The Eastern Seaboard burst into bloom last week with the first ever Eastern Performance Trials held at six participating nurseries showcasing a total of 24 growers’ plant varieties. Lawn & Landscape’s Lauren Spiers Hunter visited the Eastern Performance Trials site at the American Horticultural Society in Alexandria, Va. Where Centerton Nursery, Cherry Lake Tree Farm, Goldsmith Seeds, Proven Winners and Saunders Brothers each displayed dozens of up-and-coming plant varieties that are sure to thrive on the eastern United States. Here are a few plants from each grower that highlight their displays:
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CENTERTON NURSERY. Known for their ‘Returns’ series of daylilies, Bob Blew of Centerton Nursery, Bridgeton, N.J. says they’re particularly proud of the new ‘Stephanie Returns’ variety, showcased at the Eastern Performance Trials. Named for perennial expert Stephanie Cohen, ‘Stephanie Returns’ has a 4-inch bicolor flower of blush pink and rosy red with a purple eyezone and chartreuse throat. This variety reaches about 18 inches tall and is hardy in USDA zones 4 through 9.
“Everybody brought their best varieties to these trials,” Blew said of Centerton and the other growers represented at the Trials. Coming from a more northerly climate than some of the other growers, Blew said Centerton’s New Jersey location made it a challenge to select just the right plants for the trial, but that their display contains the best Centerton varieties for landscapes up and down the eastern seaboard. “At Centerton, some of our varieties just won’t tolerate the heat of the deep south,” he explains. “We have some varieties that are hardy in zones 4 through 7 while others are hardy between zones 6 and 9. What we’ve done here is choose the varieties that the majority of gardeners in the east will be able to get the best performance and most enjoyment from.”
Also among the varieties Centerton had on display was the BlewLabel® Hibiscus x ‘Moy Grande.’ Once established, this largest flowered hibiscus offers 12- to 14-inch blooms in a beautiful deep pink shade. The plant, hardy in zones 5a through 9a, blooms late June to mid-September and has an average height of 50 to 60 inches.
A bed area with bold groundcovers and flowering shrubs also catches the eye. Centerton’s display showcased how its CenterPeace® Spirea x ‘Golden Elf’, BlewLabel Agasstache foeniculum ‘Black Adder’, CenterPeace Buddleia dirr/davidii ‘Attraction’ and BlewLabel Pancium x ‘Northwind’ complement each other in the landscape.
Visit www.centertonnursery.com for more information on these other varieties.
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CHERRY HILL TREE FARM. The Groveland, Fla.-based Cherry Hill Tree Farm brought a handful of young trees to Alexandria for the Eastern Performance Trials. Among them was the Natchez Crape Myrtle Lagerstroemia (indica x fauriei) ‘Natchez,’ which offers a variety of distinctive traits, including large, pure white flowering panicles, a cinnamon brown exfoliating bark, and dark green foliage that can turn from orange to a brilliant red in the fall.
Visit www.cherrylake.com for more information on this and other varieties.
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GOLDSMITH'S SEEDS. Zinnias abound in Goldsmith Seeds’ planting area at the American Horticultural Society. The new Magellan zinnias are available in eight of vibrant colors, fitting brightly colored landscapes to those that are better suited to calming gardens. These traditional zinnias have a mounding habit and grow to a height of 12 to 14 inches. The 4-inch blooms are available in cherry, coral, ivory, orange, pink, salmon, scarlet and yellow, suiting any number of landscape designs.
“The Magellan zinnias have performed very well in trials around the country, so we were pleased to be able to bring them to the Eastern Performance Trials this year,” said Faith Savage with Goldsmith Seeds, Gilroy, Calif., noting that all of the plant material for the trials were grown in Virginia in preparation for the event. “We expect these to be the zinnias of choice for both landscape professionals and home gardeners.”
