Everyone says their new plant is better, improved, superior– me included.  So who do you believe?

I credit my strength to the fact that I’m a true plantweenie, an aloe/agave/dykia/haworthia/pretty much anything-with-spines-a-holic.  In my opinion that makes me real and not JUST a marketer.

For Real…

I love plants.  I buy way too many.  I make way too many mixed containers each year and then I curse them as I’m watering every day. I love rare plant auctions and can’t leave without buying something – they are usually for a good cause, so I justify those purchases.

I can’t help it.

What have I seen this year that makes me want to take out my wallet or tell everyone about it?Here’s a short list of my favorite new plants for 2012.

These will all be available in retail garden centers, mail order and home stores in just a few short months, so start planning your budgets now!

Let’s start with my good buddy, Tony Avent at Plant Delights and Agave americana ‘Mediopicta Alba’ (white-centered Mexican Century plant).  I am such a sucker for spiney things and the white of this new selection is the whitest I’ve ever seen.  I better buy this today before you all hoard it up.  Lol!

I also need Delosperma ‘Firespinner‘ (Fire spinner ice plant).  Don’t you love it when plant people NEED a plant? hehehe

This plant was brought in from South Africa and trialed at the Denver Botanic Gardens.  The color alone is enough to make me drool.  It’s pink and orange people …too bad this didn’t come from the pink and orange girls of Plants Nouveau.

I’ve seen many images of this – one is more gorgeous than the other.  Get out your wallets now.  The only thing that kills ice plants is too much water… they’re pretty much a no-brainer!

How about this super cool, yet incredibly funky coneflower from the breeding program at the Chicago Botanic Garden called ‘Burgundy Fireworks’?

Kudos to them for spelling burgundy with a u – not an “a”.  That drives me crazy!

My old boss, Dr. Jim Ault, bred this new selection.  I remember when we selected a sister seedling of this one for propagation.  We had some donors coming to visit the garden that night and we needed flowers for a vase to make our office area look pretty.  We cut some of those and they stayed in that same vase for at least 6 weeks – three of the weeks without water.  Just like it’s sister, the ray petals of Burgundy Fireworks are quilled and feel like they’re coated in wax.  The flowers in that vase never wilted, so that must mean it’s tough, right?

This one is just as tough and in a much deeper color.  What’s not to like?

And then there’s this Little Devil from Bailey’s Nursery in Minnesota. I love physocarpus (ninebark) because it is a native plant, it is the most drought tolerant, sun loving shrub I’ve ever grown and all of the new selections have colorful foliage.

Physocarpus ‘Donna May’ Little Devil is part of the First Editions line at Bailey’s.  It is a dwarf selection with smaller leaves and shorter internodes, so the plant looks compact and dense all season.  Deep maroon foliage turns to bright orange-yellow in the fall for a stunning display.  Little Devil only reaches 3-4 feet tall, so it’s a heck of a lot shorter than the species and most other selections introduced so far.  If you have a dry, sunny spot and you are looking for some color – Little Devil is for you.

Hmmm…what else?

I have to throw in one of ours once in a while, so I would like to talk about Echinacea ‘Southern Belle’.

This is the first double form of Echinacea tennessensis in cultivation. Bred by Arie Blom in the Netherlands, this long-lived, blooming machine will not disappoint.  The more it blooms, the more it buds.  Flowers keep coming all summer and into fall. Just a little deadheading and you’ll have two to three full flushes of flowers each summer. Southern Belle grows 30-36” tall and 36” wide, so there will be plenty of blooms.  There’s even enough to cut and enjoy inside.

She sure is a beauty and she should technically be super long lived since her parents were.  Only time will tell, but I am more impressed with this new selection every time I see it.

All you garden writers out there who took one home in Indianapolis – we’d love to get some feedback as soon as you have some to give.  All of the growers loved this one the best of the new selections – hands down – all over the US.

And here’s another new one from Plants Nouveau that I think is a must have. It’s a banana called Mekong Giant.

Brian Williams in Louisville , KY was born in the wrong state. See, he has a love of tropicals that is insatiable and he really should have been born in the deep-south, where tropicals can be grown all year.  Brian set out to defy the hardiness zone rules and selected a hardy banana that reaches to 15’ tall in USDA hardiness zone 6 and that’s not all – it sets fruit in zone 6 as well.  Musa ‘Mekong Giant’ is no small musa, but bananas in zone 6?

Has he lost his mind?

