[trees]

I thought it might be kind of fun to share some of the plants that you've gotten turned on to over the last year or so. New varieties that really impressed or maybe some unusual plants that were real winners for you.

I'll start:

Trees
Styrax japonica - Japanese Snowbell... not new, I know, but I fall more and more in love with this delicate beauty every year
Taxodium distichum 'Cascade' is a strongly weeping Bald Cypress. WOW! We got these in and I knew I had to use it.
Acer palmatum dissectum 'Seriyu' is my favorite Japanese Maple. Stems stay green a long time and it's delicate, upright laceleaf form is a real winner

Shrubs
Rosa Knockout... maybe they're starting to be overused a little, but... man do they work!
Nandina domestica 'Sienna Sunrise' is a fantastic new dwarf nandina. Killer red winter color and a finer texture than others on the market. Plus... if you can't grow nandina (where it's hardy)... think concrete.

Perennials
Any of the new hybrid Echinacea . Okay, I admit it, I'm a bona fide echinaceaphile... we all have our guilty pleasures.
Caryopteris 'Snow Fairy' has fantastic foliage... what a beauty! The blooms aren't quite as showy as other Blue Mist Shrubs, but are effective & that foliage... wow.
Salvia greggii 'Hot Lips' is a great performer. The multi-tone blooms are showy for a long time. Plus, it's semi-evergreen to boot.


Well, I gotta go get my daughter from school. I'm sure I'll get inspired to post more later. In the mean time... have at it!

[HardDaysKnight]

Hi Jesse! I love the japanese maple too. Have you seen the
japanese red(blood) fountain grass? It's awesome.

Trees - I have always loved the Hibiscus standard(tree-form) because of it's ornamental size and shape but mostly because of the late summer/ fall bloom time.


Now we are very successful with the hydrangea standard
which I wasn't crazy about, but I am now.


Shrubs -Weigela


Perennials-
Thunbergia / Black-eyed susan vine
My new favorite. I grew this from seed and fell in love with it.
This is not mine but what it looks like from park seed.
I'm very impressed with park seeds results.

[gardengirl1105]

Ok, I like this. I really try to use more plants that not every other landscaping company in town uses so my gardens stand out. I also focus a ton on foliage color, texture and contrast so I LOVE plants that have gold or dark burgundy, brown or black foliage. Here are some of my favorites...Have I mentioned yet that I'm a plantaholic which is what got me into this career 10+ years ago?

Evergreen Trees: I like the weird and less used evergreens such as Spruce 'Compressa', Spruce 'Columnar Blue', Pine 'Columnar White', Pine 'Weeping White' (serpentine trunk form), Pine 'Contorted White', Weeping White Spruce, Weeping Norway Spruce, and I just recently added 3 Variegated Japanese Spruce to my own personal collection...can't wait to see their new growth come out in the spring!

Deciduous Trees: Weeping Red Jade Crabapple, Chanteleclair (sorry for the bad spelling) Pear and/or Cleveland Select Pear, Snowdrift Crabapple, and about any of the Japanese Maples. Oh, and I own a Walker's Siberian Peashrub (weird little weeping tree with hair-like leaves that's supposed to bloom yellow in spring. Mine hasn't bloomed yet, but it's cool anyway!).

Shrubs: ABSOLUTE FAVORITE is Chameocyparis 'Mops' (False Cypress). This one has stunning bright gold foliage year round that is fine textured and looks like a gold waterfall. Also like Viburnum 'Juddii', Chokeberry 'Glossy Black', and Dogwood 'Ivory Halo', and Flower Carpet Rose (any color, but my preference is the Red)...these shrubroses don't stop blooming as do most of the others that bloom in cycles with some downtime in between. Definately the best bloomer I've found!

Perennials: Sedum 'Black Jack' (my new favorite Sedum), Echinacea 'Sunset' or 'Sundown', Salvia 'Caradonna', Heuchera 'Obsidian', Toadlily (species), Hosta 'Sunpower', Hosta 'Halcyon', Allium 'Glaucum', Lysimachia Aurea, Ligularia 'Othello', Black Mondo Grass...

Annuals/Tropicals: Cordyline (can't remember the variety but they're huge and nearly black...you can see a picture or two of them on my website's "Favorite Plants" page in the Photo gallery section: www.landescapesonline.com). Also love the Dragon Wing Begonia's, Wave Petunia's, Verbena bonariensis, Sweet Potato vine 'Marguarite' or Blacky (or Ace of Spades) but the Marguarite is definately the strongest performer!

I know I'll think of more but my kitten is sitting on my chest and I can't see the computer to type much more (for some strange pet-lover reason, I can't just simply move the kitten).

[spiderlily]

Most of my picks this year would be at home in a parking lot as well as a garden...
Trees: We planted beautiful trees, like Weeping Nyssa, Cockspur Hawthorne, Ostrya virginiana, Acer Pseudosieboldiana, Fagus sylvatica--but my tree of the year has to be the Honey Locust that grows outside my bedroom window. It is big enough to span the corner, so I see it out of windows on the north and east side and it thrilled me pretty much all season-In Spring, it changed color every day, in Summer , it sounded wonderful with wind blowing through it, in the Fall, it put on another amazing color show. All this from a tree that will also thrive in an inner city median strip. It gets my nomination for tree of the year.

