New Plants for 2010 by Jeff Rugg on Creators.com

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New Plants for 2010

The other day I attended a luncheon presentation by Tim Wood, new product development manager for Spring Meadow Nursery. He helps bring new plants to market from a variety of sources across the globe. He has also been making his own plant crosses.

His newest release in the Proven Winners line is the Bloomerang Purple Lilac, a lilac that blooms twice in a season. Like all lilacs, it blooms in the spring from buds produced the previous fall. Other lilacs then spend the summer growing until the fall when they produce the next spring's flower buds. Bloomerang grows new buds, but they don't go dormant until spring. In midsummer and continuing until fall, the flower buds bloom. It still sets fall flower buds, so that it will bloom in the spring, too.

It is hardy from zones 3 to 8 and grows about 4 feet tall and wide. The leaves are very small and the fragrant flowers are the typical lilac purple. It needs full sun and is more tolerant of wet soils than other lilacs.

Just about every gardener I know likes hydrangeas. The smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens) is a very dependable native shrub. It is found in the wild from New York to Iowa to Louisiana to Florida. It prefers a little shade in the South and some water in dry summers. A commonly planted variety is called Annabelle.

Wood has been involved in producing two new varieties. Incrediball has white-flower clusters a foot in diameter on the ends of 4-foot to 5-foot stems.

The first couple of years, as the plant gets established, the flowers and stems will be a little smaller. This is one very showy plant from June through September. The stems of Incrediball are much stronger than Annabelle's, so the plants are not floppy after a rain.

The other new variety is called Invincibelle Spirit, the first pink-flowered smooth hydrangea. Through a time-consuming process of crossbreeding, it was created by Dr. Thomas Ranney of North Carolina State University. Soil acidity doesn't affect the hydrangea's pink color — it is pink the first time and every time. The flower clusters are only a few inches across, but they are prolific at the end of every branch.

Like Incrediball, it is hardy from zones 3 to 9 and grows 3 feet to 5 feet wide and tall. Put the plant in full sun to part shade and water it during droughts.

The Proven Winners brand will contribute $1 for each Invincibelle Spirit sold to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. You can get more details at www.invincibellespirit.net. For more information about the Proven Winners line of shrubs and flowers, go to www.provenwinners.com where you can also find your closest retail location.

From what I learned about the long and difficult process Wood and others used to determine the best plants to propagate, the plants are Proven Winners long before you ever find them in a store.

E-mail questions to Jeff Rugg, University of Illinois Extension at jrugg@illinois.edu. To find out more about Jeff Rugg and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.