Every year, there are introductions of new plant varieties to the market.

I read gardening magazines every spring to find the new plants to look for, and then go sleuthing at garden centers and poking about my neighbors’ yards. I make note of newly introduced plants that I like in containers or gardens of friends, and then I get them the next year. I’m always at least a year behind, usually two or three. A few of last year’s new favorites will grace some of my pots, arbors and even perennial bed this year.

If you like blue flowers, the Mystic Spires Blue salvia is a great choice for both pots and borders. Treat it as an annual in mid-Missouri. There are a couple of things I really like about this plant in addition to the purple-blue color and blue-gray foliage. Its growth habit is compact and dense, unlike our perennial salvias, which tend toward bare-kneed legginess and outright sprawl.

It is not a drought-tolerant salvia, so it needs to be watered more than its cousins, but like all salvias, it loves full sun. It will bloom all summer, gets 18 to 24 inches tall and about 16 inches wide.

The Sunbini creeping zinnia (Sanvitalia hybrid) is wonderful if you need a dainty, true yellow flower. It tolerates full sun, heat and poor soil, so it will still look good at the end of the summer if you forget to fertilize your pots. It has a mounded growth habit, but trails around and through the other plants so is excellent in a multi-plant arrangement. It stays about 10 inches tall and 14 inches wide.

I like speedwells (Veronica hybrids) very well, so it was with great interest that I read about a new one, Fairytale. It is white with lovely pink stamens, and the claim is that it doesn’t sprawl mid-season and leave a hollow center and branches lying along the ground.

I did not get the chance to see it at the end of the season in a garden setting, but I’m willing to gamble and try one or two this year. This is a perennial that grows about 16 inches up and 14 inches out.

If any of you tried this last year, let me know. I would love a speedwell without sprawl.

Another perennial that I thought stunning was the Black Jack sedum (Sedum hybrid), and I don’t even like sedums much. Its flowers are pink, and the succulent foliage is so deeply purple it appears black.

Growers claim this sedum maintains its upright habit, unlike many sedums, which loose the battle of top-heaviness and finally just lay over and rest their pretty heads on the ground.

Finally, for those of you who love Japanese maples but haven’t been very successful in keeping them alive, there is the Black Lace elderberry (Sambucus nigra “Eva”). The foliage is deeply cut and lace-like. It is dark purple, and has a growth habit of 6 to 8 feet tall and wide. It does not, however, sucker like other elderberries and invade other plants’ personal space.

It hasn’t been out long enough for me to have seen that, so I’m just taking the growers’ word here.

The flowers in spring are pink, and in fall, the plant produces bright red berries. Black Lace likes full sun, but will tolerate some shade, the price being a slight loss in the dark purple color.

Try a few of these this year, and if you try some of this year’s new releases and like them, let me know. I’m always willing to try something that I know has worked well for other mid-Mo gardeners. Happy plantings.

Tammy Bush has been a Master Gardener for four years. She has been a pediatric nurse and educator, but now works from home as chauffeur to her two teenage sons. Two cats and a husband round out her life. When she isn’t driving, she runs a quilting business, putters in her gardens and likes do-it-yourself yard and home projects. Shade gardening, recycling and Japanese gardens are a few of her favorite things. She can be reached at bushboys3@centurytel.net.

source : columbiamissourian.com