Park Seed Garden Journal

Dahlias are the perfect perennials for those warmer, drier zones. They love full sun and prefer sandy, well-draining soil. They are also fairly versatile in the landscape, ranging in size from the short little border plants to the towering stems and full blossoms of the larger varieties that make great colorful backdrops to the rest of your flower garden.

Park Seed offers a huge variety of Dahlias online, including mixes and collections. Dahlia 'Dark Angels Dragon Ball' is a customer favorite with a really unique look. 'Dragon Ball' has a very surreal look — the brightly colored geometric blooms really stand out against the dark foliage. This is a more compact Dahlia, perfect for containers. Another top seller, Dahlia 'Lucca Johanna', is billed as the "perfect cut flower." The long stems reach up to 4 feet, topped with big beautiful double blooms that gradient from a pink edge to white to a deep primrose center.

In the last couple of years we’ve gotten a lot of requests from customers for Coral Bells that perform better in the hotter summers that many of us have been experiencing.  We’re really happy this year to be able to offer two new plants that fit the bill perfectly.  Heuchera ‘Southern Comfort’ and Heuchera ‘Mahogany’ are two of the very best heat-tolerant Coral Bells that we’ve ever seen around here.  Both are products of amazing breeding advances that have been made in recent years.

Heuchera are prized for the full, spectacularly-colored foliage that they bring without too much effort on your part.  They are unusually vigorous plants, growing with full, neat habits that very rarely get straggly or sparse.  They look great in your garden year round, most
getting even more beautiful in the cooler weather.  In recent years the red, copper, brown, and yellow colors have become ever more popular as accent plants that can really help everything else in the garden to pop.  They also feature creamy-white blooms on tall stems for part of the year.  They’re especially great in border plantings in part shade (depending on zone), or as a neat accent in mixed containers.

Shade gardening can be tough.  One problem that a lot of gardeners have in their shady areas is that they tend to be a little monochromatic.  The flowers are generally less profuse,and the foliage is mostly a dark green.  There are, of course, Hostas that feature different colors, but why limit yourself?  One other option is Brunnera Spring Yellow, new to Park Seed this fall. 

This Brunnera’s leaves open pure yellow and keep golden tones, mingled with streaks and speckles of chartreuse and green, throughout the summer.  This foliage piles up in a healthy, full mound of gold about 15 inches high.  The best thing about this interesting shade perennial, though, is the sprays of tiny blue flowers that it acquires in mid-spring.

Brunnera Spring Yellow is hardy all the way to zone 3, so it’s a great shady option for more difficult climates.

As hybridization techniques get more advanced every year, it seems that we are constantly deluged with new varieties of nearly every plant in the garden.  In this context, it seems difficult to imagine that not that long ago much of what is relatively commonplace today was considered impossible.  Such is the case with the Itoh Peonies.  Because of their different flowering times and distant relationship within the genus, interbreeding Tree Peonies and Herbaceous Peonies was thought impossible until 1948, when Japanese breeder Toichi Itoh did it.  It is said that he had tried tens of thousands of crosses before succeeding.  Now these Intersectional Peonies (so called because they are between the two major Peony sections, or groups) are commonly called Itoh Peonies in his honor.

Sadly, Itoh passed away before seeing any of his creations bloom.  He almost certainly would have been very pleased with the results, though.  Itoh hybrids are just as he'd hoped, having the best characteristics of both herbaceous and tree peonies.  They are vigorous, easy to grow, and very long-lived.  They are relatively low plants, rarely growing taller than 45 inches, but they feature the large blooms of tree peonies held up on sturdy stems.  The flowers of Itohs are often in more vibrant colors even than the plants from which they are bred.

Intersectional Peonies are still rather uncommon in gardens.  Because they are difficult to breed and perform exceptionally, they are highly sought-after in many gardening communities, and in many cases cost hundreds of dollars.  We are extremely pleased to have a supply of Itoh hybrids available from Park Seed this fall, including the Itoh Peony 'First Arrival,' which is more tolerant of heat than most other peonies, and the Peony Kopper Kettle, which features blooms of a stunning coppery tone.

