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New Jersey sometimes feels like deer heaven, so the quest for deer resistant plants seems endless.

This Rutgers webpage (https://njaes.rutgers.edu/deer-resistant-plants/) can be of real help in finding plants that Bambi won’t enjoy as much as you. They caution us all, though, that “no plant is deer proof,” so be forewarned.

This year’s Friends of The Frelinghuysen Arboretum Plant Sale will have a big array of plants covering all types of garden needs. Here are some of the spectacular Clematis, Vines and Climbers we’ve got for your gardening pleasure. Click on the images to enlarge them.

Clematis Henryi

‘Henryi’ features profuse, showy, eight-sepaled, 6-8″ in diameter, white flowers with purplish brown anthers that cover this vine. Henryi is a garden pleasure with its elegant 6 to 7-inch white blooms in summer. A classic, award-winning selection! Bloom on this cultivar comes primarily from the previous year’s stems in early summer, but also occurs in a second flush later in the summer on the current year’s growth.

Clematis Madame Julia Correvon

Italian Clematis blooms for a prolonged period from late June to September, producing a large quantity of 3″ bright reddish wine flowers with yellow stamens. The viticella Clematis types flower on new growth, so they do well with a hard pruning in late winter to early spring. The roots are happiest in cool shade and the tops prefer full sun.

Clematis Nelly Moser

‘Nelly Moser’ features profuse, showy, eight-sepaled, 6-8″ diameter, pale mauve pink flowers (sepals have reddish pink center stripes) with purplish brown anthers that cover this vine in summer. Bloom on this cultivar comes primarily from the previous year’s stems in late spring, but also occurs in a second flush later in the summer on the new (current year’s) growth.

Flowers give way to attractive seed heads.

Clematis Nubia

Free-flowering and hardy, this exceptionally dark red, compact, reblooming clematis is excellent for large planters or as an entryway accent. Blooms prolifically from both leaf axils and stems, resulting in flowers from the ground up.

Clematis Sapphire Indigo

A short, non-clinging vine with gorgeous purple-blue flowers in June and July. It can be used as a loose open groundcover, but it works even better if allowed to twine up through small shrubs and sturdy perennials. The 4″ blooms open as an open-faced purple and mature to a beautiful sapphire blue.

A long blooming sprawler, excellent when used in mixed borders.

Lonicera s. Major Wheeler

Hummingbird favorite: Lonicera sempervirens ‘Major Wheeler’ produces a blanket of tubular, reddish orange to coral flowers from late spring through summer. Later, the vines’ red berries attract goldfinches and robins. It’s a selection of our native Honeysuckle species, Lonicera sempervirens, and plants are both carefree and noninvasive. They bloom on the previous year’s growth as well as new growth. Regular pruning is not required—any pruning to shape the vine can be done once flowering is over for the season. Do provide a trellis, fence, or post with wire grid for support.

Gelsemium s. Margarita

Carolina jessamine. A reliable zone 6 Gelsemium! A profuse display of clear yellow trumpet flowers in early summer with semievergreen foliage. ‘Margarita’ is a superior seedling selected by Don Jacobs of Eco Gardens in Decatur, Georgia. With its much larger, more prominent flowers, it was superior in every way to common seedlings, so Jacobs named it for his wife. He had no idea that it would survive winters to minus 25 F as it has in New Jersey. Gelsemium ‘Margarita’ is a Gold Medal Award winner from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

Clematis texensis Princess Diana

Scarlet clematis. Beautiful tulip-shaped flowers in June and July, with consistent reblooming in early fall. The up-facing blooms are soft pink on the outsides and dark-rose pink on the insides, making a lovely two-toned effect. The habit is scrambling, and needs some support.

PRN favorite: Unique tulip-shaped deep pink flowers followed by silky seed heads.

Lathyrus odoratus Mammoth White

Annual. This large sweet pea variety climbs to around 8 feet tall and produces masses of large flowers in white. Very fragrant. Good for beds, borders, trellis, rockeries and cottage gardens. Can be grown in containers. Early flowering.

Great variety for cut flowers.

Lathyrus odoratus Mammoth Rose Pink

Annual sweet pea. One of the most popular and reliable full-sized varieties available. With long stems and voluptuous rose-pink flowers….this one’s a beauty.

Provide trellis or support for sweet peas to grow up when they have grown to around 6 inches.

Passiflora caerulea Blue Bahama

Passionflower. A tender perennial in zones 7-9, usually grown as an annual in New Jersey. This passionflower is a beautiful and vigorous free flowering selection of Passiflora caerulea, with all its hardiness and reliability. The nectar rich flowers are adored by larger bees and the foliage is a host to a variety of butterflies.

Many thanks to Farmer Shaun from Grow It Green Morristown who is growing Rutgers tomato seedlings for our 2025 Plant Sale. The following tomatoes will be available: ‘Rutgers 250’ and ‘Rutgers Scarlet Sunrise’ as well as Basil Devotion which is downy mildew resistant. Here are some details.

Rutgers ‘Scarlet Sunrise’ tomato

Released in 2020 by the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station from work done by Pete Nitzsche and Thomas Orton Bicolor grape tomato with intense sweet Flavor and moderate acidity.

Indeterminate, late-season, high yielding. Red and yellow crack resistant skins. Open pollinated. 70 days to maturity

‘Rutgers 250’ tomato

A reinvention of the tomato industry’s most significant variety, the ‘250 ‘was named in honor of the 250th anniversary of the founding of Rutgers University.

Improved version of the classic Rutgers tomato that defined the flavor of the ‘Jersey Tomato’.

‘Rutgers Devotion DMR’ basil

From the breeding program of Dr. James Simon, Rutgers Department of Plant Biology & Pathology, and Dr. Andy Wyenandt at the Rutgers Agricultural Research and Extension Center.

Downy mildew resistant Genovese type basil. Uniform, upright growth and dome or cup-shaped leaf.

This final photo shows the many happy little tomato seedlings growing just for you!

The Friends are happy to bring you several articles about plants at this year’s plant sale by Bruce Crawford, Manager of Horticulture for the Morris County Park Commission. This article focuses the genus, Trilium (common name, Wakerobin or Toadshade), and talks about several of the beautiful species we can grow here.

Read Bruce’s opening paragraph, and click on the link below to open the full article in a PDF.

Click here to open the PDF.

Bruce Crawford, Manager of Horticulture for the Morris County Park Commission, has written another article for us. He uses Sanguinaria canadensis (common name, Bloodroot), to talk about early spring bulbs in general, but with a focus on this beautiful example.

Read the first paragraph, below, and click on the link below to open the full PDF.

Click here to open the full article.