We’re excited to be working with Brian and his tropical breeding brilliance. We’re looking forward to even more exciting new plants from Brian in the future.

Back to non-Plants Nouveau new things…check out these chicken themed garden wellies from Gardener’s Supply.

OMG…how cute are they and who wouldn’t want them?

These plants – and the boots – are all a little weird. Either in color, shape of their leaves or bloom or in their habit. I like weird. Weird is good.  Weird is what makes the world exciting.  If there weren’t weirdos and weird things to look at – I’d be bored. Wouldn’t you?

To quote the ever-brilliant Seth Godin,“The weird are now more important than the many, because weird are the many.”

I love that!

Weird are the many…isn’t that what being weird in the world of new plants is all about? Well, it should be.

I think this list will break your budget for this week, so I’ll be nice and stop. I promise to add some more must haves next week after my annual pilgrimage to the largest US winter trade show – The MANTS, in Baltimore, MD.  I’ll be back home for a week to see my peeps. It should be a fun-filled, plant geeky, heavenly good time.

Hopefully I’ll see you there while I’m slinking around doing some more market research to see what’s hot, what’s new, what’s weird and what everyone is saying we must have for 2012.

Happy garden catalog reading (drooling) and Happy Weeding,

Angela Treadwell-Palmer
Partner, Plants Nouveau

These were work all day long, every weekend for the first few years, gardens.  Then we’d move.

It took me 3 years to eradicate the massive ground and tree covering carpet of English ivy I inherited in the last property.  The funny thing is – each time I started planning a garden, I knew we wouldn’t stay.  I was gardening with passion, but not completely.  I was gardening to maybe sell a house. The people who just bought my house in Baltimore (who kindly read my e-letter) are saying,

“What?  OMG – what would this place have looked like if she was only gardening to please herself and not the real estate agents?”

Haha – good question.  I’ve never allowed myself to think that way.

I’m not a very selfish person, often to my detriment.  I always think about everyone else first.

The colors I paint, the tiles I chose, the gardens I planted – all were unique in a trendy, fashionable way, but they were never the “real” me.  “Oh boy!”, my husband says, as he sees the colors I’ve chosen for our new home north of Boston.

“Everything is so bright”, he says.

Well…if we are staying here, I want to smile every time I walk into the kitchen or wake up each morning.  Is there something wrong with that?  Let’s see how crazy you all think my new, happy color palette is:

For the kitchen, I chose – Sherwin Williams “Frolic”  – because it makes me smile – it’s a lot brighter in person

For the bathroom, “Chartreuse” – the same color as my convertible Mini-Cooper

For our bedroom, “Aqueduct” – so I can feel like I’m in the Caribbean each morning

And for the bathroom near my office, “Vegan” – could have been for the name alone, but it matches perfectly a painting of the Peace Rose I’ve had for years and the beautiful Mexican pottery sink they left us.

Because he was making fun, I let my husband choose the color for our dining room.  He chose “Friendly Yellow” – let me tell you, it’s pretty, but as tame as it sounds.  Haha!  I had to let him chose something.

So, why did I choose such bright colors?  Have I lost my mind?

I think the move depressed me a bit and I had been gardening and creating to please real estate agents for the past few years.  It’s a bit of a color revolt for me.  I LOVE them all and they make me smile.

Isn’t that what matters?

How about the garden, you say?

Since I told my husband I would go all Lorena Bobbitt on him if he decided to move us again, I think we are here for quite some time.  I meant it.  I can’t handle another move for a long time, unless it’s to a super-dooper – much better place, like Portland, Oregon or San Francisco or Bonn, Germany – and I know that ain’t gonna happen.

Let’s hope we stay here a while.  Otherwise, we’ll be repainting to sell the house.  Haha!

I really want to study the garden for a year, but I know that will kill me, so maybe half a year?

It’s certainly at it’s worst right now, so it can only get better, right?  We have – once again – the most incredible crop of invasive, nasty weeds you could ever ask for.  I’ve seen seedling Euonymys alatus (burning bush), Berberis thunbergii (barberry), Celastrus orbiculatus (oriental bittersweet), and Atemesia vulgaris (mugwort).

And that’s just what I’ve been able to identify this winter.  I’m sure there’ll be plenty more come spring.  My son is excited about the mugwort because I’ve introduced him to soba noodles made of mugwort and he loves them.  He really loves eating them at school so he can tell the kids he’s eating noodles made of weeds.  Hey – whatever it takes to get them to eat healthy, right?

