tesselaar plants

Congratulations to Marilyn Scoles, the winner of Tesselaar Plants' September 2012 contest on its Your Easy Garden blog!

Marilyn, of San Mateo, California, will be receiving her prize – bare-root Flower Carpet^® roses – in the spring.

Here's her entry for the "share your best garden tips and tricks" category:

My Best and Easiest Garden Tip

by Marilyn Scoles (shown here with lil' Maggie)

For a last hurrah, use Gro-Power's Flower-n-Bloom fertilizer after cutting back your plants and shrubs. In three weeks, you'll have all new blooms! Just like spring all over again!

Thanks, Marilyn! I checked into it and found out that Gro-Power is organic and is available nationwide through independent garden centers. And these pics of Marilyn's garden are certainly a good testimonial to its blooming power!

Marilyn's bouganvillea

Her mom's 30-year-old hydrangea

Her delphinium

And her tricolor lacecap hydrangea!

Thanks again, Marilyn! Hope you enjoy your Flower Carpet roses! And anyone else who wants to send in their garden tips and tricks, please know they're welcome here, anytime!

Yay for Tropicanna Black! This summer, the widely celebrated, purplish-black leaved canna from Tesselaar Plants took top honors at the United Kingdom's largest plant trade show – the Horticultural Trade Association’s National Plant Show. The honor – the Silver Award for Herbaceous Perennials – went to John Woods Nurseries (of Suffolk County, England – one of Tesselaar’s UK growers). 

Also at the show (below), John Woods presented another Tesselaar plant – the Black Tulip magnolia – as a gift to England's Queen Elizabeth!

Congratulations to John  Woods Nurseries and to Tesselaar Plants!

Aggressive deer browsing, soggy ground and seasonally low temperatures were some of the topics our regional garden bloggers wrote about in late April. So this month, they're ready for a warmer, drier, spring! Here's what else is happening in their gardens …

Carmel Booth (Georgia): Booth loves springtime – and gardening – in Georgia, where the growing season lasts from Tax Day (usually April 15) till late October.

Carmel: Three years ago, I decided that the very wet and shaded area off my deck was the perfect place for a shade garden. I have different types of hosta planted along with ferns and heuchera, bordered with two Flower Carpet^® roses and a hydrangea.  Recently, we had to cut down the shade-providing maple tree and now this little garden is getting much more sun. I added canna lilies and a peony in hopes that they will get tall enough to shade some of the other plants. Sure hope I don’t have to move all those hosta to more shade!  Spring has certainly sprung here in Georgia.  I can’t wait to share more about my garden and how it grows! Now go play in the dirt! 

Shirley Gardner (Boise, Idaho): A passionate gardener for almost 50 years, Gardner more than lives up to her last name – spending three to four hours a day maintaining her greenhouse full of veggies and half-acre of gardens and flowerbeds. This year, she also planted 200 gladiolus bulbs to provide flowers for the tables at her granddaughter's wedding!

Shirley: Mother Nature is making it difficult for us gardeners in Boise this spring. We’ve seldom had sunshine for more than a day at a time between rain storms. The plants are loving it, but the ground is still so wet on those few sunny days that digging in the flower beds has been pretty mucky. The temperature has also been below average. The growth rate of the tomatoes and other veggies in my greenhouse has been slower than usual, due to the lack of sunshine. Since our last average frost date here is around May 10, we’re going to need lots of sun between now and then to help these little babies grow!

Becky Dziarnowski (Southwest Colorado): Dziarnowski tends her acre or so of gardens 6,800 feet up, on top of a mesa in Southwest Colorado. She has gardened for as long as she can remember, with most of that time spent in southern California. So the last 10 years in Colorado, she says, have definitely been a new learning experience.

  
Becky: Spring has been trying for most gardeners in our area and we’re all waiting for better conditions. Everything planted here gets a three-year trial with our lovely rainfall of approximately 15 inches a year (and that's including the snowfall). We were at 20 degrees in late April, so obviously we're ready for some warmth to bring the garden back to life. The daffodils and tulips are up, and (unfortunately) several of the fruit trees have already blossomed. The absolutely amazing part is my Flower Carpet^® roses – they grow here, wonder of wonders! In late April, they were already leafing out (see pic, above). I never would have believed it, and am so pleased that first off, they survived and that since then, they've thrived.
  

Catie Anderson (Willamette Valley, Oregon): Anderson, who gardens a little less than half of her 4 acres in Oregon wine country, started gardening with her grandmother at age 5. She went through her local master gardener program a few years ago and now works at Carlton Plants, a wholesale nursery.

