Costa Farms Spring 2016 Top Perennials

ier em ue!

Pr Iss

2016 Spring Top Perennials Costa Farms Trial Garden

I

f you do much gardening, you probably rely on perennials to play a key role in your yard. These plants come back every year, getting bigger and better with time, so they’re a great investment and can add big color to landscapes.

It should be no surprise, then, that we here at Costa Farms are working hard to ensure the selection of perennials we grow for you is the very best available. To that end, we’ve devoted an entire Trial Garden to testing these plants.

About Our Trials

Our 1-acre Trial Garden in Trenton, South Carolina (USDA Hardiness Zone 8A), features 100 row beds that we use to test hundreds of perennials each year. We look at summer and winter performance over two seasons. See the graphs to the right for detailed information on temperature and humidity throughout the evaluation period.

We start with a production trial, and grow them from seed or cuttings. Most are grown in 2.5-quart pots just like we do for our plants we ship to stores. Then, they’re planted in the row beds—in full flower—the same way you do with the perennials you get from your local garden center.

The plants are watered with drip irrigation to supplement moisture when natural rainfall is scarce. A timed-release fertilizer is incorporated into the row beds once each year. We try to match the care you give your plants, so we only treat pest and disease outbreaks in severe cases.

We do deadhead/cut back reblooming perennials to get as many flushes of flowers from them as possible. With such pruning, varieties such as salvia and coreopsis can rebloom several times throughout the year.

Data Collection

To be considered a top performer in our trials, a variety needs to show abundance of bloom (if applicable), excellent crop uniformity, good resistance to disease, clean foliage, and a pleasing habit. Data is collected biweekly, and we include information on when varieties go in and out of bloom.

About this Report

Because we know color is so important to you, we divided the top performers into two categories by color—hot, exciting colors and soft, cool shades. Hot colors are ideal for creating a focal point and grabbing attention as they’re bold and bright. Cool colors can help make a yard feel larger because they tend to recede from view. All of these varieties are available in garden centers.

Hot Plants for Hot Color

Dianthus Lueur Deep Red

Coreopsis Leading Lady Charlize

Dianthus Lueur Deep Red: Dianthus are surefire

plants for adding a big burst of spring color and kicking off the gardening season. Lueur Deep Red was a standout. Unlike many dianthus, it didn’t die out during the summer heat. Open sourced, nonpatented variety. Zones 4-8; transplanted April 2015.

Coreopsis Leading Lady Charlize: Showing

excellent performance in both our Trial Gardens (South Carolina and Florida), we were impressed by the compact nature and large numbers of fluffy yellow flowers found on Leading Lady Charlize. Zones 4-8. Presented by Dummen Orange; transplanted June 2015.

Rhododendron Encore Autumn Fire: This Encore

azalea selection topped the charts because it has a full, compact habit (little to no pruning required!) lush red flowers, and attractive bronze-purple foliage in the winter, adding a fourth season of interest. Zones 6-9. Presented by Plant Development Services, Inc.; transplanted October 2014.

Rhododendron Encore Autumn Fire

Rosa Miracle On The Hudson

Rosa Miracle On The Hudson: An award-winning shrub

rose with fantastic color, Miracle On The Hudson showed clean foliage and excellent heat tolerance. We loved its profusion of rich red, semi-double flowers. Like other roses, it makes a fantastic cut flower and fits well in perennial beds and borders, foundation plantings, and shrub borders.

Miracle On The Hudson is hardy in Zones 6-9. Presented by EuroAmerican Propagators; transplanted July 2015.

Salvia Arctic Blaze Red (and Fuchsia): There are so many

salvia varieties available, with more coming every year. How do we choose? We look for those that show off the best performance. Arctic Blaze Fuchsia and Red had full, compact, bushy habits and an abundance of richly colored flowers that attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. These droughttolerant selections are ideal for wildlife gardens, as well as low-maintenance landscapes. Zones 6-10. Presented by Star Roses and Plants; transplanted July 2015.

How to Pick Perfect Perennials Not sure which varieties of perennials you should grow in your yard? First take stock of your yard’s conditions—the amount of sun, how much you intend to water, the soil type, etc. Use that as your first guide to selecting plants. A shade-loving plant won’t thrive in hot full sun, for example.

By choosing plants that like your yard, you’ll be making your garden easier to care for.

When it comes to picking varieties, look at plant tags or our website to find details on a perennial’s bloom time, height and width, hardiness zone rating, and other features.

If you need help picking out perennials, visit www.costafarms.com. We have a Plant Finder that allows you to search for criteria such as light and water needs, as well as special features like attracting butterflies.

Salvia Arctic Blaze Red

Salvia Arctic Blaze Fuchsia

Cool Plants for a Soft Look

Dianthus Early Bird Pop Star

Verbena EnduraScape Magenta

Dianthus Early Bird Pop Star: It’s easy to love this charming dianthus as much for its compact mounds of silvery-blue foliage as it is for the lovely and fragrant lavender-pink flowers! Ideal for planting in the front of the border, along pathways, or even for adding a powerful punch of color and scent to early-spring containers, Early Bird Pop Star puts on a great show. Zones 5-8. Presented by PlantHaven; transplanted April 2015.

