It’s the midterm exam for a trial plant in my garden this summer. Heading for straight As is Amazel basil, a new introduction from Proven Winners. The play on amazing is appropriate. This is amazing basil and there was quite a buzz about this plant at Cultivate’18 in Ohio, the green industry’s largest horticulture show in the country.
First of all, it’s a big plant – 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide. The tag recommends planting it in the ground. Of course, I didn’t read the tag, so mine is in a pot, but it’s doing great, even if a little tall. It has just started to form flowers, which essentially means nothing on this basil, since it is sterile. So small flowers throughout the season does not change the flavor, and of course, you can eat the flowers.
Heat and cold tolerant, disease free basil
Amazel comes out of the University of Florida’s basil breeding program, so it can withstand hot and humid conditions. It also tolerates cooler temperatures than most other cold-sensitive basils.
The plant has been tested by the university’s Food Science and Human Nutrition Department, where it stood leaf to leaf with the most popular basil varieties for flavor and aroma. Harvest sprays of leaves by cutting stems just above two new sprouting lateral branches to get lush regrowth.
But wait! There’s more. The really big improvement is the foliage is immaculate, with nary a trace of basil downy mildew, a fungus disease that has plagued this herb in our gardens and at production farms for the last several years. Amazel is labeled as downy mildew resistant, and talk in the trade is that so far, this plant lives up to that claim.
There’s a buzz about this plant. Other garden writers throughout the country who are trialing this plant have given it high praise, too. A clean, quick- and long-growing plant, Amazel is delicious and very aromatic.
Proven Winners will introduce Amazel basil plants at garden centers in 2019. Seeds will not be available since the plant is sterile and is propagated by tissue culture.
Angel Wings dusty miller
Technically called Senecio (see-nee’-see-oh), Angel Wings was the showstopper at Cultivate’18, the country’s largest horticulture trade show held each July in Columbus, Ohio.
Many gardeners are familiar with dusty miller, a fuzzy, gray-leaf plant we grow as an annual here. Angel Wings is in the same family, but its broad, rounded, velvety leaves can get as large as your hand.
At 10 inches tall and wide, Angel Wings is substantial enough to hold its own in a landscape planting. It also does well in a container, and it can be grown indoors, too.
Introduced by Concept Plants, Angel Wings senecio was not widely available this year, but more should be on the market in 2019. Grow it in full sun and soil that drains well. This drought-tolerant plant will not be happy in wet soil.