Catie: In the Willamette Valley, the biggest problem is deer. They’re tame and they eat everything. Daffodils, peonies and cedar are all on the deer resistant lists – but they eat them anyway! Stinky sprays don't work – they're like a delicacy to them! They jump over 8-foot barriers and crawl under 2-foot ones. They knock down cages, “climb” fruit trees and push over bird feeders. I’m not giving in yet! This year I’ve enclosed a small, 8-foot-square area with 5-foot garden stakes and fishing line (see pic, above). I’ve heard this is effective because they can’t see the line. The first one is 1 foot off the ground, the next are 3 and 4 feet high. Maybe this year I’ll find out what color my 8-year old tulip bulbs are!!

The following guest post is from Tim Kane, sales/marketing/inventory manager for Prides Corner Farms, a Lebanon, Connecticut commercial grower of Tesselaar Plants' container-friendly, disease-resistant Volcano^® phlox.

Volcano phlox: The best garden phlox on the market

By Tim Kane

There are lots of great plants you hear people talk about in this industry, but I have little doubt that Volcano phlox is the best garden phlox you can find anywhere.

You can take my word for it, but – of course – one might understand why you might not believe the hype coming from me. After all, we grow thousands of Volcano phlox plants at Prides Corner Farms, and it is in my best interest to say they are fantastic. So maybe you should really listen to our customers who swear they won’t carry another garden phlox except for Volcano. 

What exactly makes our customers so loyal to Volcano? Maybe it’s the tight, dense, pot-filling form that’s perfect for selling in the garden center and growing in the garden.  All six Volcano colors (pink with white eye, pink with red eye, purple, white, red and ruby) top out in the 24- to 30-inch range, making them far less trouble in the garden center and in the landscape.

Also figuring into that loyalty to Volcano is the ability to bloom seemingly forever with such a massive quantity of flowers. Of course, there’s also the added feature of reblooming in late summer and fall when cut back after initial bloom.  Or, maybe it’s the famous Volcano phlox tolerance of powdery mildew (the scourge of all garden phlox) that makes this plant look so good even in hot, humid weather.

Looking for another reason to love Volcano? How ‘bout its versatility in the landscape. They’re the perfect summer blooming perennial for sunny areas, in the ground or in containers where they have an explosive effect on a deck or patio.

Whatever that reason is that makes our customers embrace Volcano phlox so tightly, it's clear here at Prides Corner that they are an absolute must for us to have during the summer to start weekly orders for our customers. Their uniqueness, blooming firepower, color selection and overall great looks have built such great expectations with our customers that they actually are disappointed in us when we run out. Volcano phlox really are our best selling summer blooming perennial, and our customers keep coming back for more!

The original Tropicanna cannas contrasting beautifully against an electric-blue garden wall.

Hey! The wildly popular Garden Rant and North Coast Gardening blogs have been hosting a Tropicanna^® cannas giveaway contest this past week, with the contest starting early last Thursday (March 10, 2011) and ending this Wednesday night (March 16, 2011). That means there are only two more days to post a comment and (and perhaps win a Tropicanna variety pack)!

Genevieve Schmidt (left, of North Coast Gardening and Amy Stewart (right, of Garden Rant) pretending to be Tropicanna cannas.

The contest – and Tropicanna cannas – have been extremely popular with the blogs’ followers, with more than 50 glowing comments posted as of today (Monday, March 14, 2011). Winners of the Tropicanna cannas will be announced next week!

The original Tropicanna cannas (left), Tropicanna Gold (middle) and Tropicanna Black (right).

Amy Stewart (of Garden Rant) and Genevieve Schmidt (of North Coast Gardening) also posted a fun video and photos of them planting the tropical, psychedelically foliaged Tropicanna cannas (as rhizomes) at the home of an artist friend who loves bold colors. “I’m a Tropicannaaaaa!" they shouted in the video, pretending to be the plant.