Shrubs: Itea, Aronia, Caryopteris, Daphne, Kerria, Viburnums, Bottlebrush Buckeye, Ilex, Witch Hazel--we planted so many great shrubs, and yet, Id' have to choose something that was fabulous all season: the darn pale pink Blushing Knockout Roses. No trouble at all with them, and they have those gorgeous pink flowers all summer long, into November. Happy as can be in a parking lot...

Perennials: Must have planted 15,000 perennials this year, and my plant of the year is ...Aconitum. I fell in love with this poisonous plant. Gorgeous dark green foliage, intensely colored flowers---A Spring blooming, a summer blooming, and a fall blooming variety, part sun to part shade, and the deer absolutely won't touch them... A plant you could build a novel around...But, you can't plant it in a parking lot. I guess my parking lot choice would be alliums.

Bulbs: 12,0000 in the ground in October....for the fifth year in a row, my favorite bulb is Tulip 'Pink Impression', a Darwin Hybrid.

[groundwork]

But there are so many!!!

Favorite trees this year: Hamamelis mollis (I don't like the hybrids because most of them don't have that wonderful smell), and Cotinus coggygria (looks fantastic with Choysia!)

Bushes of the year: Choysia ternata requires almost no care, flowers just about year round here, and the leaves give off this great basilish smell when rubbed, Viburnum carlesii, and the old favorite, Sarcoccoca. Another wonderful smeller with easy care

Perennials: Salvia 'Black Knight', just barely hardy around here, but flowers thrugh the first few frosts, phormiums, liliums, too many to name!

[r schipul]

There are so many.

A few which aren't listed above which come to mind are Heptacodium, Stewartia, Fothergilla, Brunnera, Pulmonaria and Weigelia 'Wine and Roses'

[TrickyDick]

Alright I finally have some time to put in my 2 cents.

Trees- Favorite small trees are Heptacodium micinoides and Stewartia psuedocamellia. I have a thing for bark.
Pinus parviflora- Japanese white pine- Between diplodia and the black turpentine beetle we are no longer able to really grow 2 needle pines here. Although this is a pricey plant it is beatiful and tolerant of coastal conditions and I'm going to try to sell it more.

Shrubs- My new favorite plant this year was Vaccinium angustifolium - Low bush blueberry. Sunny and dry, shady and wet, 6 inches tall or 2 feet, fruit, fall color.
I try to find a place for Callicarpa dichotoma on almost every job. Also great for berries and it's short stature is Ilex verticillata "Red Sprite". Ilex meservae "Dragon Lady" is my favorite fastigate evergreen.
Clethra alnifolia- love everything about this plant as well as "Ruby Spice" and "Hummingbird" cultivars.
Hydrangea quercifolia.

Perennials- Geranium "Rozanne"- Needs room to grow but has amazing blue flowers from May until, well apparently Christmas this year. Normally end of November. Tolerates drought.
Plumbago (Ceratestigma plumbaginoides)- Late blue flowers. Tolerates everything. Fast growing groundcover.
I have a thing for shade plants- ferns, especially autumn ferns and japanese painted, epimedium, cimicifuga (esp. dark foliage), astilbe.

Annuals- Too many to mention but one plant we love to use in cutting gardens and planters (esp. shady) is Naomi Campbell calla. The dark flowers are awesome but the white spotted foliage kicks ass all season. Does winter over sometimes but not reliably perennial here.

[trees]

Here are a few pics...

The afore mentioned 'Snow Fairy' Blue Mist Shrub

[trees]

Hot Lips Salvia greggii (taken in the middle of August)

[trees]

Styrax

[trees]

And (don't know how I could have forgotten this one!) my absolutely new favorite shrub...

Cyrptomeria japonica 'Globosa Nana' or Globe Japanese Cedar

[jwholden]

Cyrptomeria japonica 'Globosa Nana' or Globe Japanese Cedar

ooooh...aaaah

I am just beginning to get in a rut with Foamflower (Tiarella), tough to kill and looks great all year.

Yellow Japanese Forest Grass (Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola') is coming strong as well.

I can never plant enough Fothergilla and Stewartia.

Next year I predict many of Serbian Spruce trees in my designs.

[naturaljosh]

I've worked at a native plant nursery since 1999 when I was 16 yrs old and havn't ventured out into the world of cultivars yet, but with the start of my landscaping business I'm excited to see what is out there. Obviously my picks are native based this year.

Trees:
Acer saccharum - Sugar Maple
Amelancher arborea - Service Berry
Betula nigra - River Birch
Cornus florida - Flowering Dogwood
Carpinus caroliniana - Musclewood

Shrubs:
Amorpha canescens - Lead Plant
Ceanothus americanus - New Jersey Tea
Hamemelis vernalis - Ozark Witch Hazel
Hypericum prolicicum - Shrubby St. John's-wort
Rhus aromatica - Fragrant Sumac

Perennials:
Amsonia cilita - Thread-leaved Blue Star
Aster sericeus - Silky Aster
Baptisia sp. - Wild Indigo, all species
Gentiana andrewsii - Closed Gentian
Sedum ternatum - Wild Stonecrop
Yucca glauca - Soapweed Yucca

Grasses:
Bouteloua curtipendula - Sideoats Grama
Buchloe dactyloides - Buffalo Grass
Panicum virgatum - Switch Grass *we grow a naturaly occuring glaucous form from southern MO that only gets 3-5 tall max.
Schizachyrium scoparium - Little Bluestem
Sporobolus heterolepis - Prairie Dropseed