Panicum virgatum ‘Northwind’ – Northwind switchgrass

By Debra Knapke

The new year is full of announcements of the various 2014 “picks”, likes and awards of plants, colors, animals and more. One announcement I eagerly await is the Perennial Plant of the Year, selected by the members of the Perennial Plant Association. This choice is based on what growers, sellers, designers and educators think is a good garden plant.

Let’s define a good garden plant:
• it can tolerate a wide range of garden conditions
• it has multiple-season interest
• it has lower maintenance requirements
• it is relatively pest and disease free
• it plays well with others in the garden
• it has stood the test of time and place, and has shown itself worthy of receiving this award

Northwind switchgrass, a child of plants that grew in a railroad easement in Illinois, is a good garden plant. The kudos go to Roy Diblik of Northwind Perennial Farm in Illinois who selected ‘Northwind’ from seed he collected in the early 1990’s.

Our native switchgrass is beautiful. In the late summer you can still see it in open fields – and railway easements – with its arching habit and its soft pink to purple flowers that mature to golden seedheads. This is a plant that takes care of itself and is part of the native fabric of our prairies. Some of the earlier selections were not able to adjust to the good life of the perennial garden – lots of water, fertilizer and sometimes, not enough sun. They flopped. Northwind is different with its upright habit, golden flowers and olive toned leaves that are shaded with blue. It tolerates moist to dry soils, and grows best in full sun where it will show its colors.

Korean feather reed grass (Calamagrostis cultivars) is often the first choice when a strong vertical line is desired in the garden. Northwind switchgrass is an alternative that also offers excellent fall color. And Northwind’s native pedigree will make it a good choice for gardeners who want to focus on using native plants and creating landscape habitats such as rain gardens, meadows and wildlife refuges.

Photo Credits: Thanks to John Hoffman of Hoffman Nursery, Inc.

Cure winter blahs beautifully

By Michael Leach

The “Christmas” in my antique Christmas cactus is a misnomer. Some years, this living heirloom from my great-grandmother flowers by Dec. 25, in others Jan. 25. This year a few blooms opened the week after Thanksgiving.

Such uncertainty is OK. After all, an important ingredient of holiday magic is surprise. Sadly, some growers never get a Christmas cactus to rebloom. Even my parents and grandmother rarely were rewarded with flowers.

What’s my secret formula? Rain water whenever possible; monthly doses of a granular, organic fertilizer during the growing season; and cold temperatures. I leave the sprawling plant on the north-facing front porch until autumn readings regularly dip into the low 30s. Only after sub-freezing nightly temps make schlepping a pain, do I put it in the coolish dining room beside a west window until spring’s return.

Fortunately I don’t have to wait for blossoms on this old, cantankerous Schlumbergera bridgesii to ensure living color during the dormancy of winter, not when instant gratification with fresh flowers costs only a few dollars and is actually good for your health.

According to a Harvard University study cited on the America in Bloom website, “… people feel more compassionate toward others, have less worry and anxiety, and feel less depressed when flowers are present in the home.”

Cures for winter blues await in florist shops and supermarkets for fast-food items, often less. These fresh bargains are usually long-lasting carnations and alstoemeria, yawners among the horticultural elite. But pair a flower or two with a bit of greenery snipped from your landscape or florist fern fronds and suddenly the sun comes out on the grayest day.

For about the cost of a multi-item fast-food meal you can buy a potted orchid, African violet, cyclamen or other plant that lasts almost long as silk imitations.

A friend who returned to her Midwest roots after several years in Florida said fresh flowers each week kept her sane during the first winter. Can’t say that about hamburgers and french fries — plus flowers won’t clog arteries or add pounds.

(Writer’s note: This is another of our now-and-then posts that focuses on why you H.A.V.E. to garden — to benefit your health, attitude, property values and environment.)

Verbena ‘Lanai Candy Cane’

By Teresa Woodard

2013 American Garden Award Winners

As the year draws to a close, we wanted to share the three winners of the 2013 American Garden Awards presented by All-America Selections and the National Garden Bureau. This summer, the public was invited to vote for their favorite varieties on display at the 31 participating gardens, including Midwestern ones like Missouri Botanical Garden and Cleveland Botanical Garden.  Here are the winners:

• First Place: Verbena ‘Lanai® Candy Cane’ by Syngenta Flowers — Offers a truly unique flower pattern which commands curbside attention.
  

  Zinnia ‘Zahara Cherry’

• Second Place: Zinnia ‘Zahara™ Cherry’ by PanAmerican Seed — Grows fast and offers continuous blooms in both containers and landscape beds, or just about any other sunny location where you want loads of bold color.
• Third Place Winner: Impatiens ‘SunPatiens® Compact Electric Orange’ by Sakata Ornamentals — Brings a new color – a vibrant, deep orange — to the popular SunPatiens® line.
  

  Impatiens ‘SunPatiens® Compact Electric Orange’

By Michael Leach

I wonder how many people take family heirlooms to the cemetery on Memorial Day? These are blossoms from plants handed down from one generation to the next. Most gardens have such plants. Felder Rushing, a Mississippi gardener and writer, calls them pass-alongs.

Weather permitting, peonies were always among the Memorial Day bouquets for my family. At the family home place where I live, all of them came from my grandparents or great-grandparents. They readily shared these cast-iron standards along with garden phlox and iris, plants growing in my garden today.

Maybe that’s why I never feel lonely as I garden in blessed solitude. Memories return with the fragrance of the masses of sweet violets that grew so thickly around Auntie’s back door they perfumed the air and took away my breath. Dreams of tropical places enchanted me as a child, and so I was attracted to Grandpa’s yucca. I suppose the spiky leaves resembled some type of palm to a 10-year-old boy. I had to grow much taller before I could smell the sweetness of their satin white flowers, a much-anticipated annual event.

Unlike the yuccas, the peonies are slowly declining. Ever-increasing shade, a boon and bane, has nearly eliminated most of the 60 or so plants of perhaps a half-dozen varieties that graced beds and borders. I suppose no one needs that many reminders of long-gone contributors.

Besides these family treasures, my garden grows memories of other gardeners who shared columbines, brunneras, roses, wildflowers and day lilies. Even indoors heirlooms whisper old tales. My great-grandmother’s sprawling Christmas cactus blooms every year, usually starting in January. Such a lapse can be forgiven a grand dame who may be 100 or so.

Unlike funeral flowers, such plants make me smile. Perhaps because I remember the donors in their gardening years, active, yet at peace, working in their little Edens.