Echinacea ‘irresistible’: a magnificent pink flower!
Here’s one that lives up to its name… How can you resist this funny ruffled daisy in orange-pink color? Created by the Dutchman Marco van Hoort, already at the origin of the wonderful ‘Hot Summer’ which blooms until the end of November in a festival of colors, ‘Irrésistible’ will please all those in search of fantasy.
- Midsized : 70 cm.
- Bloom : June to October.
- Exposure : sun.
- Earth : normal well drained.
- Cold resistance : very good.
Offer him a box of wild blond herbs: Comans ‘Bronze’ sedge, stipa, deschampsia…
Echinacea ‘green jewel’: a unique shade
Gone are the days when we only knew purple coneflowers… Now, the craziest colors are seeing the light of day like this “jewel” with green petals surrounding a big khaki heart. Excellent in the garden and in bouquets.
- Midsized : 60 cm.
- Bloom : July to October.
- Exposure : sun, partial shade.
- Earth : normal well drained.
- Cold resistance : very good.
Remove spent flowers until September, then leave them to serve as perches for garden birds.
Perennial plant: chrysanthemum
‘Sunburn’, ‘Poetry’. Thierry Delabroye restores the image of garden chrysanthemums. Undemanding and extremely floriferous, they are valuable throughout the fall season, in the company of grasses, asters, cimicifugas or against a background of glowing shrubs.
- Midsized : 70-80 cm.
- Bloom : September October.
- Exposure : sun.
- Earth : neutral but well drained.
- Cold resistance : very good.
- Interview : pinch the top of the stems in June to force the plant to branch and flower even more.
Epimedium: the resistant little flower
If ‘Amber Queen’ received a “Merit” last year at Courson, it is undoubtedly because this variety is one of the most beautiful but also because, since ‘Frohnleiten’, very few nursery growers have interested in epimediums.
It is, however, a great plant: charming and light flowering, often evergreen foliage, excellent ground cover for the base of trees, tolerant of shade, drought, cold, clay soil…
- Midsized : 30-40 cm by 40-45 cm in diameter.
- Bloom : April to June.
- Exposure : partial shade, even dry shade.
- Earth : rich in humus or well-decomposed compost.
- Cold resistance : excellent.
Keep the soil cool for the first two summers while the plant gets established.
The ‘jade frost’ thistle
Because they resist heat and drought well, the return to favor of thistles (echinops, milk thistle) has opened the way for eryngium ‘Jade Frost’, an extraordinary panicaut with its evergreen, tricolor white-edged foliage. pink at first, becoming green variegated with white. Its pale yellow “flowers” turn blue in June.
- Midsized : 60-70 cm.
- Bloom : May to August.
- Exposure : sun.
- Earth : ordinary even dry.
- Cold resistance : excellent.
Make sure the soil is well drained as it fears winter humidity.
Heuchera ‘georgia peach’: from orange to purple pink
After the deep black of ‘Obsidian’ and the anise yellow-green of ‘Pistache’, here is a still new color for (evergreen) foliage which goes from orange-pink with red veins in summer to purplish pink, almost fluorescent in autumn and in winter.
- Midsized : 30-40 cm by 60 cm wide.
- Bloom : white in June and July.
- Exposure : partial shade, shade.
- Earth : rich in humus, well drained.
- Cold resistance : Good.
Even if it tolerates heat, remember to water the base of the plant in summer to keep it cool.
Heuchera ‘midnight rose’: black with pink polka dots
Flattering lovers of the unusual, this American heuchera sports an almost black purple outfit with pink punctuations, more or less large, which ensures that it appears at the front of flowerbeds, borders and pots as it is so beautiful and original. On the other hand, its cream flowering is not of much interest.
- Midsized : 30-40 cm and as wide.
- Bloom : in June.
- Exposure : partial shade.
- Earth : rich and humus, well drained, watered in summer.
- Cold resistance : very good.
Cut off flower stems as they appear.
Mullein: a robust perennial plant
The verbascum ‘Petra’ provides a spectacle: long and magnificent flowering, evergreen foliage and, unlike ‘Helen Johnson’ which does not always survive the winter, this one really “lasts” for several years. Its long spikes of flowers with purple-pink buds opening peach-pink, look wonderful on the edge of a terrace or in a clump of blond grasses.
- Midsized : 1m.
- Bloom : May to July.
- Exposure : sun.
- Earth : all the same limestone, but well drained.
- Cold resistance : Good.
Prune faded flowers to ground level to encourage new flowering.
Gaillardia: star plant of English gardens!
Since it was obtained a few years ago by Rosemary Hardy, the lively ‘Oranges & Lemons’ has been “the” plant that we are snapping up in England. It must be said that it does not lack qualities: its vibrant but soft color, bright without being aggressive, its generosity (more than 60 flowers on the same plant), its attractiveness for bees and butterflies.
- Midsized : 60 cm.
- Bloom : June to October.
- Exposure : sun.
- Earth : all even poor.
- Cold resistance : very good.
Water the plant well during the first two summers.
Grasses: a popular perennial plant
Even if Pennisetum macrourum is far from being the most rustic, it is all the rage with its proud appearance, and especially the grace of its slender and caressing plumes, which dance with the slightest breath of wind and flirt with the light.
- Midsized : 1 m to 1.20 m.
- Bloom : July to October.
- Exposure : sun.
- Earth : all except very clayey.
- Cold resistance : medium (it does not resist temperatures below -5°C).
After cleaning and cutting the plant by two thirds, cover it with a thick mulch of dead leaves held by a winter covering secured to the ground.
Sédum ‘Mr Goodbud’: long-lasting flowering
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen an interesting new sedum thing. ‘Mr Goodbud’ is one of them, due to the duration of its flowering and its special color due to the contrast between the young light buds and the blooming purplish-pink flowers.
In addition, the plant resists dryness and holds up rather better than the others, without sagging at the end of the cycle.
- Midsized : 60 cm.
- Bloom : June to October.
- Exposure : sun, partial shade.
- Earth : all even poor.
- Cold resistance : excellent.
For a mass effect, plant three or five: you won’t regret it!