By Bev Johnson

Master Gardener

This is the time of year the growers introduce their new plants. If it is a brand-new perennial, let it hang around for 2 or 3 years to be sure it stands up to its promise. It may not be as winter hardy or as unusual or as attractive as advertised in your garden. That said, here are some of this year’s offerings:

If you have a boggy area and like grasses, Stars and Stripes Bullrush may be your thing. It has green and yellow striped blades and is low maintenance.

Hosta lovers will go wild over “Emperor’s New Clothes,” a sport of Madame Woo, but more compact. The rippled leaves are heavily splashed with white with thin green margins. She creates a “luminous effect in low light. The growers say they have never seen a hosta like this one.

If you need a vertical accent in your garden, Darklight Baptisia is the one. She is 36 to 42 inches tall. The white blooms are on a near black stem above a mound of blue-green foliage. The compo is quite striking. Bees and butterflies love her.  

Another tall gal is a new cultivar of our native blazing star. She’s 4 feet tall and about 2 feet wide. Instead of a nice clump of blooms, these stems shoot out at all conceivable angles. A bit messy looking.  Not for Martha type gardeners. 

Touch of Blush is the name of a new false sunflower,” Heliopsis helianthoides”. The leaves in this 20 by 20-inch baby have a pink tinge that the new white and green leaves get early in the season. She is covered in bright yellow daisy-like flowers that pollinators flock to. 

If you have a sunny dry spot that needs a ground cover, the “tough of nails” ‘Shamrock’ stonecrop sedum will do the trick. The rounded blue-green leaves have a subtle edge of purple. In early fall star shaped soft pink flowers pop up. 

How about a new lilac? “Pink Flush” only 4 feet tall and wide is resistant to powdery mildew. The dense rounded shrub is covered with flowers that are soft pink with dark pink streaks. She’s perfect for the small yard. 

First Editions has introduced a crabapple tree that is only 18 to 20 inches tall and 6 to 8 feet wide.  She has white blooms that attract pollinators and small red fruit that hangs on and will attract Robins and Cedar Waxwings in the fall. How much prettier is she than a hairy telephone juniper that everyone and his brother has on the corner of their house. 

If you have room for rugosa rose, Seaside Swirl Blush may be your girl. She’s 3×3, and fragrant with semi double blooms from spring to fall. The deep green foliage turns golden in the fall and the bright red hips feed the birds and give you some winter color – an ‘all year-round shrub.’

A honeysuckle vine that was originally propagated in 1880 was recently discovered in Fort Collins, Colorado. Lonicera reticulata, Kinzley’s Ghost is easily grown in any soil. It grows 8 to 12 feet tall. The compact vine has yellow late spring flowers followed by showy large silver bracts. Another Lonicera sempervirens, Major Wheeler, is covered with red trumpet flowers, a hummingbird’s dream, deer and mildew resistant. She’s a bit shorter, 3 to 8 feet tall and up to 10 feet wide depending on if she likes her growing conditions. 

All these plants are zone 4 and should do well for us, but a heavy fall mulch will help ensure they are truly perennial.