Anyone know a good recipe for extracting the green from the mugwort?

Just kidding.

What will I do?  Where will I begin?  I’ve been told there must be room to play lacrosse this time.  OK, OK, I will abide – especially since I’ll be out there playing too.

Here’s my wish list of elements:

•    Vegetable garden

•    Compost area

•    Chicken coop – still trying to figure out how to do this with a bird dog – any suggestions?

•    A sunny border-for the coneflowers

•    A shady border for the foam flowers and coral bells

•    An herb patch or formal herb garden like I had in Baltimore.  I so miss my herbs.

•    A new patio – anyone know where I can get recycled paving materials here?  I love to reuse and create with landscaper scraps…

•    A small section of Walpole Works fencing and an arbor -  a girl can dream, right?

•    A fire pit

•    A little pond for frogs

•    A section for small fruits

•    A proper raised trial bed for all of the new Plants Nouveau perennial introductions

•    A mixed border to house all of the new woody plants my partner Linda Guy has brought into the line-up for 2012

•    Lilies, lilies and more lilies – although there is a terrible lily leaf beetle here…so I’ve heard

•    I forgot about the deer fence…a must have for the deer, turkeys, coyotes, and fisher cats

•    A labyrinth – maybe?

•    Lots of special hiding places for gazing balls and gnomes

Seems like a long list for little over a half acre, doesn’t it?

It seems so large and barren now.  I’m sure I’ll fill it up fast. But I must resist planting this spring…at least a little.  I want to study the land and know all of its good and bad traits before I dig in.  I want to know where the dry and wet spots are.  I want to search out any microclimates so that I can stretch the hardiness zones a little.  I really want to get to know my land this time.  Maybe it will mean fewer adjustments later on?

Probably not, right?

Here’s what I see when I stand on the deck today.  What will it look like a year from now?

I’m hoping to start the master plan this spring, once everything is green and there’s leaves on the trees. But this time, I’m going to be a little selfish and make this a garden for me.  After five gardens, I think I deserve it.  I want to smile when I see the garden I’m about to create each and every day.  Kind of like the paint colors I chose.  I figure – if we move, I can sell off plants or plow it all over to make it more saleable…and there’s always paint.

Be a little selfish this holiday season and do some things to feed your soul and recharge. Paint your toenails lime green with red polka dots.  Do something that will make your mother sigh.  Buy yourself a little gift – something small and frivolous that you’ve always wanted, wrap it and put it under the tree.  Volunteer in a soup kitchen, go play with the kittens in an animal shelter, or maybe welcome home some war veterans at the airport.

Whatever makes YOU happy. We don’t do enough recharging.

I don’t do enough.  I feel guilty for doing anything that’s just for me.  It’s silly. I miss my Thursdays in Baltimore harvesting vegetables for the homeless shelter.  That fed my soul and provided fresh greens to the inner city folks who needed them most.

What feeds your soul?  Do you know?

Here’s wishing you and yours a joyous, peaceful Hanukkah, a truly Merry Christmas and even happier, meaningful New Near.  I’ll be back on January 3rd with my list of Must Have New Plants for 2012.  I promise you, we have some extraordinary new plants to show off next year.

Until then, eat some cookies, get some rest, do something nice for your soul and Happy Weeding!

Angela Treadwell-Palmer
Partner, Plants Nouveau

How about holiday music?

As much as I have a problem and need counseling about my addiction to buying cool plants and garden gnomes, my better half has a real problem with holiday music.  When we packed up and moved last month, I counted about 50 in all and he’s probably added 10 more this year.  That’s right, we have 60 holiday music cd’s – it’s enough music for about five days.

We do have our favorites and we play them often – usually they are requested by one of our kids.  Here’s my top five festive, frolicking features:

BEST EVER
Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas, Ella Fitzgerald – Ella is perfection.  No recording of the classic Christmas songbook surpasses this 1960 recording. This was my first purchase and will always be my most favorite.

BEST CHEESY GOODNESS
Christmas Is A Special Day, Fats Domino – A family favorite… that lazy N’awlins drawl, the electronic keyboards and rhythm machine. A bit cheesy, but loads of fun. Jingle Bells from this CD is traditionally our first song each year – promptly played after the Thanksgiving feast.

