Posted by Stephanie | Posted in Park Seed | Posted on 19-06-2007
Today, Here at Park Seed, We had a little, informal walk-through of the brand new Fall Planting 2007 Park Seed Catalog with our own Director of Horticulture, Eric Johnson. You may have seen him on Garden Smart TV or in his instructional gardening videos on Youtube. He really knows his stuff.
I’m just going to quickly hit the high points, I figure if it was significant enough to impress the experts then it is probably a very impressive plant. First, the cover plant, Gaillardia Ring of Fire has the biggest blooms of any blanket flower, from 5 to 7 inches. If you look at the other gaillardias in the background of the photo, you can see how much larger Ring of Fire is than the standard.
On page 17 of the catalog, the Dwarf Oriental Lily Garden Party is another great plant. This plant is amazing because, unlike full size lilies which have a tendency to get to tall and flop over, this amazing lily only reaches about 2′-3′ tall, but it still has those amazing, full-sized lily blooms.
There were a couple of real Love-it-or-hate-it’s like the Leather-Leaf Sedge. Half of the people who see it think it’s dead, the other half think its the hottest thing since god invented the seed. The controversy comes from the unique copper coloring, which makes a great accent to mixed pots and flower beds.
And, of course, the notorious Bat Plant– there is the occasional gardener who believes this may be the ugliest plant on Earth, unless Little Shop of Horrors turns out to be a factual account of actual events. But, this unique tropical has a charm all its own, wiling unsuspecting growers into a second glance with its graceful whiskers and large deeply toned bracts. I would buy one.