Favorite plants of 2011: Part 1

I try lots of new plants every year. It is one of my favorite things about gardening, so I thought I'd share some of my very favorites of 2011. Not all of them new in my garden this past year, but simply things that made an impression on me.

Beautiful, hardy mums.

I've talked about these before, and I'll keep talking about them because I can't believe so few people grow them. Fully winter hardy, amazing range of forms and colors. Don't think you have to limit yourself to the boring not-very-hardy cushion mums from the big box store, or the few hardy, daisy-form varieties that are more widely available. Sheffield Pink and Will's Wonderful are great, but why stop there when you can ALSO have something like Peach Centerpiece? Get them all from Faribault Growers. Oh, and in my original post I didn't give a great review of 'Matchsticks'. Well, that was because I hadn't been patient enough. Early in their development, the flowers are okay, but once the open fully, they are stunning as seen in the image above.

Kale 'Gulag Stars'

I'm a huge fan of basically all kale, but this beatiful and incredibly diverse mix of kales won my heart. Actually a fascinating hybrid of different brassica species rather than a regular kale, the result is masses of frilly, slightly spicy leaves on robust plants I harvested from constantly the entire summer. Any vegetable that combines easy of growth, great flavor, and beauty is a winner in my book. As far as I know, available exclusively from Adaptive Seeds, which is a crazy cool source for crazy cool veggies you should really check out.

Salvia nutans

Previously mentioned in the blog, I love this plant. So clearly a salvia, and yet so unlike any salvia I've ever grown. This is my first year with if from seed (it was completely easy to germinate and grow, by the way) and it started out as a rosette of gloriously big, bold, textured foliage. Usually, when a plant starts as a rosette, it stretches out dramatically into a big leafy pillar when it flowers, but this one is different. The leaves stay nice and compact at the bottom, and up goes a tall (almost 4 foot), slender, leafless stem topped with an utterly charming upside-down cluster of lavender flowers. I could see this being stunning in the front of a mixed border, the basal leaves looking great at ground level, and the dancing flowers making a wonderful see-through effect like the always great Verbena bonariensis. I got mine from Gardens North.

Crocus speciosus

When it comes to fall blooming crocuses, I'd pretty much written them off several years ago when I tried – and failed spectacularly with -- Crocus sativus, the saffron crocus. It hates my cold, wet garden and promptly died. But in the fall of 2010, I decided to give this group another try, and this time planted Crocus speciosus. It bloomed that first fall, which was nice, but I more-or-less expected it to rot out in the wet of winter and spring. To my surpise, and delight, however, it showed up happy and more numerous in my garden this fall! The large blooms are wonderful, and such a lovely contrast to the red and yellow tones that dominate that time of year. I was also impressed with the length of the bloom season – flower after flower opening for quite a few weeks. I'll certainly be adding more to the garden in future years.

Carex buchananii

I've grown this for several years now, and I love it more every year. People seem to love or hate it – brown is a wonderfully strange color for a grass, and you may dismiss it as looking dead, but I love how it sets off other colors around it so vividly. The real surprise to me on this species is that it is hardy. I'd grown other species of brown sedges as annuals, so when I saw Arrowhead Alpines listing this as hardy here in zone 5 Michigan, I was stunned. They are, as always, totally correct. Sails through every winter without a scratch. For something completely different, tough, and care-free, give it a try.

Impatiens balfourii

Okay, full disclosure: This isn't in my garden yet, though I've got seeds on order. I fell hard for this little beauty at the Indianapolis Museum of Art gardens, where it was self-sowing enthusiastically through a lovely shade garden. I'm not a big fan of they typical Impatiens walleriana, all dumpy little lumps of flowers. This one is a completely different beast: a looser, more natural looking habit between one and two feet, and loaded with marvelously intricate blooms. Everything I've heard and saw in the gardens tells me that it is perhaps an overly enthusiastic self-sower, but the nice thing about impatients is they are soft and easy to uproot where not needed. Hopefully my seeds will germinate without any fuss, and I'll be able to establish them in my garden. I'll keep you updated.

I've got more favorites coming, so stay tuned for the other things I loved last year!

Mum mania

My mums are flowering! No, not the little wretched cushion mums you see everywhere. These are the lovely, fully hardy ones from Faribault Growers I was all excited about buying earlier this year.

Plants and flowers are a bit smaller than the catalog descriptions, but given they started as itsy bitsy little plugs this spring, that isn't too surprising. I expect they will grow into their full size next year. In any case, I'm nuts about them. Great colors, diverse forms, large voluptuous flowers, on utterly tough, carefree plants. What's not to love?

Matchstick has a vivid, ever-changing mix of yellow and red I've seen around in catalogs. It is nice, but not my favorite.

Snowscape has a graceful combination of pale pink and yellow on huge, profuse blooms. Very soft and romantic feeling.

Centerpiece has an elegant spooned form, in a richer shade pink

My favorite, hands down, is Peach Centerpiece. Same form as Centerpiece, but in a warm peach tone that one of my absolute favorite flower colors.

Drooool....

I think I need a LOT more Peach Centerpiece next year. I want dozens and dozens of them, all over the garden, sending the gardening year off in a rush of glorious, decadent beauty. That shouldn't be too hard... I love it when I fall for a plant that is both cheap and easy to grow.

Magnificent Mums

Okay, I know what you are thinking. 'Magnificent' and 'Mum' are not two words that usually go together. Those little round blob mums you see for sale every fall tend to inspire, at best, words like 'reliable' and usually something along the lines of 'boring.' That's how I thought of mums, until my first trip to Japan, where I took this picture:

You know you are in Japan when the mums are bigger than the trees...

As an aside, I didn't see this in a botanic garden or something. This was just the display on someone's front porch I saw wandering around Nagoya. Grabbing a pot of mums at the supermarket to spruce up the front of the house takes on a little different meaning in Japan. 

Seeing mums like these made me think completely differently about them, made me realize that those little lumps of color you see here are just a tiny, tiny bit of the incredible variation in this group of plants.

Since I took that photo, almost a decade ago now, I've been keeping my eyes open for more interesting varieties, with little luck. Until recently, when I found some. Well, not some, a LOT. A whole treasure trove. Turns out a Faribault Growers has a whole line of varieties that are not only gorgeous and voluptuous but also fully winter hardy in Minnesota. Here are a few photos taken from their website:

Luscious. Just luscious. I'm going to stock up my garden with them this year and celebrate fall with a little drama.