BEST ROCK
Snowed In, Hanson – I know you are all saying, “She didn’t just write Hanson, did she?”, Well , my friends – this is one of the best rock –and-roll, dance party in the living room, get you up moving holiday cd’s ever.  Don’t knock it till you try it.  This is from their “Um Bop” days, so they were much younger then.

BEST FOR DANCING
Mambo Santa Mambo, Christmas From the Latin Lounge – Fun, campy music… samba, rumba, cha cha, and of course mambo! From the wonderful sultry Celia Cruz to the adorable “Donde esta Santa Claus” by Augie Rios. We probably play this collection more than any other. This one is difficult to find and quite pricey, but well worth it if you can get it.

BEST NEWER RELEASE
Barenaked for the Holidays, Barenaked Ladies  – “Jingle Bells” which starts out slow and quiet, like Dave Brubeck’s “Farewell Jingle Bells”, then launches into a rip-roaring rendition that gets everyone on their feet.  We play that song over and over. Kids can’t get enough! It also contains the best, most sing-able version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”, I’ve ever heard.   Lots of original songs and very well done.

Let’s move onto gardening tools.  Two things I can’t garden without are the Cobra Head and my Dutch hoe.

The Cobra Head was given to me as a sample a few years back at a Garden Writers Association symposium.  I fell in love with it the first time I used it.  I then lost it at a community gardening event, so I had to buy another one and it’s even better the second time around because they keep improving it.  It weeds like no other weeding knife and really sneaks into paving cracks with ease.

The other tool I love and can’t live without – besides my Felco pruners, of course – is my Dutch hoe.  These are not super available in the states, but some fine tool makers carry them.  Gardenia makes a detachable head line that includes a Dutch hoe attachment.  I found a company online carrying them.  This is the best weeder for mixed and perennial borders.  Just scrape back the mulch, scrape the soil and scrape off the weed tops.  After a few times you will eradicate the weeds without using any harsh chemicals.  It’s the Dutch way.

Next, let’s talk gardening gloves.

I have bought so many pairs of expensive gardening gloves over the years and none of them last or allow me to garden freely – as if I had no gloves, which is what I really want.  A volunteer, while I was managing part of the US National Arboretum, gave me a pair of really cheap gloves for Christmas.  I thought to my self, “Thanks, but these will last one day.”

Wouldn’t you know, they have outlasted the most expensive gloves and I still have the same pair today – nearly 4 years later?  Of course, like any gardener, I am constantly losing gloves, misplacing them in all sorts of places in my garden, so I have now have several pair.

And the bestest, cheapest gardening glove is (Drumroll…..)

Nitrile gloves from Gardener’s Supply.  At $6.95 each, yes, that’s right, I said $6.95 – you can get a pair for each day of the week.  They come in fashionable colors too, so you could match your gardening outfits of moods.

Now you have gloves to protect your hands, tools to make your job easier and some kickin’ holiday music to rock out to on your iPod while gardening, how about we add some of my favorite, can’t live without plants?

You didn’t think we could get away with a favorite things list from this plantweenie without plants, did you?

How to choose???

I always hate when some reporter asks me what my favorite plant is.  That’s like asking you to choose between your children.

I’m going to quote my favorite kid’s show and say, “Break it down now…” as only DJ Lance of Yo Gabba Gabba could say.

Breaking them into garden climes –my can’t live without list:

For shade: Hellebores (Christmas roses) – I’m really loving this new LOVE series from Belgium.  Anyone out there growing ‘Candy Love’  yet? These are new to me, but the shades of the blooms are stunning.   I can’t wait to add more to my new garden.  Here’s a link to a picture on the Pine Knot Farms website.

And of course no list of shade plants would be complete without my all time most indestructible shade ground cover – Tiarella ‘Octoraro’ from The River Series bred by Sinclair Adam.

Last, but not least, my favorite foil for the shade garden has got to be Hakonechloa ‘All Gold’.  Perhaps it’s my love of chartreuse, but this plant brightens any shady spot, it makes the perfect backdrop for just about any color,  and it can take incredibly tough situations.

For Sun: Anyone out there bet I was going to say coneflowers?  How can anyone have a sunny border without them?

My favorite for this year is our new Echinacea ‘Southern Belle’.  this new beauty is a long-lasting, incredibly saturated, blooming machine.

My other favorite would have to be garden phlox (Phlox paniculata). We have a new selection called ‘Thai Pink Jade’ that smells like sweet candy.  Not your typical phlox fragrance and it is a compact, really disease resistant plant to boot.  A winning combination.