Purple Coneflowers are some of the best flowering perennials out there.  They bring in the pollinators and butterflies all summer, and birds love the seeds come autumn.  Those flowers come heavily, too, and don’t require a lot of effort on your part to keep them coming.  The biggest downsides that I find with Echinacea is that they very often tend to grow a little over-sized and get rangy and unkempt-seeming. 

That’s why the new Echinacea ‘Meringue’ impresses me so much.  Sure, the huge number of blooms is marvelous, and they’re gorgeous and interesting pom-poms, but it’s the compact, easily controlled habit that really takes it for me.  These plants only get to around 15 to 18 inches high and wide, so they won’t spread out like crazy.  It also features more flower stems, which creates a much denser, fuller look. 

And those flowers really are quite impressive.  They open as flat daisies, and as they mature the center cone grows upward and develops short, puffy petals that give it that gumdrop look.  These cheerful little flowers are tough, too.  The shorter stems are even sturdier than other Echinacea, which helps them to hold up well in weather or in a vase.  Plus, this heavy-flowering Coneflower will only produce more blooms the more you cut for inside!  So, if you’re looking for loads of flowers from a tidy, low-maintenance plant, give ‘Meringue’ a try.

By far one of the most exciting and exceptional plants we’re offering for the first time this year is the Superpoppy ‘Heartbeat’.  This guy’s got all of the hallmarks of a truly great poppy; the crepe-like petals have a delicate, elegant appearance on huge blooms that look quite like an Oriental Poppy of a stunningly deep, rich maroon.  American breeder James DeWelt didn’t spend thirty years working to create just another poppy.  His creation is truly a qualitative leap ahead of all other poppies I’ve ever seen.  It has the astonishing blooms that can proudly stand next to any Oriental and likely surpass it, but it is almost inexhaustibly floriferous.  It just produces and produces those long-lived blooms.  And those blooms are not tender and easily destroyed like so many Oriental Poppies, either.  The Superpoppy holds up like a native plant through rain, wind, and even heat.  With a dozen or more blooms open at a time on this plant, the Superpoppy is poised to become the new standard against which all other garden poppies are measured.

I was recently in a meeting in which we were discussing many of the new plants we’re offering this fall, and the Superpoppy was probably talked about more than any other.  With a name like "Superpoppy," though, some of us couldn’t resist cracking wise.  My good friend Claire (who writes for the Park Seed Memories blog) raised some important questions that I think we should go ahead and answer before I start getting emails:

No, the Superpoppy has no letters on its chest.  It’s a flower, and, to my knowledge, they rarely have chests (though they do have throats and heads).  No, the Superpoppy does not require an actual emergency to show how Super it is.  Nor will you need to provide it with a very small telephone booth in which to change clothes.  No, I do not know where the clothes get left when it changes, and Yes, I am old enough to remember telephone booths.  The Superpoppy is always a Superpoppy, though it might seem like a mere mortal Poppy when it wears those tiny glasses to blend in.  Yes, the Superpoppy does, in fact, draw its great powers from the rays of our yellow sun (along with the nutrients in well-drained soil).  No, it doesn’t come from another planet, however unearthly its blooms may seem.  I have not yet tried to throw one of the blooms, so I cannot speak to its ability to fly.  We also haven’t yet gotten any Kryptonite with which to experiment, though I suspect that the flowers would not react well to it.

All kidding aside, this truly is a spectacular new class of Poppy.  Give the Superpoppy a try in your garden, and I’m confident that you will be, as we were, convinced that this is the new standard for Papaver.

Hostas don't belong in every garden.  Just almost every garden.  Some Hostas, though, are much easier to grow than others.  Hosta 'Patriot's Fire' is definitely one of those ultra-easy Hostas.  It's not too particular about its sun requirements (which is one of the main complaints that I get about some others), and its thick foliage, once mature, will deter all but the most determined slugs and snails (uncommon for a sun-tolerant Hosta).  The plant is perfectly content to have its midsummer blooms cut for arrangements or just left where they are.  The rapid growth of this Hosta ensures that even beginner gardeners will be quickly pleased with their big, lush plant.

