Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: More fun plants for 2023
Everyone I talk to is SO excited for gardening season this year. I love it! I spotted a beautiful verbena I plan to use in at least 1 container! ‘Sparkling Amethyst’ is a stunner in part to full sun with blooms from Spring to Fall.
Seriously! This Proven Winners addition is part of their Superbenas series which are their most vigorous, heat tolerant, and mildew tolerant plants.
The white and amethyst bicolor flowers are also attractive to butterflies. It grows just about a foot tall but it spreads about 30 inches! Great in a container, hanging basket or even in a landscape bed. They also don’t need deadheading.
Another awesome annual bloomer from spring to fall is gomphrena. Also called Globe Amaranth, ‘Truffula Pink’ grows to about 2 ft. by 2 ft. and the hot pink flowers perform well in hot/humid climates.
It’s also great as a cut flower as it has a long vase life. It’s heat and drought tolerant and the bees and butterflies love it too.
I’m sort of on a Proven Winners bandwagon at the moment, no they don’t pay me, but there’s a beautiful reblooming hydrangea macrophylla in their Let’s Dance series called ‘Sky View’. It’s new in garden centers this year.
It grows 3 ft tall with a 4 ft. spread. Hardy to zone 4, the flowers are pink unless you amend your soil with aluminum sulfate or you have an acidic soil.
They add: You’ll also love how easy this cultivar is to turn blue, which is what we recommend, since it’s so spectacular this way: flowers emerge a beautiful sky blue with a honeydew-green eye before maturing to a full sky blue. Again, you need a soil with a pH below 6.5.
You know that I’m an advocate for native plants but it’s still okay to have a treat! It’s like having a snickers bar or something!