I particularly liked how Schmidt and one of Stewart's followers suggested some great plant combinations using Tropicanna cannas (Schmidt suggested the first three, along with photos in her post on North Coast Gardening):

Combo 1: Tropicanna canna, Alstroemeria ‘The Third Harmonic’, and Uncinia uncinata ‘Red’

Combo 2: Tropicanna Gold, Euphorbia characias, Calluna ‘Beoley Gold’

Combo 3:Tropicanna Black, Helianthemum ‘Henfield Brilliant’, Clianthus puniceus ‘Red’

Combo 4: Tropicanna Gold with a brilliant red foliage plant such as phormium or a red banana

Feeling inspired? You may also want to check out the video "How to Grow Tropicannas in Containers" (produced by Dave Epstein of Growing Wisdom). Or, see this previous post on the contest for some fabulous container garden combinations featuring the original Tropicanna cannas along with the newer Tropicanna Gold and Tropicanna Black (Black is now widely available to the market after being held back for a few years because of propagation issues). And the word on the street is that Tropicanna cannas will be sold in all different container sizes at all different prices this year! Wahoo!

If you're looking for more information on Tropicanna cannas, or other Tesselaar Plants (like the cool, chocolate-leaved Bonfire begonias that are new for 2011), go to Tesselaar's web site or follow Tesselaar on social media (@tesselaarplants on Twitter and Tesselaar International Plants on Facebook).

So that's it. Don't forget to comment on Amy and Gen's posts, and get in on the chance to win some Tropicanna cannas!

Good luck!

Pink Supreme is now the seventh Flower Carpet rose to win the world’s top honor for disease-resistant roses – Germany’s coveted All Deutschland Rose (ADR) designation. One of three new Flower Carpet “Next Generation” roses (with an additional 15 years of breeding for heat and humidity), Pink Supreme this year also scored high in the Dallas Arboretum trial gardens (known for putting plants to the ultimate test in extreme heat and humidity).

“I know of no other eco-friendly, easy-care rose program offering so much scientifically based, unbiased backing and endorsement,” says Anthony Tesselaar, cofounder and president of the Australia-based Tesselaar Plants (which introduced Flower Carpet to the U.S. in 1995 as the world’s first low-maintenance, prolifically flowering, disease- and pest-resistant landscape rose.) “That’s what happens when every plant you offer goes through such rigorous testing – 1,465 steps in all – before it’s brought to market.”

Tesselaar is particularly pleased with the ADR designation for Pink Supreme, which is now the third of the Flower Carpet line’s “Next Generation” roses to win the award (along with Scarlet and Amber). The original line’s Pink, White, Scarlet and Yellow have also won the designation. The ADR trials are conducted over the course of three years at a number of different test sites, each enforcing the ADR program’s famous ban on spraying or other chemical support. “We all know these are important measures as we look to minimize our impact on the environment,” says Anthony Tesselaar. 

Pink Supreme also earned high marks in the Dallas Arboretum’s 2010 Trial program – internationally known as one of the premier places to test plants for extreme weather conditions, especially high heat and humidity.

“Our tagline is ‘Trial By Flower – If We Can’t Kill It, No One Can’”, says Jimmy Turner, the Dallas Arboretum’s Senior Director of Gardens.

The arboretum’s trial program annually tests 4,000 annuals, bulbs, perennials, trees and shrubs in search of the “toughest plants alive.”

“This is a variety that I was highly impressed with due to its flower power,” says Jenny Wegley, Research and Greenhouse Manager for the Dallas Arboretum. “Pink Supreme blooms its head off the majority of the growing season, with mid- to light-pink flower clusters that really make this variety popular.” Pink Supreme, she adds, also shows no signs of powdery mildew and takes a cutting well.

“This is why we’re so excited about the “Next Generation” line of Flower Carpet roses,” says Anthony Tesselaar. “As other brands continue to chase our original, revolutionary performance, our breeders have already spent 15 years taking it to the next level.”

So I'm minding my own business on the deck the other day, and whaddya know? My Bluestorm™ agapanthus threw out a second flush of blooms.

Here I thought I was so cool and edgy, growing this Zone 9-11 tropical (also called Lily of the Nile) in my humble, little Zone 6a garden in upstate New York. Turns out this tropical beauty is just perfect for colder climates like mine, with the exception of having to overwinter them inside.

But big whoop – I'm already doing that here with my Bonfire^® begonias, Tropicanna^® cannas and tropical houseplants like croton and bromeliads. And many of my gardening friends do the same with their elephant ears, angel trumpet, hibiscus and other houseplants. (For more information on overwintering tropicals indoors, see this great article from the University of Illinois Extension).

While I thought my barrier to growing agapanthus (or other tropical plants) was the cold winter temperatures, Texans, I learned, have the opposite problem – too much heat (in the summer, at night). At least that's what I learned at the Dallas Arboretum this past month during a tour there with other Garden Writers Association' members attending the group's annual symposium downtown (check out some pics from the tour at Red Dirt Ramblings, Floradora and Gardening with Confidence).