I also have a secret love for fragrant lilies.  My favorite these days is the regal lily (Lilium regale) with its elongated, trumpet-like blooms.  The fragrance will knock the socks off of you AND your neighbor.  I brought my clump with me here to my new home.  I can;t wait to see them again in June.

What about shrubs?

This is the time of year I say to myself, “ Self – you need to plant more winterberry hollies.”

Who wants to pay $12/ bunch for a handful of fruit-covered branches?

I want to have a border of them in the back of the property, in multiple colors, from which I can decorate – for free – till my fruit-loving eyes are content.  So, plant some winterberry hollies (Ilex verticillata) in multiple shades for months of enjoyment and lavish holiday decorationg.

And trees?

My most favorite tree has to be a Persian ironwood. (Parrotia persica).  The shape, the fall color and the overall attitude of this tree is amazing.  We had a lovely specimen at the US National Arboretum.  It is a coveted tree in many gardens and should be planted as a specimen, where it can be enjoyed for the lovely, rounded shape – not in a mass planting, where it will get lost.

What’s left?  Tropicals?

I must mention our breeder Brian Williams here because I think he has the most exciting selections (and you should see what’s coming…) – on the market right now.  One of my new favorites is his Colocasia ‘Bikini-tini’. This elephant ear is hardy to zone 6, with a good mulching and the dark green “cups” are held high on strong, chocolatey stems. They even hold water, so it makes a lovely addition to any border – and a nice outdoor shower for your garden gnomes.

Gnomes need showers too…bet you never thought of that.  Did you?

Annuals?  My favorite from this year had to be the new selection of Penisetum rubrum – the annual red fountain grass – called ‘Princess”.  It grows so quickly, fills large containers and adds that much needed dark color to the backdrop of mixed annual plantings.

Oh, and lastly, I almost forgot “brown paper packages tied up with strings.” I do adore simple wrapping and an even simpler string or ribbon tied bowed.  No stick-on bows for this gal.  My mom taught me how to tie a proper bow at an early age.  A great skill to have, eh?

Keep it simple.

Happy shopping…and weeding!

Angela Treadwell-Palmer
Partner, Plants Nouveau

Kind readers have been asking, “Where is the Weeding Gnome?”, and “What happened?”.

Moving happened.

Little did I know the extent to which I would be busting my rear to keep up in a world of daily interruptions for showings, keeping the house spotless and the animals at bay, de-cluttering the house before it went on the market (which also meant taking all of the personality out of my garden and tagging what I just couldn’t leave behind for digging), keeping it de-cluttered without a babysitter to help because I wrote such a good reference that the lady who held my life together for four years got a job offer (actually about 5 job offers) the week we told her we “might” be moving soon.

Anyone need a reference?  Apparently, I’m pretty good at it.

So we packed up once, then we were interrupted daily (thank goodness in this market or we might still be there…) for showings, then I traveled most of the summer, then we got a real offer and then it seemed the World was closing in on me.

It was then a mad dash to get everything done for the mortgage, repairs on the house, the inspection, the appraisal, finding a new house for us (minor detail – ha!), packing and moving everything into storage, being homeless for a week, and then doing it all over again for our soon-to-be new abode in Massachusetts where EVERYTHING was totally different.

No exaggeration!

Needless to say – and I’ll quit whining now – there was no time to think – much less write.  But boy do I have lots of memories and rants about these adventures stored up for the winter. Onward we go to our new house and our deer tick and turkey filled ½ acre garden on the north shore of Massachusetts.

Time to slow down (haha), unpack a bit, look at the garden daily to see how the light is and get on with our new life here in the sticks. I can see stars from my bed at night, so it’s not all bad.

I am looking forward to planning my new trial garden where the soil is chocolate brown and sandy and the light will be plenty – once the invasive trees come down and I rearrange a few things.  Why is it I am attracted to train wreck properties so desperately in need of love?

First thing on the agenda is deer and turkey control.

Did you know turkeys destroy gardens?  The things you learn.  I didn’t even know they could fly – silly me.  Estimates for deer fencing are coming in and we are well on our way to finding a home for every gazing ball and gnome in my vast collection.

As I gear back up for writing the weekly (I do promise to write something weekly from now on) Weeding Gnome, I would like to share an excerpt from something I wrote for Garden Center Magazine for their October issue.

I have had and have seen people have terrible troubles with trolls. Please don’t confuse my beloved gnomies with trolls – totally different species.  I’m talking about Internet Trolls.

