Petunia ‘Lemon Slice’ was a winner.
Petunia ‘Pink Lemonade’, pretty but disappointing. Winners and losers this year PLANTS IN REVIEW E
very year we rush to the garden centres all eager for the scent of fresh growth, the explosion of colour and the latest and most beautiful plants on the market. Some are winners. Some are losers. Some old favourites don’t do so well and others flour- ish. Here’s a look at the summer of 2012.
Petunias
The picotee petunias were outstanding, both the maroon and the purple varieties. Not only were they very showy, with their pretty skirts of white around the edges of each blos- som, but they performed well with few fungal problems and forming a nice spilling effect as the season went on. They were drought tol- erant, quite able to pick themselves up and recover after drying out to the point of limp- ness. They are also very frost tolerant, able to get quite nicely through six degrees of frost.
Pretty picotee petunia, the bluer of the two picotees.
Story and photos by Dorothy Dobbie By the way, the purple and green variety
was very abundant and behaved just as well. ‘Surprise Yellow’ was a pleasant surprise, a nice cool yellow with a tame habit. Another little yellow supertunia captured my heart. ‘Lemon Slice’ has a pretty white stripe on each petal – very dignified and la- dylike. I loved it. It performed well, too, with a nice trailing habit. Watch for this Proven Winner introduction everywhere next year
The so-called Potunia, ‘Papaya’ was also
very well behaved. A pleasant orange, it shone in the garden in a rounded, mound- ed way that required no attention except admiration.
In colours this year, the reds and oranges stole the show, acting as the agent that tied the colours together – a role usually played by white, which somehow seemed out of place in this year of heated pigments. Vastly
disappointing was the petunia
‘Pink Lemonade’. I fear this one was just not ready for market – it failed on ev- ery front except early beauty, because it is lovely. But it did not prosper in any garden or container I saw except, perhaps when it showed up in a high end Calgary garden in part shade in hanging pots all alone with no competition. Perhaps it needs a cooler year to thrive.
Nor did the black velvets dominate this
year. They were quiescent, holding their own, but not commanding attention even over the prolific Wave petunias.
Eucalyptus Another star this year was Eucalyptus ci-
nerea, which happily rose above the fray in a cool gray-blue, its rounded leaves supply- ing contrast to the more mundane shaped foliage. It has a pleasant menthol scent. It grows quite tall, so be sure to put it into a large container if not planting it in the
20 • Beautiful Gardens 2012
www.localgardener.net Petunia ‘Papaya’, a nice tidy habit and good colour.
The new trailing pansy, still happy in September. Below, Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’.
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