The best thing about Hosta 'Patriot's Fire' is the ever-changing color.  The quick changes of foliage color throughout the season ensure a dynamic, interesting garden, especially featuring these beautiful multi-tone leaves that would be interesting even if they were static.  'Patriot's Fire' leafs out in spring in bright gold with a thin picotee (the uneven white line), changing throughout the season as the leaves grow to be heart-shaped, vertically veined foliage about seven inches long.  For interesting (and very low maintenance) beauty in your part shade areas, 'Patriot's Fire' will give any plant a run for its money.

One of the best, easiest ways to add season-long interest to your garden is with plants whose foliage is unusual or oddly colored.  One of the best plants for this is Heuchera, or Coral Bells.  Most common garden Heuchera features deep purplish-bronze foliage, but my favorite Coral Bells are the lighter peach-tinted varieties.  The most popular of these has been the Heuchera 'Caramel' for the last several years, and it's a great plant. 

Even better, though, is the new Heuchera 'Christa' (PPAF).  It will thrive in sun or shade (especially in afternoon shade), and the unique peach coloring is accented with a silver dusting that makes 'Christa' absolutely glow.  Because it was bred from native plants, it is extraordinarily well-adapted to North American climates, doing wonderfully in heat and drought.  Plus it's deer-resistant and evergreen in much of the country, so you'll be able to enjoy its spectacular foliage year-round.  It has a tight, compact habit, so it is a nicely tidy plant for neat gardens.  As a great bonus, 'Christa' has lovely creamy pink flowers are very attractive to hummingbirds and butterflies.  Give this unique plant a try: 'Christa' will amaze you.

Daylilies (or Hemerocallis, as most of us call them around here) are some of the best summer bloomers you could ask for.  They're remarkably easy to grow and stand up brilliantly to a variety of difficult garden conditions, including poor soil, cold, heat, humidity, and even drought (which is more and more important to many gardeners each year).  They also are available in a huge variety of colors (both single- and multi-colored varieties), which means that there's a Daylily that works in just about any garden color scheme (for those of you with the restraint to stick to one).  The flowers also vary in petal shape and size, especially in recent years, when hybridizing Hemerocallis has become more widespread than ever.

My favorite trait of Hemerocallis is how they bloom.  Each bloom lasts only one day (thus the name).  The plant blooms more vigorously than all but a few others, though, and each bloom is replaced so quickly that most Daylilies will never be without beautiful blooms throughout their entire flowering season.  And, since they blooms are constantly changing, it makes for one of the most interestingly dynamic plants I've ever experienced.  Your Daylily really is a noticeably different plant each and every day during the bloom season, which can be one of the greatest joys in a summer garden.

As the summer rolls on your daylilies continue to shine brightly and fill your garden with color and fragrance, but there are a few things your need to keep in mind to keep your plants strong and beautiful throughout the season.

Planting and Initial Care

Daylilies do best when planted in well-drained soil with a good compost or leaf mold. Plant them in the fall or spring a little over a foot apart. Hemerocallis bloom vigorously in the sun but will tolerate light shade. For each plant, dig a hole at least one foot deep and of the same diameter. Amend the soil removed from the hole with compost, peat moss, or leaf mold and replace a portion of it in a mound at the bottom of the hole. Set the plant on the top of the mound, with the roots extending into it so that the crown is barely covered. Fill in the balance of the hole, firming down the soil, and water thoroughly until a puddle forms.

Maintenance: Feeding and Watering Your Hemerocallis

Fertilize your daylilies annually with a complete slow-release fertilizer. Keep well watered, especially during dry spells and keep plants free of weeds by pulling them or mulching. When clumps become overcrowded you will want to divide them. If you live in a warmer southern region, divide in fall or early spring, and divide your daylilies anytime during summer months in Northern areas.

The biggest problem with hemerocallis is probably root rot. Improved drainage and division of plant in cooler months of the year will help to prevent rot.