Enjoy!  I hope you learn a little.  I sure learned my lesson!

Ever been attacked on the Internet?  Feel it was unwarranted? Let’s talk about reputation management for small businesses and their social media mavens.

I love social media and the immediate power it has to offer garden centers, but I’ve got a social media hangover.  Do this. Do that.  Don’t do this, and by golly – never do that.  It’s hard to know who to follow and just how you should behave in this new, uncharted world of instant access to relationship building.

By all means, build those relationships, but be careful!

I’ve been running into trolls… Not troll beads or troll dolls – although I am frightened of those and you do often see them in garden centers.

I’m talking about Internet trolls.

A troll is someone who posts inflammatory and often extraneous posts or comments in an online community with the primary intent of eliciting an emotional response and otherwise disrupting useful online discussions.

A troll is someone who follows you or your company on Social Media sites, poised to attack with disagreement.  They’re pot stirrers and they want to fight.  They nay-say everything and can be downright nasty if provoked.

To acknowledge them is to feed them. Please don’t feed them.

Trolls wait for tiniest slip-up then they pounce, attacking you and your company. They’ll work hard to damage your reputation. Trolls “troll” Internet discussion boards and more modern forms of conversation like Twitter.

Their intent is to prove you wrong because they don’t like something you’ve said. Trolls will repost comments from you and anyone else in your company on the Internet in a smear campaign to prove their point.

If fed, trolls may launch an attack, mentioning your or your company’s name in posts with links back to your site because they feel your company (or you) has a name big enough to be recognized. Then they’ll proceed on a tirade to try and ruin you.

Crazy, I know!

If you choose to defend yourself, be careful, it will only make things worse and it may prompt a fervent attack.

I’ve been attacked.  I’ve learned it’s best to ignore them.  Try not to defend yourself.  That’s really hard for me because I love a good fight.  Heck, I’m married to a lawyer, it’s fun to argue – and even more fun to win.

Troll hunting would make for really good sport, wouldn’t it?

When a social media jerk unfairly indicts your company (or you personally), it’s tempting to crush them.  We’re wired to defend ourselves by any means necessary.

If attacked, take a moment and decide if the angst is necessary. Feel the fire turning your cheeks red and raising your blood pressure and force yourself to take the high road.

Or, better yet, kill the troll with kindness and thank him for initiating what should become a productive dialog. There’s not much comeback if his or her rant is met with the comment, “Thank you for the post. We appreciate your concern.”

Social Media is a great tool, but it can be used against you, so be vigilant and watch what people are saying on your pages.  Remember, Google may index the fight.

The best advice I can give is DO NOT respond.

Respond only if you feel it is a legitimate complaint from a customer or follower. You will know very soon if it’s a troll. At that point, I say, “Ignore them.”

You don’t want potential customers finding you on the search engines via a nasty or heated conversation you once had with a troll.

Feed birds not trolls. Peace, love and happy weeding during this rush of a holiday season!

Angela Treadwell-Palmer
Partner, Plants Nouveau

With that in mind, I bring you a revised rant from yesteryear that will give you more information than you ever thought possible about why coneflowers truly are hardy and why their demise is usually due to garden or gardener error.

I’ve been called the coneflower queen. My career led me right into the mouth of this Echinacea volcano. As much fun as this has been, I’m really tired of hearing the same comment over and over. Folks are saying the new coneflowers are not winter hardy.

Bollocks!

For that reason and because I am so sick and tired of someone commenting on how they are not hardy each and every (no exaggeration here) time I post a picture on our Facebook Fanpage – I’m defending the coneflowers.

Does anyone read botanical literature anymore?

No offense, but most of the folks talking smack on the Internet are not trained horticulturists. I surf Dave’s Garden and The Garden Web Forum (and others) just to see what’s being said. I also try and educate people about the real reason their precious, $25 coneflower died last winter.

Echinacea purpurea (purple coneflower), the traditional pink or white petaled coneflower, native to the eastern half of North America is hardy from the deep southern tip of Florida and Texas to the most northern tip of Ontario, Canada. If that’ the case – how is it that this plant could have hardiness issues?

Once established, they can survive many horrific winters. Their taproot stores food and helps the plant to over winter. I don’t advise planting a young Echinacea purpurea much beyond July. That way, the plant has time to let its taproot grow deep.

This is just one of those plants that needs to be sold in the Summer – before or when it’s in bloom, not after. Sorry garden centers, but it’s true.

