posted October 17, 2008

Rudbeckia 'TigerEye Gold'

This is a new seed-propagated rudbeckia that is hardy to zone 10 so treat it as an annual since it won't likely overwinter in Ontario.  'TigerEye Gold' is apparently the first and only F1 hybrid rudbeckia on the market.  What that means for gardeners is that all of the plants from a package of seed will have a very uniform growth habit in the garden.  Garden height will be in the range of 40-60 cm depending upon your soil type and watering regimes.  In the 2008 joint trials at the University of Guelph and the Landscape Ontario site in Milton this plant bloomed heavily from mid-summer right up until frost. When the first frosts came only the open flowers were damaged and the foliage and un-opened buds were still able to continue the bloom period once warmer conditions returned.  Another very positive observation is that the plant seems to be very resitant to powdery mildew.  Visitors to the gardens voted 'Tiger Eye Gold' into our Top 10 list of popular plants for 2008.

Salvia 'Mystic Spires Blue'

This salvia is currently on the market has been in the university trials now for 3 years; as a result we have grown it under cool wet summers, warm wet summers and warm dry summers and in all cases it has done well. It has stood up to frost as well. 'Mystic Spires Blue' has lots of vigour, with very long purple blue inflorescences.  By chance this year in the trial beds, the Rudbeckia 'TigerEye Gold' was planteded right beside 'Mystic Spires Blue'. The colour of shorter rudbeckia contrasted nicely with this salvia.

Ornamental Peppers 'Calico' and 'Purple Flash'

These two new releases are primarily grown for the colour of the foliage.  'Calico' has dark purple foliage liberally accented with white blotches.  'Purple Flash' is purple too but has less variegation than 'Calico'.  The colour patterns of the two cultivars are best visible when grown under bright, full sun conditions.  Both cultivars produce pungent fruit that is dark purple when green and turns to red when ripe. The fruit of 'Purple Flash' is round and marble-like while that of 'Calico' is small and conical shaped.  Trial garden visitors seemed to be very interested in these tow releases.

Sedum 'Sea Urchin' and  Sedum 'Salsa Verde'

We planned the 2008 trial at the landscape Ontario site in Milton to include a drought-tolerant bed that would receive no irrigation once the plants were established.  As most of you will know, the summer of 2008 with its record-breaking rainfall was not a good year to test drought tolerance.  So instead of testing drought tolerance, we tested the rain tolerance of reportedly, drought-tolerant species such as the low growing ground cover-type sedums in this display.  'Sea Urchin' has green and white variegated foliage with a strong trailling habit that forms small 'sea urchin-like' mounds in the flowerbed; in containers, this mounding effect hasn't been noticed .  'Salsa Verde' has small dark green leaves arranged tightly on the stem. During the course of the trial, no flowering was observed in either cultivar.. These sedums are not marketed as perennials here in Ontario but are said to be hardy to -23°C (Sea Urchin) and -17°C (Salsa Verde) so in sheltered areas they may overwinter.

Juncus 'Blue Dart'

This a newly released selection of 'rush' that can be easily propagated from seed.  As a rush it can be used as a plant in a water feature but it also has the ability to tolerate droughty conditions.  In design, this plant can be used as a well-behaved grass substitute that can reach a height of 35-40cm. The literature suggests that 'Blue Dart' is hardy to Zone 5a.  We will evaluate winter hardiness at our Ontario sites in the spring of 2009.

Begonias 'Big Red with Bronze Leaf', 'Big Red with Green Leaf' and 'Volumia Rose Bicolor'

In 2008, these new begonias seemed to compete with 'DragonWing' begonias for vigour.  The leaf size the 'Big' series wasn't as large as 'DragonWing' and it had a rounder shape but the flowers were large and they performed very well in the sunny trial site.

Coleus - 'Henna', 'Indian Summer', 'Mint Mocha', 'King Kong Salmon Pink', 'Dark Chocolate'

The trial site whre these plants were evaluated was not provided with shade coverage so this year's trial was, for the most part, a full sun trial evaluation of coleus.  'Henna', 'Indian Summer' and 'Mint Mocha' performed very well under the 2008 full sun conditions; 'Henna' looked so good it received enough votes on the Open House day to make it to our Top 10 popularity list. The brightly coloured 'Mint Mocha' with its unusual duckfoot leaf shape attracted a lot of attention asa well.   'King Kong Salmon Pink' and 'Dark Chocolate' showed signs of sun burn and heat stress when grown in the full sun but at other sites where shade was available, these two cultivars developed the rich and deep colouration and large leaves that makes them show stoppers; 'Dark Chocolate' received many favourable comments.