and spread once in the ground. Make sure that the crown of the plant – where the base of the stems meets the soil – is even with the ground level. If the hydrangea is placed too high, it can easily dry out. If the crown is placed too low when planting, it can cause hydrangeas not to bloom and potentially rot. Refill the hole with soil and pack it firmly around the crown to create a water dam around the newly planted hydrangea. Fill the dam with water, let it drain and then refill it.

Fertilizing:

Hydrangeas do especially well when fertilizers are effectively used in spring or early summer. We

recommend using a granular, slow-release fertilizer with a NPK ratio of 10-30-10. Follow the package instructions when applying fertilizer and be sure not to use too much. Over-fertilizing can cause hydrangeas to grow big green leaves, but stunt bloom production.

Watering:

Hydrangeas prefer well-drained, moist soil, but not wet; overwatering can cause hydrangeas to

produce less flowers. Depending on your soil type, you will need to adjust how frequently and how much you water. Clay soil holds more water than sandy or loam soil types, and produces more runoff because it doesn’t allow as much water to soak in as a looser sandy soil. We recommend using a drip irrigation system, a soaker hose or hand watering the shrubs when the ground feels dry. If your hydrangeas are planted in an area that sees high temperatures, they may wilt a bit in the afternoon, but will revive when the temperatures cool down. You can assist with this by watering in the morning or evening when the wind is more still and the sun less hot. Using mulch is another great way of conserving water and keeping the ground cool. Mulched plants typically can go longer periods of time between watering than non-mulched plants.

Blue or Pink Blooms:

One of the most beautiful traits of an Endless Summer hydrangea is the ability to change the color of

the blooms. A simple soil test from your local nursery can help determine your pH level, which will determine your hydrangea colors. Other than Blushing Bride, which is a white hydrangea, soil with a pH below 6.0 (acidic soil) will produce blue hydrangea blooms and a pH above 6.0 will produce pink hydrangea flowers. Depending on your preference, you are able to change the color of your hydrangea colors to fit your desired color! Endless Summer has a formulated product that changes the color of your blooms. Color Me Pink™ adds garden lime to the soil to raise the pH level and produce pink hydrangea flowers. Color Me Blue™ adds soil sulfur to encourage blue hydrangea bloom development. These products are safe, organic and all-natural. There are also other natural remedies to changing hydrangea colors. To encourage blue blooms in alkaline soils, add aluminum sulfate, composted oak leaves, pine needles or coffee grounds. To encourage pink blooms in acidic soil, add wood ashes, lime or fertilizers with high levels of phosphorus (a ratio of 25-10-10 is best) to prevent aluminum from entering the plant’s system.

How to Prune Hydrangeas:

Endless Summer hydrangeas require very little pruning day-to-day, so you are able to simply enjoy

the beautiful plants. These perennial hydrangeas bloom on growth from the current year as well as previous years, which allows for the re-blooming throughout the summer. If you prune too much, you will be removing potential blooms. If you prune to shape the plant or cut blooms for fresh hydrangea arrangements, be sure not to over-prune, or you will have less blooms next year.

Overwintering:

If you live in an area with freezing temperatures, it is a good idea to protect your plants from freezing winter temperatures. Since Endless Summer® Hydrangeas bloom on last year’s growth (“old wood”) as well as the current season’s growth (“new wood”), you will get the most flowers by protecting the flower buds on the old wood. To do this, do NOT prune or cut back your shrubs after August 1st. Leaving the fall blooms on your plants over the winter provides winter interest, and ensures you aren’t removing buds that will become flowers in the spring and summer. Leaves, wood mulch and/or straw are good options to insulate your plants. Mound the mulch or leaves around your plants at least 12” high to protect the flower buds that will bloom early next year.

In the spring, do not remove the mulch too fast; wait until all danger of frost has passed before uncovering to ensure beautiful blooms from old and new wood. The “old wood” buds will provide early season color and the blooms forming on current season growth will typically occur roughly six weeks later and last through the end of the season.

If your hydrangeas are planted in a container, bring the entire container into your garage or a cool basement for the winter months, and follow the same steps as garden-planted hydrangeas. Container plants will not require as much mulch, but should be lightly watered throughout the winter months since they will not receive moisture from snow and rain.

- See more at: http://www.endlesssummerblooms.com/design-and-grow/planting-

 and-care#sthash.HkOp0WUn.dpuf

Article courtesy of www.endlesssummerblooms.com

Spring is Just Around the Corner

It's starting to warm up down south. Here in Tennessee, we have temperatures in the 60's pushing 70 sometimes and it's time for a few things to be done.

Lawn and landscape Pre-Emergent Weed Control.

If you haven't already done it, its time to get some weed control down. Using the pre-emergent products are easier to control most weeds with. If you stop the weed before it gets out of the ground the lawn looks better, and for landscape beds if you can stop the weed from coming up, you don't have to pull them later. Some landscape plants like ground covers are particularly hard to control weeds, so pre-emergents are the only option.

Mulching and Pruning

Most people like to mulch in spring so the beds look fresh through the early season when every one is out with landscaping on their minds. Keep in mind that some plants don't need to be pruned in spring, it depends on the blooming pattern. Azaleas for example if pruned in early spring before they bloom will not bloom as well this year because you will cut off most of the blooms. A general rule of thumb is to prune after the plant blooms. But it will pay you to do a little research on your particular types of plants to see if they bloom on this years wood or last years wood. That will tell you when to prune. Feel free to contact Color Burst with any questions, we are here to help!

Color Burst has already started the pre-emergent treatments, mulching and bed maintenance  to get ready for spring. Our pre-emergent treatments are covered in most of our contracts, so if we have not yet treated your yard we will be there between March and  April to make sure your yard stays looking healthy and beautiful through the season.

If you are in need of mulch, now is the time, so please do not hesitate to contact us and we will send a team out to get those beds looking beautiful and ready for spring!

 Gretta "Green Thumb"