New Plants in the New Year

Posted by Georgene A. Bramlage Jan 8, 2008

Catalogs after the New Year tempt us to try at least one new plant in our garden landscapes. Short of not buying, are there any ways to avoid the ad writers' enticing pull and maximize our investment?

• Mark your new favorites in a sort of old-fashioned 1930s wish book approach:
  • Come back often to sigh and drool over your selections.
  • Wish for a winning lottery ticket or a generous birthday present.

• Meanwhile, do your research. Review basics of your garden landscape using information found in:
  • Microclimates, or
  • A First Landscape.

• Read beyond the catalogs to gather information from test garden reports. Internet sites make it easy to have current information at our fingertips. Some excellent research report sites are:
  • The Royal Horticultural Society Plant Trials (U.K.)
  • All America Selections
  • All America Rose Selections
  • The Better Homes and Gardens Test Garden (IA) and
  • Cornell Plantations (NY).

• Look for credible articles about your most wanted plants in accurate and authoritative garden magazines, both on-line and hard copy. Some are:
  • The Plantsman: Essential Reading for All Informed Gardeners and Horticulturists (U.K.),
  • Fine Gardening Magazine (MA) and
  • The English Garden: For Everyone Who Loves Gardens (U.K.).

• Landscaping at Suite101 features, beginning this month, several series in which I take a look at some new selections and hybrids coming into the horticultural market. I pay attention to how these up-to-the-minute introductions fit into garden landscape designs, whether or not they hold up and how to find them in catalogs. The first of these articles are:
  • Echinacea Selections in Landscapes and
  • Up-to-the-minute Echinacea Hybrids.

©Text by Georgene A. Bramlage. 2008. Reproduction without permission prohibited.