All America Selections for Cottage Gardens
Rudbeckia hirta "Prairie Sun" is a single daisy-type bloom with a striking lime green eye and gold to softer primrose yellow petals. Look for it to come into bloom in mid to late summer and keep going until frost if dead headed. It is tall, at three feet, and the flowers are about four to five inches across, so you'll get good bold impact from it. I think it would shine beside taller sunflowers or mixed in with purple coneflowers and caryopteris, or maybe even with butterfly bushes. Sold as an annual, it may actually overwinter if you are lucky. I think it would look great in a wild garden or in a formal border, either one.
Petunia Merlin Blue Morn
Last but not least, two new blue or so-called blue petunias -- you be the judge on that one -- but it is always fun to try out the new blues and see how they look at home. Petunia "Merlin Blue Morn" has such a magical name! Its look is magical too, with a sort of two-toned effect where the white center magically shades out to a blue perimeter edging. This one is being suggested for patriotic red, white and blue mass plantings because all you need to add to it is red flowers such as an annual salvia. If you feel you need a color theme, I kind of like a blue and white theme better for a cottage garden, or maybe blue, white and yellow or blue, white and pink, and of course jumble them together or plant in informal drifts or groups rather than a rigid pattern, but it's totally up to you.
Finally, there is the Petunia "Blue Wave" addition to the popular Wave series or family. This one should perform like its "Lavender Wave" and "Purple Wave" precedents, and is capable of spreading to several feet across in the garden if it is fed heavily and watered sufficiently to support such luxuriant growth over a long season. Note, though, that the recommended spacing is still being listed at only roughly one to two feet apart, so that tidal effect does take some time to develop as the plants mature.
Well, in reviewing my notes, it looks like -- picky, opinionated and discerning though I may be -- there is not a single flowering plant among the new Selections that I didn't like in some way, shape
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