everest carex

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!

Today's guest post comes from Phillip Townshend, global operations director for Tesselaar Plants. While I've been here puttering in my fall garden, making Halloween cake with my 3-year-old and planning a family trip to Disney, Phillip has been tirelessly visiting trade shows around the world, promoting and keeping an eye on all Tesselaar's babies!

 Phillip Townshend

Tesselaar's 2011 plant intros, time-tested favorites wow at shows around the world

By Phillip Townshend

I have been travelling for several weeks now and life has been extremely hectic, so I haven’t been able to provide a quick update until now on the highlights seen at the various shows/visits with Tesselaar's business partners.

First up in recent travels was a visit to the Independent Garden Center Show (run by Nursery Retailer magazine), which took me to the Navy Pier in Chicago. There, our Everest carex (bred by the talented Pat Fitzgerald of FitzGerald Nurseries in Ireland) was looking great on the Willoway Nurseries stand.

Also a highlight for me were the plantings on the Magnificent Mile (Chicago always does a great job in their public plantings) as well as seeing Bonfire^® begonias used in mixed container plantings at the front of a hotel I passed whilst on my morning run.

Bonfire begonias (red blooms) in hanging baskets

The purpose for attending the IGC show was to meet up with some of our U.S. grower partners (the people who actually grow the plants we bring to market) and get our planning agreed for the upcoming season. It is always interesting in horticulture, working on the long lead times required to make plants available, and we can often be setting items in place so that we have plants ready for retail up to three years ahead of them arriving on the shelves of the various retail outlets that carry our programs.

After IGC, it was then off to meet with the breeder of the Flower Carpet^® series of roses (Mr. Reinhard Noack of Noack Rosen in Germany), who has one of the nicest display gardens I have been to. Reinhard not only incorporates his own plants in the garden but has a fine eye for garden design and has some great complementary plantings that show how versatile Flower Carpet is and how it can be used in various settings. If you get a chance when travelling, and the season is right, be sure to include a visit to the Noack Rosen trial garden on your itinerary.

In a field of Flower Carpet roses with Reinhard Noack (left)

After this, it was off to the Plantarium trade show in Holland, for their annual horticultural event.

This trade show continues to get bigger every year, and is well worth attending both from a trade and consumer perspective – the show opens on the last day for consumers and there are some great plant bargains to be had as exhibitors like ourselves try to minimize the amount of material we have to pack up by selling/giving away items.

This year, our focus for the Tesselaar stand was the preview of the new Bonfire selections (to be released to consumers next year in spring 2011): Bonfire Choc Pink and Choc Red. Our grower partners excelled themselves with the display plants they supplied for the show and, with some great imagery from our photographer and nice display plants, we picked up third place in the Press Award for new products (for Choc Pink)!

Bonfire Choc Pink

This is a fabulous plant, slated for release in early 2011, and has the same great growth characteristics as the original Bonfire but with a completely different look – blush pink flowers against dark chocolate/plum foliage.

Despite the banners having a model of quality in the image, that is me included in the picture of the stand looking a little less model-like, but still resplendent amongst the begonias and quite happy with how our stand looked for the show.

 At the Bonfire Choc display

Finally, after a successful trip across multiple time zones, I returned home to wintry Melbourne, Australia just in time for the football finals – which hopefully, my team will win again … Go Cats.

And whilst the weather might be cold, it is the perfect time of year to see why we love working with the Jury magnolias (bred by magnolia industry icon Mr. Mark Jury). Check out the blooms on the Black Tulip^®, the size of the bloom of Felix Jury^® and the flowering machine that is the recently released Fairy Magnolias^®.

Black Tulip magnolia

Felix Jury magnolia

Fairy Magnolias

Well, that's all for now. More travel reports to come on Tesselaar's time-tested (and new-for-2011) plants!

Well, here it finally is …. the second half of my report from the Independent Garden Center Expo 2010 in Chicago (there were so many new plants and products catching my eye that I had to split my post into two).

As you can see in this YouTube video, I learned a lot about Everest™ Carex (also called Japanese Sedge), which was on display at the booth sponsored by Ohio-based Willoway Nurseries.

Lovers of the popular Carex hachijoensis 'Evergold' with gold margins, will love this architectural, shade-brightening fountain with bright-white margins and low, softly mounding form. And, best of all, this Carex oshimensis makes a great "spiller" for any thriller-spiller-filler plant combination in a garden container, or those who follow the old-time rule of always adding white to any color combination.

Everest carex also makes for a low, softly mounding hedge around a perennial bed. As you can see in the video, Willoway used it in the front and backed it with a tall, reddish cordyline. Wow, what a combination! (Willoway also suggests using it with dark-colored foliage like heuchera (coral bells) and ipomea (sweet potato vine) or contrasting the long, linear leaves with big foliage (Tropicanna^® Black, a large, purple-black leaved canna – of course, also from Tesselaar – would be stunning).

Speaking of Tropicanna Black (below, in front of the gold-striped Tropicanna Gold), I just got word that it'll be widely available in 2011 (here's a video of me with a large stand of it at the Monrovia booth at the show).

I also learned about a great fall garden container combination, featuring the burgundy, glossy, strappy leaves of Festival™ Burgundy cordyline (below) with purple mums, purple fountain grass, hypercum berries and ornamental kale. In a short whiskey barrel container, I also saw Festival Burgundy cordyline nicely grouped with mums, fountain grass, stonecrop (all purple) and corkscrew rush and ornamental kale.

Other favorites at the show included this selection of handmade herbal candles by Herbal DeLights. Scents included Pineapple Mint, Bay Laurel, Tea Rose and Sandalwood. They also offer outdoor kitchen aroma candles (for your outdoor kitchen) that double as bug repellant. Very pretty – and pretty smelling!

And here's a stylish take on eco-friendly rainwater harvesting barrels, from Garantia:

Well, that's all for now. Look for these cool new plants and products at your favorite garden centers in 2011!