'Ice Follies' hellebore from Chris Hanson's Winter Thriller collection at Great Garden Plants. Photo courtesy Chris Hansen
At a perennial plant symposium last month in Indianapolis, we got a glimpse of some new introductions to be on the lookout for. Here’s a sampler:
Little Lime hydrangea (H. paniculata) works nicely in smaller landscapes. Photo courtesy Proven Winners/ColorChoice
Little Lime (Hydrangea paniculata), is a smaller version of the extremely popular ‘Limelight’ hydrangea. Little Lime has the same great reliable characteristics as its larger sibling, including long white panicles that turn pink in fall.
The big advantage, of course, is Little Lime’s size. Little Lime gets up to 5 feet and about 4 feet wide. ‘Limelight’ is closer to 7 feet tall. Little Lime is marketed by Proven Winners/ColorChoice plants.
Terra Nova Nurseries, which has introduced many of the colorful leafed coral bells (Heuchera), has hybridized those with foamy bells (Tiarella), to develop Heucherella. New this year are two trailing foamy bells that will do well as groundcovers in shade to part sun. They also could be potted in containers for summer enjoyment and transplanted to the ground in fall.
'Redstone Falls' Heucherella. Photo courtesy Terre Nova Nurseries
'Yellowstone Falls' Heucherella. Photo courtesy Terra Nova Nurseries
‘Redstone Falls’ has copper, dark-veined leaves early in the season. The leaves change to various hues of reds and browns in fall and winter. ‘Redstone Falls’ gets 36 inches wide and 10 inches tall. Slightly smaller at 24 inches wide and 6 inches tall is ‘Yellowstone Falls.’ This heucherella has chartreuse, deeply lobed leaves with crimson markings.
For nearly 20 years, Chris Hansen of GreatGardenPlants.com has been hand breeding Lenten roses (Helleborus), one of the earliest perennials to bloom in the Midwest garden. This year he launched the Winter Thrillers series with some of the largest flowering hellebores on the market.
These evergreen perennials are ideal for shade to part shade, and are drought tolerant once established. Winter Thrillers are seed propagated, so they come in many colors, including grape, green, pink and several with contrasting or picotee edging, with lots of variation.
Garden centers may have some of these new introductions, or look for them at online or mail-order retailers.
