Plantsale Tidbits

I'm Ilona Ontscherenki and am lucky to co-chair this year's Friends Annual Plant Sale together with Sue Acheson. We are in the midst of ordering hundreds of beautiful plants for almost any garden, but I would like to highlight some of my particular favorites here. Remember to click on the small images to go to larger versions.

Ilona's Donkey Ears

I fell in love with succulents because of my Donkey Ears!

Or, should I say my Kalanchoe Gastonis bonnieri? Regardless, you will love this guy, too! He started as a small boy, bought at last year’s plant sale because I wrote about him back then -- and then had to see if he would really be as fabulous as my googling suggested. And he turned out much more so!

He summered outside, beefing up in the sun-part sun conditions I offered and growing those fabulous spotted ears. As he draped luxuriously over the edges of his six-inch pot, I ported him upstairs last October, to the skylit bathroom, where he would spend the winter. Before the end of the year, a flower stalk shot up, and the ‘he’ began producing babies on the tips of his leaves! Now, at the beginning of spring, he’s still blooming and his four babies are potted up and starting to add new leaves, getting ready to reprise the show for me this summer!

Calycanthus 'Hartlage Wine'

Have you discovered calycanthus yet? If not, you must at this year's plant sale because we have several wonderful varieties! My own introduction occurred when I attended my first program ever at Frelinghuysen three years ago, and won the door prize, a Calycanthus 'Hartlage Wine'. A recent introduction, it's a cross between the asian species and our own native sweetshrub. I have it in a part sun shrub border, where it takes over the job after the viburnum carlesii finishes it's aromatic show in early May and before the hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight' starts its extended bloom in midsummer. Look at these flowers! Not as floriferous as an azalea at it's peak, this eight foot charmer does keep delighting me with blossoms throughout the summer and that color is nowhere else to be found. It responds well to pruning and can be sized down to fit readily into smaller spaces, too.

Heuchera villosa 'caramel'

How to get hooked on heuchera? Grow 'Caramel'!

Or any of the other new heuchera crosses with villosa. They are not at all fussy, tolerate heat and drought and are unappetizing to deer! Plus, check out the apricot/chartreuse ruffled top leaf, with the rosy/violet underside. This plant is not shy, but works in so many places with part-to-full sun: massed (see the bed at Scott arboretum), edging, planters (thanks to the drought tolerance). Plus, the hummers, bees and butterflies love it when it blooms with its signature coral bells. This brazen beauty definitely makes you say 'hooray for heuchera'!

Cercis candensis cultivars

What's with all these new redbud cultivars?

Finally, success at tissue culture propagation is the reason that so many beautiful new cultivars of our native redbud have been coming to market in the past few years. And, of course, you'll find some terrific ones at the plant sale this year.

All of them have the characteristic tiny lavender/violet/purple bloom in April, but that's only where the fun starts:

• Forest pansy produces deep maroon red leaves that hold their color throughout the summer.
• Heart of Gold shows off chartreusy/gold heart-shaped leaves after it blooms. Both reach a height and spread of 15-20 feet in part sun to sun.
• And then there's the Texan 'Traveler', which is a pretty lavender-blooming weeping form.

It's so easy to see these paired with daffodils and other bulbs in the spring, and then later providing a pop of color as an understory tree or member of your shrub border. You just know you can find room for one of these new gems in your garden!

== Ilona