Petunia Sun Spun™ Yellow: "Sun Spun is early to flower and grows into a lush, flower-filled plant that puts on outstanding shows all season with little attention." I've never been that big of a fan of petunias, but this yellow petunia is beautiful in person. I love the shades of yellow and how they pop during cloudy days.
Coleus Redhead: "The low-maintenance Redhead displays bright red leaves -- the truest red color in the Ball coleus collection." Now, Coleus I'm a big fan of. Redhead is a nice variety that I've never grown before. Love the red against the yellow petunia pictured above.
Easy Wave® Neon Rose: "This hot pink petunia from the Easy Wave series of spreading petunias is new for 2011. It is more mounded and controlled, making it ideal for baskets and containers." For a gardener that doesn't like pink flowers I sure end up with a lot of them in the garden. This neon pink looks better in person and better than the muted pink flowers found in my garden. It reminds me that I'm not suppose to be afraid of color in the garden anymore.
Euphorbia Breathless™ Blush: "Blush is the first euphorbia with red-flushed leaves and pink-flushed flowers." As a cacti and succulent lover, I've grown euphorbias before, but I've never grown them in the garden. Blush is a beautiful and kind of ethereal, at the edge of a container the stems, leaves and tiny pink flowers hover over the ground.
Coleus Versa™ Crimson Gold: "Perfect for sun and shade, Versa plants are well-branched and vigorous, with beautiful patterned foliage." The second coleus in the shipment of annuals and one I really like. I think I've grown this coleus from seed before, but I can't find pictures of it in my garden. I'm glad it has made another appearance in the garden because I genuinely like it.
Impatiens New Guinea Divine™ Hot Mixture: "Perfect for landscapes and mounded hanging baskets, the Divine series offers big flowers that establish quickly for the best early-season color." The New Guinea impatiens are now blooming and they're a fuchsia color and the orange pictured above which is a lot nicer looking in person. This the be best orange-colored bloom I have ever seen on a plant. It looks a lot like the push pop ice cream!
Since I concentrated more on edible plants this year I'm glad I received this package of annuals because I didn't have much planted in the ornamental side of the garden that wasn't green foliage. Now I have several container gardens that I can move around the garden and provide a bit of color. If you'd like to grow Easy Wave® Neon Rose, Coleus Redhead, Petunia Sun Spun™ Yellow, Euphorbia Breathless™ Blush, Coleus Versa™ Crimson Gold or Impatiens New Guinea Divine™ Hot Mixture you can find a garden center in your area that carries them at Simply Beautiful Gardens. You should also check out the Ball Hort website and the Wave-Rave website for more information.
The annuals look great! We love container gardening.
ReplyDeletehttp://nycgardening.blogspot.com/
Mitchell loves coleus, so you've got a couple that would be a winner with him, and like you I'm not a big fan of petunias, but some of the newer ones really are nice. I love that soft yellow of Sun Spun, so I may look for it. As a pink/purple/blue gardener I have finally learned that a little yellow adds a pop and keeps my garden from being boring. Not that!! Good post.
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of coleus -- I grow 'Black Dragon' almost every year (for some reason, I forgot this year.) Both of the ones you're growing are awesome, but I love 'Redhead.' I am going to have to get some.
ReplyDeleteI've never grown euphorbia, but that one is really beautiful - love those dainty little flowers.
I'm a bit of a petunia fan, but wish there were more scented introductions. It's like nobody cares about their fragrance as long as they spread out well and self-clean.
ReplyDeleteBut coleus! I love coleus! I wish somebody would send ME free coleus! :-)))
Saw the Versa in store, but other than their sun-tolerance, they didn't look that extraordinary to me. And there is so much that grows in sun, I'm not sure why you'd need coleus there. :-)
I did buy a Redhead, though. Beautiful, just a stunning shade. Didn't think I'd like it (it was a bit on the orange/rust side when I bought it), but the colour deepens in natural light. Gorgeous!
Love that yellow petunia! You did a great job MBT. Can't wait to see your impatiens later. Btw, your coleus is so pretty. Have a great day!
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog. I saw you left a comment, and I tried to Publish the comment but Blogger deleted it for some reason. Blogger is so frustrating sometimes! So... I can't retrieve your comment, but thanks for posting something on my Rhubarb post.
ReplyDeleteColeus is a perennial not an annual, and I suspect the Euphorbia too. I have seen a 5 ft Coleus with a woody trunk in a fancy lobby in NY's UES. You can grow Coleus as bonsai style. I am growing one and I think when it is winter I will try to style it.
ReplyDeleteColeus are tropical plants so winter outside of S. FL kills them. But calling them "annual" is not accurate. Would call them not hardy perennial or houseplants. Anyway looks great - would like to find one with dark purple leaves.
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/bonsai/msg1212510512103.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleus
"Solenostemon is a genus of perennial plants, native to tropical Africa, Asia, Australia, the East Indies, the Malay Archipelago, and the Philippines. They are commonly known as Coleus, a name which derives from an earlier classification under the genus name Coleus"
LOVE the red coleus MBT! Lucky you with all those freebee plants.
ReplyDeleteI saw the new euphorbia at the nursery this spring. If I didn't already have so many overwintered Diamond Frosts, I would have gotten one. I love the red on your 'Blush.'
p.s. Coleus is indeed perennial, and they can be topiaried, but apparently even indoors they have a tendency to sometimes just up and die for no reason. They can be long-lived, but be prepared for the occasional heartbreak.