Verbena EnduraScape Magenta: Living up to its name,

EnduraScape Magenta held up to the heat and humidity in our South Carolina Trial Garden. It was early to perform, bursting into bloom and creating a strong display with its masses of magenta-pink flowers. Like other verbena varieties, it’s an ideal groundcover for hot, sunny spots, or for creating a colorful edge to the front of the border. Zones 7-8.

Presented by Ball Horticultural; transplanted October 2015.

Dianthus Super Star

Heuchera Grape Expectations

Phlox Paparazzi Britney

Helleborus Frostkiss Winterbells

Dianthus Star Single Super Star: A profuse bloomer, Star

Heuchera Grape Expectations: Heuchera have become

Phlox Paparazzi Britney: This interspecific phlox knocked

Helleborus Frostkiss Winterbells: What impressed us most

Single Super Star was a standout. It produces masses of pink flowers marked with a bold cherry-red center. After the blooms fade, the silvery-blue foliage makes a fantastic garden accent to other perennials, annuals, or small shrubs. Zones 5-8. Presented

by PlantHaven; supplied by Aris; transplanted May 2015.

our socks off. Offering a fantastic habit, it starts blooming early with masses of fragrant pink flowers and continues longer than its parents. It’s ideal for the front of the border, or as a groundcover in a mass planting. Zones 5-9. Presented by EuroAmerican Propagators; transplanted September 2014.

many gardeners’ best friends because they thrive in shade, offer season-long color, and resist deer and rabbits. Grape Expectations performed well in our heat and humidity, as well as showed great uniformity. Zones 4-9. Presented by Walter’s Gardens; transplanted June 2015.

about this variety was its repeat bloom; it continued from mid-winter through June in our Trial Garden! A stunner for shaded spots, it resists deer and rabbits and stays evergreen in mild-winter climates. Zones 5-8. Presented by Hilverda Kooij; supplied by SHS Griffin; transplanted July 2014.

Festuca Cool As Ice: Ornamental grasses

are a big hit with home gardeners because of their texture and easy-care nature. Cool As Ice impressed us with its heat tolerance; there was little browning in our Trial Garden. Use its texture to create interesting geometric patterns in the landscape—or grow it in containers. Zones 4-8. Presented

by Intrinsic Gardens; supplied by Emerald Coast Growers; transplanted June 2015.

Verbena EnduraScape Pink Bicolor

Salvia Bordeau Deep Blue

Salvia Hypnotic Deep Blue

Verbena EnduraScape Pink Bicolor (and Purple Improved): Showing off large flowers in a romantic color combination that appeals to home gardeners of all experience levels, these varieties also have an excellent habit and uniformity. They’re ideal for adding big color to slopes and other sunny, hard-to-landscape spaces in the yard. Zones 7-8. Presented by Ball Horticultural; transplanted October 2015.

Salvia Bordeau Deep Blue (and Rose): A pair of

spectacular garden plants, these varieties showed off so many blooms. When the faded flowers are removed, they continued to rebloom well into the summer. Excellent for the middle of the border, their flower spikes add texture—and attract butterflies.

Zones 4-9. Presented by Syngenta Flowers; tranplanted April (Deep Blue) and May (Rose) 2015.

Three Easy Ways to Get More Flowers Looking for your perennials to make a bigger bang in your yard? Try these tips: 1) Deadhead. Many perennials will put out more flowers if you remove their faded blooms. Some species, such as coreopsis and salvia, can give you four or five times more blossoms.

2) Mulch. Spread a 2- to 3-inch-deep layer of mulch over your perennial beds and you’ll almost immediately begin to reap the benefits. Mulch helps keep the soil temperatures consistent so plants are stressed less; it helps the soil hold moisture during times of drought; and it suppresses weeds.

3) Pick the Right Plant. Make sure you match the conditions your plants want to the conditions in your yard.

Veronica Moody Blues Sky Blue

Salvia Hypnotic Blue (and Pink): This pair of

salvia siblings sported excellent color and great mounding habits. We were pleased with their ability—and propensity—to rebloom well after cutting. They’re ideal choices for anyone who wants easy-care, deer- and rabbit-resistant perennial flowers that can bloom for months. Zones 5-9.

Presented by Keith Hammet; supplied by Aris; transplanted May 2015.

Veronica Moody Blues Sky Blue: Ideal for adding

a touch of cottage style (which is oh-so-popular these days), Moody Blues Sky Blue is a great garden plant with elegant spikes of lavender-blue flowers throughout the summer. It attracts butterflies, too!

Pair it with roses for an unforgettably beautiful look. Zones 4-9. Presented by Star Roses and Plants; transplanted June 2015.