Echinacea Hot Papaya For Everyone in 2010

Happy 2010 to all of my readers.

As I embark on this new decade, I have decided on a few New Year’s resolutions:

To alleviate the stress, I vow to make as many “dry” containers as possible this year.  I need more agaves, aloes and other desert-like treasures.

I am troubled by containers that cry, “ Water me” when I get home each evening in July, August and September.  Please don’t try to sell me some self watering pot or stick that tells me when I need to water or some crystals that puff up and hold moisture in the pots.   I’ve tried them all and in the midst of a hot, humid Baltimore summer – nothing works except the good old garden hose and I just don’t have time anymore.

Actually, it’s not just the time, it’s being attacked by millions of Asian tiger mosquitoes the minute I step outside and the stress it causes when I have to drop everything when I get home to water because the family can wait for dinner…the plants can’t.

This, of course, will force my container budget to be higher than years past, as I search for unusual treasures, because succulent plants are much more expensive than coleus or petunia.

We had a wonderfully diverse collection when I worked at the U.S. National Arboretum (as you can see in the image).

But no worries because I can over winter the dessert plants very easily, so no need to buy them again in 2011 – therefore, the budget shouldn’t be such a problem in the long run.  My problem is room.  We are running out of over wintering room in the house.  The living room and dining room are pretty full.  I know – I NEED a greenhouse.  Ha!

Convince my husband and I’ll be your friend FOREVER!

Next, I vow to try once again to grow a little bit of really nice grass.

I have two dogs, so there are a few places I need to do some reseeding, but every time I tried last spring and fall we had torrential downpours the day or two after.  I couldn’t grow grass no matter how hard I tried, but I will try again…

It’s quite embarrassing that I have this amazing, plant filled garden yet I can’t grow grass, especially when they make it look so easy on TV.

Next, I vow to sow all of the seeds I buy.

I always forget to sow seeds until it’s too late. I have good intentions each spring that have led to quite a collection of unsown seeds. I actually have good intentions most everyday – for something or the other, but there never seems to be enough time for any of it.

Anyone else have this problem?

And lastly…

I vow that there WILL be Echinacea ‘Hot Papaya’ for everyone to buy this year.

The plants really DO exist and I’ve seen them with my own eyes.  They’re out there and they will be for sale in full force this year at garden centers and home stores all over the US.  I know you’ve been waiting patiently, but your time has come, so come this June, open your wallets and head to your local garden center and be one of the first gardeners in the US to have this amazing plant in your garden.

It truly is the one plant in the Plants Nouveau line that most resembles fireworks, so it’s an appropriate New Year’s plant, if I do say so myself.  If you use your imagination, you could also see it resembling a large bonfire – a bonfire where we toss all the worries and problems of 2009 as they go up in smoke, wishing for a peaceful and prosperous 2010.  A horticultural smudging of the past year’s woes, if you’d like.

As a couple of nurserymen have said in their Facebook and Twitter New Year’s wishes sent out to their followers – it won’t be hard to top 2009 in our industry.

The first time I saw Hot Papaya bloom in my Baltimore garden, I was pleasantly surprised.  I see lots of pretty flowers when I visit breeders in The Netherlands.  Often, those flowers are saturated, brightly colored forms that we have not seen in the US.  It’s truly comparable to being in a candy store.

The sad reality is once they make it to the US, the color often fades (unless you happen to live in the lush, non humid, cool climes of the Pacific Northwest) and is a mere shadow of what I saw in The Netherlands.

Not Hot Papaya…

Hot Papaya was even darker reddish-orange and the blooms were larger and the plant was thicker than we saw in the trials.  The super puffy, double blooms really do look like a bonfire at it’s peak with flames exploding from every angle.  Maybe we should have called it Bonfire, but that doesn’t sound nearly as yummy. The Cone-fections ™ series is all about yummy-ness.

Our gnome friends are preparing, as I write, for Edda Night, the last celebratory even of Christmas Month.  Edda Night occurs on Jan 6th.  More about this in next week’s issue…

So with open arms, I welcome 2010 into my life, hoping it will treat my growers breeders, and readers well so that we can continue to bring you the best, most trusted new plant fashion for many, many years to come.

Here’s wishing you a happy, healthy, prosperous 2010 full or peace, good friends and new opportunities.

Happy weeding!

Angela Treadwell Palmer
President, Plants Nouveau