I had the opportunity to go to the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society’s flower show held in Philadelphia last month. As always, the program highlights some outstanding plants that are available to the average homeowners to incorporate into their landscape. Each year, I write about the society’s new yearly selection of Gold Medal Winners, and this year, the PHS has some exciting plant selections that I urge you to try.
The first selection is Amsonia hubrichtii, or thread-leaf bluestar, which is a graceful and long-lived native plant with very fine foliage. It features clusters of steel blue flowers in May and June on an upright, bushy plant, and has excellent golden-yellow fall color and will thrive in full sun or part shade. It has no insect or pest problems and is highly deer resistant.
Japanese forest grass, or Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’, is another plant that is highly resistant to deer. This grass can thrive in the shade and, if planted at the top of a wall, will cascade over it and help soften the wall’s edges. This grass has gracefully arching leaves that give the perennial grass the look of a cooling waterfall. Green with long yellow stripes, the leaves turn chartreuse in dense shade, and in full sun they turn creamy pale yellow. This grass would be a nice addition to a shady spot.
This next plant is great to use if you have a problem area with dry shade. Epimedium x perralchicum ‘Frohnleiten’, or barrenwort, is a German selection that forms a bushy, drought resistant, evergreen mound of green leaves, marbled in bronze. Sprays of bright yellow flowers appear in mid to late spring. Although they will take a couple of years to reach a mature size, plants are long-lived and very sturdy. I have seen this plant used in parking lot medians, a truly cast iron plant.
When I use this small tree in the landscape during spring, everyone in the neighborhood asks, “What is that white airy plant that looks like a cloud?” The American fringe tree, or Chionanthus virginicus, is easily grown in full sun to part shade in average, medium, well-drained soil. It will tolerate clay soil and pollution. This is a wonderful, hardy tree for many landscape uses. It rarely needs pruning and may be formed into a single or multi-trunk specimen or grown as a shrub without fuss. The flowers bloom in drooping clusters at the ends of the branches in May to June. Each flower has four long and narrow petals. Flowers are pure white, wispy and cloudlike.
Korean white pine, or Pinus koraiensis, is a slow growing tree, making it suitable for the smaller garden, but can reach heights of 60-plus feet. It is hardy, the foliage is attractive, the cones are striking and apparently the seeds are highly sought after for their delicious taste.
Fothergilla major ‘Mount Airy’ is a native deciduous shrub with deep blue-green leaves with attractive fall color that turns shades of red and orange. It has honey-scented, brush-like flowers that appear before the leaves. This is a great plant to use in a mixed shrub border or to incorporate into your home landscaping.
Dwarf Japanese cedar ‘Globosa Nana’, or Cryptomeria japonica ‘Globosa Nana’, is a wonderful evergreen selection that retains a neat, dense mound with little care. Enjoy as a single specimen or group as filler. Fine-textured foliage breaks up the bold effects of large-leaved plants and the foliage becomes a rusty red in winter.
“But though an old man, I am but a young gardener.” —Thomas Jefferson
Craig Dupée is a garden-design consultant. He lives in Ewing with his wife and daughters. Send him your email questions at hort1014u@aol.com.