ReplyDeletep.p.s. True lovers of coleus will enjoy the gorgeous book "Coleus: Rainbow Foliage for Containers and Gardens," though its cultivar list is slightly out of date (impossible to keep up with a plant that sports so readily!).
PS. A coleus branch will quickly root in water. so if you see your plant is going down hill you can root a branch or 2. Bought a packet of burpee seeds rainbow mix and sadly they all seem the same color...
ReplyDeleteAnyway whoever likes Coleus a lot could always bring some plants inside to overwinter and grow them on a bright windowsill.
The tall topiary looked amazing in that lobby. The trunk was relatively thick.
Anyway let's stop calling tender perennials annuals!
Even many Impatiens are perennial and I saw people making Bonsais out of them.
meemsnyc,
ReplyDeleteThey do, don't they? Sometimes I think container gardening is the way to go.
Webb,
This spring I saw a black petunia at one of the garden centers but haven't seen it since. I wish I would've bought them with this yellow petunia, they would've looked amazing.
Colleen,
I've never grown 'Black Dragon' before I should look out for it. Thanks for the tip.
Jennifer,
I hear you. I think that may be one of the reasons I'm not such a big fan of them. Breeders concentrate too much on getting to spread that it makes them kind of boring.
You're right about Redhead, it does get a deeper color in the sun.
Stephanie,
Thanks! I can't wait for the impatiens later too.
Stefano Giovannini,
I hear what you're saying but if a plant doesn't over winter, then it is an annual. Whatever it does in the tropics doesn't really mean much if it doesn't survive the climate it is planted in. Funny that you linked GW because that is where I had my first garden related interne fight, over annuals and perennials. My belief then was the same as it is now.
Garden Girl,
If I see you later this season remind me to bring along a piece or two of this euphorbia to see if you can overwinter it. I'm already thinking it would be a shame to not try to overwinter it, but I don't have the space to do it myself.
"Coleus is a perennial not an annual, and I suspect the Euphorbia too. I have seen a 5 ft Coleus with a woody trunk in a fancy lobby in NY's UES."
ReplyDeleteOnly in extremely mild climates, or with extra special indoor care. I live in Southern California and my coleus starts pouting in temperatures below 50, and dies if the temperatures get under 40. I had an indoor coleus topiary and it was very finicky.
I'm not a big petunia fan, but do very much like Sun Spun. I love pretty much all coleus -- the Versa Crimson Gold especially. My Coleus 'I lost the plant tag' that I started from seed are looking pretty nice, too.
ReplyDeleteMrBT - even if it does not overwinter outside a Coleus is still a perennial. Otherwise all the tropical Orchids or Ficus would be defined as annuals as well.
ReplyDeleteProbably a Coleus grows in humid and warm environment and needs high light.
An annual plant is a plant that in its natural environment does after producing seeds.
If a perennial dies because it is grown outdoors and the winter is too cold or the summer too hot for it to survive it is still a perennial.
Zinnias are annuals Geraniums/Pelargoniums, Tomatoes, Peppers, Coleus are perennials.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annual_plant
Ooh, can I be pedantic? Whether a plant is an annual or perennial doesn't have anything to do with whether or at what temps it can overwinter. It has to do with how long it takes it to complete its life cycle (going from seed to seed). If it can do it in one year (or growing season), as coleus can, then it's an annual. While many annuals do die over winter in cold climates, that has to do with a plant's heat and cold tolerance (or hardiness), NOT with how its basic life cycle works.
ReplyDeleteStefano,
ReplyDeleteCan I call you Stephano? Hope so because it is easier to type. ;0) I think Monica, said it best in the comment below yours. Don't have much to add to it besides saying that classifying a coleus as an annual doesn't affect what an orchid or a ficus is, because, as Monica pointed out, they can't go from seed to seed in one year.
Also, if we were to take your definition and apply it to all plants we would have no "annuals" because so many tender plants can live longer than a year in a warm climate.
Thanks for the lively discussion.
Great links.. thanks.
ReplyDeleteZinnias and corn die after setting seeds even in their ideal So they are annuals. I did not make it up but since I like to learn went up the definition of "annual plant".
ReplyDeleteif you look it up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleus
you can see that is consaidered perennial not want to appear pedantic but I think it is important to give accurate info.a annual dies nanyway a perennial dies when the cultural conditions are adverse.
Botanically annual is not the same thing as horticulturally annual. Coleus is botanically a perennial but horticulturally and commercially an annual for most people, and this would be particularly the case for people in Chicago.
ReplyDeleteInsisting that people adhere to botanically correct terminology when the context is clearly horticultural serves no useful purpose except for pissing everybody off.
well I was not interested in Coleus or Chili peppers because I assumed they were annuals. When I saw a Coleus mini tree I really loved it and I found out it can be a grown for years as a houseplant/and or bonsai. same with pelargoniums. I do not understand why finding more information would piss people off. The web and blogs are useful learning tools and these days with shared information it is easier to know how to grow plants.
ReplyDeleteI got myself a Coleus for $2. Had I assumed it was an annual I would have not bothered.
MrSubjunctive,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input. I think I'm pretty much in agreement with you.
Stefano,
I hear you. I guess if I was the kind of gardener or newbie gardener for who an annual wouldn't be appealing; I'd probably feel the same as you. Anyway, I don't know why you wouldn't buy a plant because it was an annual but I hope you give more of them a try because many of them can live for a couple of years indoors or carried over from one year to the next.
While, I agree with the point MrSubjunctive was making (horticultural Vs botanical) I also see your point and will take it into consideration in the future posts.
Thanks for the discussion.