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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Gold medal plants

Since 1988, the hort society has been choosing what they call "gold medal plants" that aren't well known but should be. I stopped at the PHS booth to read about and see some of the 108 plants that have won this designation. Trees like paperbark maple and bottlebrush buckeye, red chokeberry (I love that one) and beautyberry (ditto - have you seen their gorgeous purple berries at the end of summer? not to be missed), shrubs like deutzia and 'Annabelle' hydrangea and oakleaf hydrangea ('Snow Queen'). You'll recognize a lot of them but there are plenty on the list that will be new. It's not too often that we get it all spelled out for us - great plants that'll grow here.

This is a photo of Carolina jasmine 'Margarita,' (Gelsemium sempervivens), a pretty evergreen vine (it can hit 12 feet high) with fragrant trumpet-shaped blooms that open in late March. It's deer-resistant, good in sun or part shade, and tolerant of lousy soil and drought. It's a native that'll do well in our area and, as if we needed any more reason to like this plant, it's yellow. I know some gardeners shy away from yellow - too bright - but I think we all need a splash of yellow out there.

You can take home a list of these gold medal winners. I plan to. Ciao!
Posted by virginia smith @ 4:15 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
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About Virginia A. Smith
Ginny Smith, a Philadelphia native, worked as a reporter at newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Ohio – with six short months at the end of the Bulletin tossed in – before returning to Philadelphia in 1985 to join the Inquirer. Her favorite beats here have included Center City, roving around Pennsylvania (and getting paid for it!) and alternative medicine. She’s also been City Editor and Pennsylvania Editor. Ginny has been happily writing – and learning - about gardening fulltime since 2006. She’s won two silver medals of achievement from the national Garden Writers Association and in 2011, Bartram’s Garden honored her with its Green Exemplar award for her stories about “the region’s deeply rooted horticultural history, cultural attractions and bountiful gardens.”
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