Garden Writers and Good Plants

Happy August,
The heat has finally caught up to us. Some people must be very happy about that. I am not. I like the cool weather that we've had this year. Perennials have looked stellar while annuals have not. That's a great thing for a company that doesn't sell annuals. Those tall containers that have petunias in them are dripping with flowers rather than bursting at the seams like last year. I always thought Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea' would be a good choice for those containers. And if every other tier had Lysimachia followed by Carex glauca, you could have a nice combo of blue and yellow. I'm sorry if you really like the petunias, but I don't see the attraction.
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This week, Midwest Groundcovers hosted the Garden Writers Association for our Third annual Garden Writer event. We had 20 attendees and it made for a great day. Jane Beggs-Joles came and presented new plants from Proven Winners® Color Choice® Plants, and was a big hit. There are some really great looking plants in the pipeline that we can look forward to. Once I have them in the landscape here, I'll let you know about them. One of the best though is a dwarf version of 'Limelight' called Little Lime™. This should be exciting! Now onto the pictures!
Thanks go to Shawna Coronado, The Casual Gardener, for providing me this picture of the group here on Wednesday. We had a great time looking at all the plants in the landscape. It's always nice to get feedback from outside sources and to have such great knowledgeable people in the audience.



Allium senescens 'Pink Planet'
We at Midwest Groundcovers are big proponents of Allium 'Summer Beauty'. But I find this one nearly as interesting. I do like the foliage better on 'Summer Beauty' but the flowers of 'Pink Planet' are amazing. They are slightly larger than 'Summer Beauty' and a lighter shade of pink. But they are completely loaded with florets. And they are blooming after Allium 'Summer Beauty' extending the bloom time in the garden of these wonderful spherical blooms. This is brought to us by Intrinsic Perennial Gardens in Hebron, IL. Good work Brent!
Pictured here are two plants that are considered questionably hardy. Both have been planted here since 2007 and were planted on the same day. What we have is Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Piglet', another Brent Horvath intro, and Miscanthus 'Gold Bar'. The Pennisetum is quite special in that it is truly hardy and truly dwarf. I highly recommend it even though I'm not the biggest Fountain Grass fan. The Miscanthus is such a nice plant. I'm not a huge fan of variegated grasses, but this one is so sharp, that it has grown on me. It seems that it is a zone 6 plant above ground, but in the ground, it has proven hardy to zone 5. We had a rough winter last year, and here it still stands.
Rudbeckia 'Pot of Gold'
This was given to me last year to put in our landscape. It was planted right along with Rudbeckia fulgida sp fulgida and 'Viette's Little Suzy' to see the differences. It is slightly darker in flower color and a couple inches shorter. It has stayed clean which speaks once again that 'Goldsturm' is the problem, not Rudbeckia as a whole.

Rudbeckia nitida 'Herbstsonne'
I wish there were more demand for this plant. It is quite beautiful in bloom. I'm not sure if our shipping department would appreciate it because it gets so big. We could probably ship 10 to a cage! Anyways, that is one reason we do not sell it. Another is that people seem to be afraid of this type of plant. You've heard me say it before. But Americans are afraid of big herbaceous plants. I say that in one breath yet some people still insist on planting Purple Loose Strife. So maybe not all big plants are scary to all. Or quite the contrary, because I fear Lythrum salicaria greatly.
Aster ageratoides 'Tiny Theo'
This is a really nice groundcover Aster. I recieved this last spring from Roy Diblik. I didn't see the attributes of this plant until this year. It is really stunning when planted in a group like this. There were 6 quarts planted here and they are flowering like crazy. I'll be seeing how it looks coming out of this winter, and maybe it has potential for our product line. Is there a need for a 4" tall Aster? Let me know.
Heuchera 'Paris'
Two years ago, I asked Terra Nova to send me their best flowering Heucheras. This is perhaps the best. The garden writers all focused on this one even though I was talking about others. It's really hard to keep their attention. I'm sort of kidding, but I'm not joking about this plant. We just need the plant costs to go down so that we could maybe add this to our product line. I'm interested in what you, the reader, feels about the plethora of new Heuchera hitting the market. Are they still exciting? Are you weary because some have not proven to be as great as hoped? If you are a customer of Midwest Groundcovers, I really hope you answer these questions. You can email us at mgplanttrials@gmail.com
Echinacea 'Tomato Soup'
This was brought into the office the other day and everyone walking by was really excited. It is a fantastic color. A color I have yet to see before this one on an Echinacea. I just planted it, so I don't know of it's durability. Hopefully it's good.



Thanks again for reading. I hope you've enjoyed this article. Until next time, have a great day!