Echinacea paradoxa (Bush’s purple coneflower), on the other hand, has droopy, yellow petals–hence the paradox–a fibrous root system and is native to Mid Western prairies where soil is rich and well drained and the winters are pretty dang cold. E. paradoxa is hardy from zones 5-8. Having a fibrous root system means this plant spends the first year making roots. It shouldn’t bloom the first year, but it often does – especially in nursery soils where it gets much more fertilizer than it would in the wild.

Note to nursery growers reading this: please cut off the first blooms all the way down to the crown, especially of E. paradoxa and hybrid selections. I know it’s hard and you so desperately want to sell them as soon as you can because they are so hot right now, but if you sell this plant with it’s one or two blooms and tiny little crown – it’ll surely die the first winter. Even worse – if you try and over winter this same plant in a hoop house, chances are – unless you keep it completely dry – it’ll die too and then you’ll be calling us because they are not hardy for you. It’s all about winter wetness folks – and if there are no roots to absorb the moisture – the plant rots. It’s that easy!

Combine E. purpurea and E. paradoxa and– voilá– you get the lovely shades of orange and red we’ve been seeing the past few years. Dr. Jim Ault of The Chicago Botanic Garden was the first to introduce a single orange, and then came the Saul Brothers of ItSaul Plants in Georgia. These were horticultural breakthroughs. Arie Blom of AB-Cutivars in the Netherlands and Terra Nova Nurseries soon followed with the first double pink and orange blooms.

These breeders have changed the way the World sees coneflowers. They have also interrupted the notion that coneflowers are really hardy and last forever.

Most coneflowers don’t last forever. I’ve seen E. tennesseensis last more than 8 years, but rarely do other species. It’s just the nature of the beast.

What people don’t realize is coneflowers are quite promiscuous. They seed all over.

Often, the there are so many seedlings popping up everywhere that gardeners don’t realize the original plant is gone. Once you plant one of these special, new orange selections, you get a reality check that coneflowers don’t always live forever. Often, the original plant, no matter what selection, will slowly decline after being in the garden for 7or so years, then one day, it will be gone.

You’ll often get the seedlings you did with straight E. purpurea, but they won’t be orange – they’ll be pink or white and then you’ll know when you’ve lost the original plant. That’s when the complaints come in about them not being hardy. Or people call saying they have a new plant because their orange coneflower mutated to light pink!

Those folks don’t like my answer…

There’s nothing non-hardy about these hybrids if they are planted in well drained soil and allowed to establish. Clay soil can be death. Planting too late can also be a problem. Too much mulch is bad. And please – remember to remove your leaf litter in the fall.  Don’t take it all away, but keep any piles away from the crown.

My famous gardening friend in South Carolina, Jim Martin says, “Echinacea, oh- you mean those annuals?”

And then he lets out this seriously haunting laugh. For him, they are annual, but he loves them none-the-less. To date, only ‘Tiki Torch’ has come back repeatedly for Jim.  Not sure what Tiki Torch has that the others don’t.  That would be a great DNA project.  Isolate that gene and make all coneflowers hardy in the deep south.  If you can do that, let’s talk.

In coastal S.C., it’s obviously not about winter hardiness – it’s about lack of winter and poor soil or lack of soil when you reach the true coast.

Just like I stated above for the nursery growers, winter wetness and poor drainage can just as easily kill a plant in the garden – especially orange ones. With the addition of the E. paradoxa gene – the plants are a bit more susceptible to winter rot. OK – here’s the recipe for success with these fantastic, new hybrids…

If you’re a gardener:

- Plant ‘em early
- Plants ‘em high if you have poor drainage
- Don’t be afraid to tip the pot in the nursery and look for roots.

Your coneflowers and your wallet will thank you.

If you’re a grower:

-    Cut off the first blooms of a new crop so they can make more crown and roots
-    If you are going to deadhead the fall flowers, cut them all the way off.  Don’t leave the old stems because they act like straws – drawing moisture down and into the crown every time they are watered or it rains.
-     Make sure you keep all coneflowers dry in winter months

Your coneflowers, your budget and your suppliers will thank you.

You can be successful, as a grower and as a gardener, with all of these new, very coveted selections if you follow these simple rules. And when you hear a friend or customer say, “Those new coneflowers are not winter hardy”, please respond with, “Oh, contraire, but they are. Let me tell you what I’ve learned.”