New & interesting plants for your garden
Phil Clayton, Features Editor The Garden, selects some outstanding new and unusual plants to add interest to your garden this year.
Rubus spectabilis ‘Olympic Double’
Rubus spectabilis ‘Olympic Double’ is a splendid April and May flowering bramble, its thorny stems bearing multitudes of beautiful, rounded, fully double rich-pink blooms. It is easily grown in sun or light shade and will reach around 1.2m high - a great choice for a woodland garden. Shown by the Botanic Nursery of Wiltshire.
Kerria japonica ‘Albescens’
Kerria japonica ‘Albescens’ makes an unusual change from the more commonly grown double flowered K. japonica ‘Pleniflora’ (batchelor’s buttons), bearing delicate looking, single blooms of pale, primrose yellow, held on a multistemmed shrub reaching around 1.5 m or more high. Easy to grow in any good, fertile soil in a sunny or lightly shaded position. Shown by the Botanic Nursery of Wiltshire.
Tiarella ‘Mystic Mist’
Tiarella ‘Mystic Mist’ is a relatively new variegated introduction to add to the wide range of tiarellas and heucheras already available, and this selection is reported to be a strong grower. Its leaves are attractively splashed with cream as they emerge, becoming more greenish as they age. In spring, it bears wands of tiny white blooms. Good for low ground cover in shade or even a pot. Shown by Primrose Bank of York.
Bergenia ‘Pink Dragonfly’
Bergenia ‘Pink Dragonfly’ with its compact habit, purple flushed rounded leaves and intensely coloured heads of individually large vibrant magenta spring flowers, is an impressive and fairly recently introduced selection. It is well suited for growing at the edge of a sunny border but will tolerate some shade and some drought once established. Shown by Daisy Roots of Hertford.
Lamprocapnos spectabilis ‘Valentine’
Lamprocapnos spectabilis ‘Valentine’ is a fine new selection of the popular cottage garden plant, love lies a bleeding, which until recently was classified as Dicentra. This outstanding plant has red and white rather than the usual pink and white blooms, above delicate bronze flushed foliage, which is at its most richly tinted as it emerges. It is also proving to be tougher and more compact than the usual plant. Shown by Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants of Hampshire.
Hosta ‘Hadspen Samphire’
Hosta ‘Hadspen Samphire’ makes a bold statement in spring as its young, bright gold, pointed leaves emerge making it a useful plant to mix with smaller early flowering plants such as Brunnera or Omphaloides or perhaps bulbs such as Muscari. It is a compact selection making it suited to a shaded spot in the smaller garden, or will grow well in a pot. The gold colour fades as the season progresses. Shown by W.S Lockyer of Surrey.
Narcissus rupicola
Narcissus rupicola is a astonishingly tiny daffodil with trumpets just 2-3 cm across, carried on dainty stems amid grassy foliage in April. It is best grown as an alpine in a small pan of well-drained compost, overwintered under cold glass. Shown by Choice Landscapes of Cambridgeshire.