Wayside Gardens Voices

Interesting Hydrangea: Not Just Pink Puffs

Hydrangea are some of the best flowering shrubs around.  They're remarkably easy to grow and bloom reliably with great displays.  However, because they're prevalent and mostly display showy blooms, they don't appeal to a lot of younger gardeners who associate them with their grandmother's garden.  There are, though, a lot of Hydrangea choices that are much different from the "pink puff" style hydrangeas that many gardeners think of these days. 

The Halo™ Hydrangea series is one of the best of these interesting Hydrangeas  The flowers have lovely creamy color that is rare on shrubs, but it is the unique picotee edge that really sets these shrubs apart.  My favorite of these is the Hydrangea Angel Song, which features a sharp pencil-thin white picotee.

Exciting, Intense New Hemerocallis 'Prarie Wildfire'

I love Daylilies (Hemerocallis) for great midsummer color.  The blooms are interesting, with great form and colors, and they're really easy to grow.  To me, though, the best thing about Daylilies is that these unique blooms last only a day.  Normally that might be a bad thing, but on Hemerocallis it's wonderful.  You see, healthy Daylillies bloom profusely all along their stems, and they replace fallen flowers very quickly, so you'll often have loads of flowers for the entire bloom season.  Because they're different blooms every day, though, the plant is amazingly dynamic, truly a different plant every day.  For an easy gardening centerpiece,  you just can't beat that.

I'm especially excited about the new Hemerocallis 'Prarie Wildfire' that we've just made available exclusively to our internet customers.  It's a large plant, reaching about 23 inches tall, and its particularly prolific blooms are attractive to hummingbirds and butterflies.  It's also relatively drought-tolerant and disease-resistant, meaning that it's especially easy to grow.  While all of that is great, it's the rich, intense color of the blooms that really sells me on this plant.  I have only rarely seen hemerocallis display such deep red tones, and they are set off perfectly by the yellow throats that each bloom sports.  So, if you're looking for a truly jaw-dropping centerpiece for your summer garden, consider this stunning Daylily.

Toad Lilies for Really Unique Blooms

I get a lot of questions from customers asking about unique and interesting blooms.  A lot of gardeners love to have centerpiece flowers that really draw the eye and make you want to lean in for a better look.  My first responses are usually flowering vines, particularly Passion Vine and various Clematis varieties.

Of course, despite my great love for them, climbers are not always the right solution.  Another of my favorite blooms that is both really unique and that you don't see in a lot of gardens is Tricertys, common name Toad Lily.  The blooms of the Toad Lily are absolutely fascinating, and really invite you to stop, come closer, and give them a nice long inspection.  They do well in full and part shade, which brings out the texture and form of the flowers and lending a certain air of mystery to the rich colors.  We chose the Tricertys 'Raspberry Mousse' for inclusion in our catalog because its very nearly solid coloring (unusual among Toad Lilies) really brings out the best qualities of the almost alien form of these small blooms.  The flowers are small; just about an inch across, but they bloom all along the stems, so the size only serves to make them all the more interesting.  If you're looking for a truly unique flower to star in your shady garden, you really can't do any better than this Toad Lily.