I was in Portland one snowy Friday night in March, and my visit happened to coincide with Nerd Night. Along with more than 500 fellow plant nerds, I flocked to a huge church in Lake Oswego to hear local growers tout their new offerings. Of course, the growers brought a lot of these hottie plants with them, causing a frenzy as infatuated gardeners mobbed the tables to snare their favorites. You'll all be happy to know I scored a Mahonia gracilipes. I had my eye on a $50 variegated Podophyllum peltatum but was beat out for that one, thank goodness.
Until we Puget Sound gardeners catch up with our neighbors to the south and schedule an annual Nerd Night of our own, here are a few temptations to get your plant lust going for spring.
New sunflowers appear every year, and debuting this season is 'Double Dandy,' a dwarf with wine-red flowers. To continue the dark theme, a new salvia called 'Jeweled Tower' comes in a mix of red, purple and burgundy long-blooming flowers. I'm going to search out the new annual flowering tobacco, Nicotiana mutabilis, which blooms from June through Thanksgiving in sun or shade. It grows to 5 feet, with dangling flowers that morph from white through pale to deep pink, and is an introduction from Log House Plants in Eugene. Also intriguing are a dwarf datura with yellow double flowers named 'Goldilocks' and familiar cottage-garden nasturtiums with a new color scheme. 'Golden Leaf' nasturtiums have mahogany-colored flowers shown off by chartreuse foliage.
A new shrub from the California grower Monrovia is Ceanothus thrysiflorus 'El Dorado.' The little blue flowers are accented by glossy variegated leaves in shades of lime and yellow. With good drainage and full sun it will grow 10 feet tall and wide. Monrovia also has a new ground-cover rose with little coral flowers that don't require deadheading. It is supposed to be disease-resistant, as is the new Rosa 'Starry Night' with pure-white flowers on a medium-size, ever-blooming shrub. 'Anne Boleyn' is a small (to 3 feet) new David Austin rose with soft-pink, fragrant, fully-double flowers.
Might you need a flowering evergreen tree to fit a narrow space? The new, skinny Magnolia grandiflora Alta fits the bill. It is odd to see the large, shiny leaves of magnolia growing in a conical shape, but it is a handsome tree for small gardens. The U.S. National Arboretum recently released a new Chinese redbud (Cercis chinensis 'Don Egolf'). This small, multi-stemmed tree (to 10 feet) is disease-resistant and has golden fall foliage. Phygelius 'New Sensation' is a cape fuchsia that grows only about a foot tall, with burgundy stems and vivid red, tubular flowers.
The cover stars of Jackson and Perkins' spring catalog are 'New Generation' lupines, which are aphid-resistant, don't need staking and range in color from cream through peach to blood red, as well as shades of blue and white. Delphinium elata 'New Heights' are the world's first dwarf delphiniums. They're hardy, vigorous, grow only 3 to 4 feet high, and come in those beautiful delphinium shades of iridescent purple, turquoise, sky blue, rose, pink, white and cream. Another improvement to an old favorite is the 4 o'clock, Mirabilis jalapa 'Limelight,' which has bright rose flowers set off by yellow-green variegated foliage. All these perennials are introductions from Log House Plants.
Remember the first pink coreopsis? It was disappointingly pale and muddy-colored. Now there's Coreopsis rosea 'Limerock Ruby,' which has a larger flower in true ruby pink, and blooms most of the summer. And be sure to look for Dierama 'Blackbird,' which has deep burgundy flowers, and Heuchera 'Amber Waves,' which since last year has created a buzz among gardeners for its ruffled foliage in shades of brown, apricot and gold.
Where to begin the search-and-collect mission? Many local and specialty nurseries will stock these plants as the season unfolds. Plant Answer Line ( 206-UW-PLANT, or hortlib@u.washington.edu) can help find sources. And you can be sure that many of the plants mentioned above, and a great many more, will be available at the Arboretum Foundation Annual Plant Sale next weekend (see above).
Now In Bloom
Euphorbia characias 'Black Pearl' is new this spring and boasts a showy combination of colors as well as easy care. Its blue-green foliage grows 2 feet high, and is topped in spring with lime-green bracts dotted with ebony eyes. Like most euphorbias it enjoys sun, isn't fussy about soil, and is drought-tolerant, once established.
Arboretum Plant Sale
The Arboretum Foundation's 53rd annual sale is April 27, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and April 28, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sand Point Naval Air Station, Building No. 30 (enter at main gate), 7400 Sand Point Way, Seattle. For information call 206-325-4510. Valerie Easton will be there signing her new book, "Plant Life: Growing a Garden in the Pacific Northwest," on Saturday from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
Valerie Easton is manager at the Miller Horticultural Library. Her new book, "Plant Life: Growing a Garden in the Pacific Northwest" (Sasquatch Books, 2002) is an updated selection of her magazine columns. Her e-mail address is vjeaston@aol.com