Savage says Goldsmith’s also has high hopes for its series of Ramblin’ petunias, bred to offer blooms throughout the plant, even as it spreads. “With a number of petunia varieties, as the plant grows and spreads, you end up with all these lovely flowers on the edges, but not much more than a mass of green foliage in the middle,” she explains. “The Ramblin’ petunias continue to put out shoos from the center of the plant, so there’s a blooms from the crown to the tip.”
Ramblin’ trailing petunias grow to a height of 10 to 14 inches and a width of 30 to 36 inches, and are ideal for both landscape and container plantings. Available in 12 colors including white, this variety is hardy in zone 8.
Visit www.goldsmithseeds.com for more information on these and other varieties.
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PROVEN WINNERS. Showcasing landscape designs along with retail display options, Proven Winners brought dozens of varieties from their nursery in Sycamore, Ill. Doug Parkinson, representing Euro American Propagators expressed excitement over the first Eastern Performance Trials. “This is the first performance trial held on the east coast, so it’s a work in progress, but there’s been a wonderful turnout, which is important not only for Proven Winners, but also for our host location at the American Horticultural Society (AHS),” Parkinson says. “The AHS is a great institution that not enough of us in the industry really take advantage of. By being a host location for the Eastern Performance Trials, is great for us, the attendees and for AHS.”
The Proven Winners landscape beds, as well as all the other Eastern Performance Trials displays will remain at the American Horticultural Society all year, allowing the plant material the chance to establish and truly perform and show off for visitors throughout the year. The growers are working with AHS to determine the level of maintenance the beds require and how watering, pruning and other care will be provided during the year.
In the meantime, Proven Winners’ landscape beds include a number of varieties that promise to fill in well during that time. One such variety is the new Diamond Frost euphorbia, which was voted “Most Innovative Plant of the Show,” and “U.K. Product of the Year” in Europe and has won dozens of other awards since 2004. Suited for the east, Diamond Frost is both heat and drought tolerant, requiring full to partial sun. Shown here as a landscape plant, this euphorbia also works well as a container plant with its clouds of airy white flowers. Diamond Frost grows 10 to 14 inches tall and is hardy to zones 9 to 11.
Another bedding beauty is the new ‘Charmed Wine’ oxalis; an extra-vigorous, shade-loving variety that works great in mixed containers. Here, the variety’s dark, dense foliage provides a striking border between the Catalina ‘Violet Flare’ torenia hybrid in front and the Symphony ‘Lemon’ osteospermum hybrid at the back of the bed. ‘Charmed Wine’ oxalis requires full to partial shade and is hardy in zones 7 to 11, growing 8 to 12 inches high.
Visit www.provenwinners.com for more information on these and other varities.
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SAUNDERS BROTHERS. Rounding out the landscape with a number of great-looking boxwoods was Saunders Brothers from Piney River, Va. Robert Saunders says the varieties showcased here have been grown in landscape settings for 5 to 10 years over both winters and summers. “Establishing a boxwood isn’t an overnight process,” he explains. “Because we’ve watched these grow for several years in both warm and cold conditions, we’re certain of their ability to perform for individuals who will want to add them to their landscapes. These boxwoods are also great substitutes for a lot of over-planted English boxwood varieties.”
The various sizes and shapes of Saunders Brothers’ boxwoods created an interesting display for the Trials. Close to the ground, the Buxus microphylla var. japonica ‘Morris Dwarf’ works in sun or shade and tolerates a range of soil conditions as it grows as large as 3 feet wide and 1½ feet tall. This smaller variety is hardy in Zone 6 and was placed in the Trials as a bed-edging boxwood.
Saunders also pointed out the unique pyramidal Buxus sempervirens ‘Dee Runk’, used as an anchor near arbors in the display, but also useful as a tall hedge or for framing doorways. This vigorous plant grows in sun or shade in zone 6 and offers two distinct forms. When trained as a single leader, the boxwood has a conical form, but with a little training can develop an appealing multi-branched columnar habit.
Visit www.saundersbrothers.com for more information on these and other varieties.