Monday, September 8, 2014

Best New Plants for 2014



Every year, each of us tries new plants. Some are very successful, others do not do as well. Thinking about the plants we grew for the first time this year, I decided to write a post about the best ones among our own first timers. I restricted the choice to the best three, each of which is a plant I would most certainly keep or even grow more of.

The "first prize" goes to Oenothera (Gaura) lindheimeri 'Rosy Jane'.

Gaura lindheimeri 'Rosy Jane'




I had tried Gaura lindheimeri before (I read that taxonomists have now moved it to the Oenothera genus) without much success.  This goes to show that when a plant does not do well, the problem is often with the gardener who fails to give it the right conditions, rather than with the plant itself. However, I must have put it in the right spot this time, as it was a revelation.


Gaura lindheimeri 'Rosy Jane'


It started to bloom early in the summer and has not stopped blooming. I don't just mean that it is still producing a number of blooms. Actually it is now, in September, blooming as profusely as it did when it first started to flower, and it has never stopped blooming like that the whole summer. There are also white and pink varieties of this plant, but 'Rosy Jane' which combines both colours seems particularly attractive.



Gaura lindheimeri 'Rosy Jane'
It creates a cloud of blooms that are renewed as old one fades. It is in full sun, but apparently it can take some shade. It is indifferent about soil, but requires good drainage. In my old garden I had probably put it in a place that was not well-drained enough, which would explained why it did not do well and promptly died.  I read that they do just as well grown in a pot, so I plan next year to buy a different variety to grow in a container. The one I bought this spring shares a raised bed with mostly xeriscape plants.

In second place among our best new plants for 2014, I would chose Salvia sclarea var. turkestanica, a plant I wrote about earlier this summer. It is a superb-looking plant that is in bloom for a good two months. I would have put in in first place, if it were not biennial. This means it has to be reseeded every year if you want to keep it from year to year.

Salvia sclarea var. turkestanica 

Finally, my third and last best new plant for 2014 is Agastache rupestris. It is a rather discreet plant, certainly not as showy at the previous two, with its foliage and flowers in tones of grey and bluish red. Its thin grey foliage identifies it right away as a drought-tolerant sun lover.



Agastache rupestris


Apparently, it can reach three feet tall. Ours, which was grown from seeds I got in a seed exchange, is in its second year and blooming for the first time. It is at most one foot tall. I expect it would look better in a drift than as a single specimen as in the picture above.  It is in a very dry raised bed, in full sun. Being a fall bloomer, the flowers are now just starting to open.



It is attractive to look at,  but perhaps what I like best about it is the smell. It has a wonderful fragrance which is best appreciated when you brush against the foliage and blooms. To me, it certainly is comparable to lavender.  It is one of these pungent smells one associates with deserts in places like Arizona. It has so far been completely trouble free and very undemanding.

What were your own best new plants for 2014?

29 comments:

  1. I have no clear winners in my garden, but your "Rosy Jane" sure is pretty. Gaura is now supposed to be Oenothera? Hmmm. Seems every time I turn on the computer, I find out that some plant has been reclassified.

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  2. Anemone! We planted them on a muddy October day, completely bypassing the package directions of soaking them overnight in warm water. Cold mud was it for them. And after that awful winter, there came their little carrot tops in late winter, then their red, white and blue faces all across the lower end of the garden. Little heroes. I'm having more as soon as the nurseries ship!

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    1. You are lucky they did so well. I have tried them but they don't bloom much for me. I remember though that they did beautifully at my mother's.

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  3. Love your Gaura, such a pretty plant, it has never done well for me, but maybe I should try again in better drained soil!

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    1. I hope it does survive the winter. I only bought it this spring.

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  4. I like the airy look of the gaura. For some reason I think it would look nice tucked between rose bushes -- in someone else's garden, not my foggy, shady one!
    Our Agastache foeniculum, started from seed our first summer here, comes up every year on its own and smells like licorice. Maybe I'll post about it.

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  5. Brenda keeps insisting on buying gauras as she loves them. Every Winter they die!
    Your picture looks lovely and people admire it in our garden.Its a good nurseryman's plant - you buy one, it thrives, dies and you buy another!

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    1. I hope this one survives. No doubt, that is how I lost the first one I bought years ago.