"We went through all the agapanthus years ago, and killed them all – except Bluestorm," says Jimmy Turner, Senior Director of Gardens for the arboretum. "It's the only one we have in our display gardens."

At a compact 30 inches, Bluestorm is "the perfect little height," he says. "Some of the agapanthus we've had are up here at my height (6 feet) with huge umbels that fall over in the wind. And you get one flower stalk instead of five or six."

Bluestorm agapanthus in containers

Turner also loves Bluestorm for its great foliage, multi-heading flower stems (as many as a hundred stems on one 5-year-old plant) and quick growth.

In Texas, he added, Bluestorm agapanthus also has a second flush – and sometimes even a third flush – of blooms. "The first flush here happens about April-May and lasts for six to seven weeks. Then about the end of May, we get a second flush for about four to six weeks. After that they go into summer dormancy, and occasionally we get a third spike of blooms around September-October."

For Turner, Bluestorm is the perfect container plant. "In our zone, it's a perennial, so it's also great to leave in the garden … we like to give it a little afternoon shade."

When it comes to designing with agapanthus, Turner recommends a more formal approach. "It needs to be grouped tightly in a square, triangle or centerpiece. (Bluestorm's consistent height makes it perfect for this).

Bluestorm agapanthus in massed plantings

"Agapanthus is a diva," he jokes. "It's so striking, it doesn't blend well with other plants … We use a lot of variegated liriope and groundcovers with it, just to really showcase it."

"Tesselaar's new Everest™ carex would also be a good pairing with that," I added, not so subtly. "You're right," laughed Turner. "It would."

And who knew? Agapanthus is the designer must-have item in Europe: "Blue and purple varieties have been really popular in recent years, and that trend looks set to continue," said Claire Smith, plant area manager for Sanders Garden World in Somerset, England (in this June 2009 article in Horticulture Week). And they've long been a mainstay in places like California and Australia.

In the UK and Australia, garden designers and florists love agapanthus' architectectural shape and even use the flower after the petals have fallen off. And with so many flowers on a single plant, Bluestorm has become a cutting garden favorite for this very reason. 

Sounds like Bluestorm's more workhorse than diva! Tell me what you think … have you grown agapanthus? Did it work well for you? Post a comment and tell me!

So I planted some bare root Flower Carpet^® roses last month (in May). They've already got buds on them, ready to bloom!

Here are the Flower Carpet Amber roses I planted in masses, to knit together into a low-growing blanket along a walkway next to my house: 

And here's a Flower Carpet Scarlet (one of three Flower Carpet Next Generation Roses bred for even better heat and humidity tolerance), planted in a container with a red-bloomed canna on my deck.

Despite near-record rains for the month of June here, I'm happy to report that these disease-resistant roses' shiny, green foliage is clean and completely free of black spot. (I wish my other plants were as healthy, like my tar-spot ridden holley bushes or my mildew-covered bachelor's buttons).

So anyway, as I played around with these low-growing, easy-care roses, my mind started working on all the ways you can use them in your landscape (most of which just can't do with higher-growing roses). Here are a few ideas I came up with (all images, unless otherwise noted, are courtesy of Tesselaar Plants).

10 easy ways to use "carpet" or groundcover roses

1) As a backdrop for a special feature …

Featured here at mahoneysgarden.com:

 Shown here at backyardnature.com:

2) As a low mounding hedge softening the edges of a walkway …

3) As a full, cascading garden wall topper …

4) As a hedge of tree roses (also referred to as topiaries or standards)…

5) As large masses of color in a foundation planting …

6) As "first-tier," low-growing color at the front of the perennial border or bed:

7) As a low-growing blanket of color along walkways or the strip between the sidewalk and the street …

This image courtesy of perfectplaces.ivii-designs.com:

 This image courtesy of design-a-yard.com:

(Red Flower Carpet roses at Ladera Ranch in South Orange County, California, featured here by Landscape Design/Build magazine's e-newsletter):  

8) As matching or complementary color with other garden plants …

(Featured here in Garden Gate magazine's 2010 special issue, Great Plant Combos):

9) In containers …

This image also courtesy of perfectplaces.ivii-designs.com:

Featured here at garden-nz.co.nz:

10) At the very front of your landscape to boost curb appeal … 

So … how 'bout you? How do you use "carpet" or groundcover roses in your landscape? If so, tell me about it, and add some pics if you can!