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  6. Our daughter-in-law grows Gaura in pots and they do very well. I have to admit that I have never tried them but will be scrambling to find one of your “Rosy Jane’s” before the nurseries sell off their summer stock to make way for winter.

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    1. I found mine at a gas station-convenience store! I just cannot understand this. As you might know, Roche Fleurie is in a remote area. There are nurseries around and they are fine but if you are looking for something out of the ordinary, that convenience store is the place (they have plants only in spring). It is a complete mystery how that can be. My suspicion is that these plants are what was left unsold at the end of the previous season at some sophisticated nursery. The plants tend to be a bit root bound.

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  7. I grew a white Gaura for the first time this year and love it. But 'Rosy Jane' is gorgeous. That will be my next one, if I can find it!

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    1. Good luck with it. It seems that we will need luck to carry it over till next spring!

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  8. Gaura lindheimeri doesn't grow here... I've tried it a three or four times... The soil is light, very well drained, but the gardener doesn't seem to be good ;-).

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    1. Ce n'est sûrement pas la jardinière. Vu que tant de personnes se plaignent que la plante ne survit pas l'hiver, je suppose qu'elle a des exigences bien particulières.

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  9. I love Gaura and it is very easy to keep going from cuttings. Rosy Jane is particularly pretty. I didn' t realise that it was now Oenethera. I wonder why? It doesn't t look anything like Oenethera to me.
    Agastache is lovely too but not always quite hardy here. But it, too, is easy from cuttings.
    I love the Salvia, although I' m not keen on its smell.

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  10. Thank you for the tip about cuttings. From the various comments on this post, it is obviously difficult to overwinter. I will make a few cuttings.
    As for the Salvia, I treasure your story about its Victorian name. There are many plants I cannot smell anymore this is one of them. That is one reason why the Agastache seems so nice., the fragrance is strong even for me.

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  11. Alain I love to read gardeners' take on new plants each year and these are very interesting .. the gaura is amazing ! how colourful it is.. like a stripped peppermint candy!
    I have a hard time with salvia for some reason .. but yours looks wonderful. My favourite has to be the agastache .. I have a soft spot for them and the smell is so important ... profound even .... it impresses me forever. This sounds like a wonderful combination of new plants ... thank you for your opinion of them !
    Joy : )

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  12. That Salvia does look good. I have never tried Agastache rupestris, though I have lots of A. foeniculum. I wonder if they would go well together. Foeniculum may crowd it out.

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    1. I would think you are right and Foeniculum might crowd out rupestris, although in a dry sunny spot rupestris might have the upper hand as I expect it is quite drought tolerant.

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  13. People keep mentioning Agastache and I am wondering whether I should try some.

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    1. The one that is usually grown is A.foeniculum. It is what I would call a 'discreet' plant (subdued colours, not spectacular), Rupestris (above) has very nice foliage but it is also rather subdued.

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  14. Hello Alain, I love Gaura, it's one of the plants that I started from seed a year or two ago but we left it in the ground in the old garden. It's going to make an appearance in the new garden as it's such a striking plant. I love the airy flowers that billow in the wind and they just flower on and on.

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    1. Several people find it difficult to overwinter. We will see. I took some cuttings as Chloris suggested.

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  15. As you might expect Alain, I can't really grow any of these for more than a season except for one Agastache which has managed to establish itself and pops up every year. I have previously managed to get A. 'Apricot Sprite' , my favourite, through the Winter in a container but became over-confident and lost it the following year. Luckily most of the above will flower from a very early sowing in the same year but at best are classed as half-hardy perennials for me.

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  16. That is a beautiful Salvia, certainly worth sowing again for next year. The Gaura is very pretty too, it's always great to find a plant that just keeps on performing and earning it's keep.

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    1. The salvia is georgous. I collected seeds which I will seed next spring and put in some new plants in late July so I hope to get it going from year to year.

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  17. That gaura is stunning! I'll have to see if I can find it here. I love that agastache, too. Mine were killed last winter and I decided to see if I missed them this summer before replacing them. Well, I do miss them and am trying them again this fall. I'm going to overwinter them in a more sheltered spot with better drainage.

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    1. Drainage must be the key to overwintering this agastache since we are so much more colder than you and it survived last winter which was particularly cold. I have it in a raised bed (colder still - but well drained).

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  18. I have had guara do fabulously well through the summer, only to die come winter, never to be seen again. Yours is lovely. Hope it returns next year!

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