Award Winning Plants for 2003

Every year gardening organizations around the United States recognize plants that are outstanding garden performers either regionally or nationally. Here are some of the plants honored in 2003.

By Carole Ottesen

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National

All-America Selections (AAS) 2003 Winners

Awarded on the basis of their performance in test gardens across the country, the 2003 AAS winners include the following annual bedding plants and vegetables:

Double-flowered Gaillardia ‘Sundance Bicolor’; deep burgundy flowered Vinca ‘Jaio Dark Red’; golden yellow coneflower Rudbeckia hirta ‘Prairie Sun’, which has a lime green central cone; and Agastache ‘Golden Jubilee’, which has golden-lime green foliage.

Two pinks (Dianthus spp.) received AAS awards: ‘Corona Cherry Magic’ is a low growing annual with large, two- to three-inch-wide cherry red flowers; ‘Can Can Scarlet’ has wonderful fragrant, scarlet flowers on eight- to 12-inch stems.

Two new petunias were also awarded: ‘Blue Wave,’ a trailing annual with stems up to three to four feet, and ‘Merlin Blue Morn’ with white centered flowers, rimmed in dark blue.

Vegetable winners are summer squash ‘Papaya Pear,’ pear shaped, quick to mature, and very productive; and melon ‘Angel,’ a delicious, fragrant melon with firm, sweet white flesh.
For more information, visit the AAS Web site at http://www.all-americaselections.org.

Green Thumb Awards

Every year, the Mailorder Gardening Association, whose member companies sell garden products directly to customers, bestows Green Thumb Awards upon outstanding plants and products that are available by mail. Four plants are among the 2003 winners:

• Echinacea purpurea ‘Vintage Wine’ is a deep raspberry red form of the native purple coneflower that holds its ray petals horizontally. (Available from the J.W. Jung Seed Co., (800) 247 5864, http://www.jungseed.com)
   

• White plains beardtongue (Penstemon tubaeflorus) sends up three foot flower spikes of bright white blossoms. In addition to being drought and moisture-tolerant, white plains beardtongue is not a favorite treat for deer and rabbits. (Available from High Country Gardens, (800) 925 9387, http://www.highcountrygardens.com.
   

• Coreopsis ‘Limerock Ruby’ is a red-flowered, perennial form of native threadleaf coreopsis. Its low, spreading habit—growing to two feet tall and up to three feet in diameter—and sun-loving, heat tolerant nature make it ideal to edge sunny borders. (Available from Wayside Gardens, (800) 845 1124, http://www.waysidegardens.com.)
   

• Magnolia ‘Vulcan’ boasts the darkest red flowers of any magnolia and grows to 30-50 feet. (Available from Wayside Gardens, (800) 845 1124, http://www.waysidegardens.com.)

Northeast and Mid-Atlantic

Gold Medal Plants

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) awards woody plants that are outstanding in USDA Zones 5-7 with its gold medal. The 2003 award winners include three cultivars of native plants:

• Cross vine, Bignonia capreolata ‘Dragon Lady,’ has red-orange trumpet flowers that attract hummers and butterflies on an evergreen 30’ plant that is hardy in part to full sun.
   

• ‘Bracken’s Brown Beauty’ cultivar of Southern or bullbay magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) has a dense pyramidal growth habit and outstanding cold hardiness, grows in part to full sun to 35 feet high by 20 feet wide.
   

• Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus ‘Fastigiata’) is a very upright white pine with a soft fullness unusual in columnar forms. Persistent lower branches make this pine ideal for screening in full sun.

Other PHS Gold Medal plants are:

• Camellia japonica ‘Korean Fire’ forms a large evergreen shrub 15 feet high in part sun.
   

• Deutzia xhybrida ‘Magicien’ is a fast growing, very adaptable pink-flowering deciduous shrub with no serious pest problems. ‘Magicien’ grows to six feet high by five feet wide in part to full sun.
   

• Spiraea thunbergii ‘Ogon’ (trademarked Mellow Yellow) is an extremely adaptable deciduous shrub with persistent fall color in orange-pink to reddish salmon. It reaches four feet tall and grows best in full to part sun.

The Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association

The Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association’s Plant Selection Committee recognized the following plants for 2003:

• Oak leaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Pee Wee’) is a diminutive form of the native oak leaf hydrangea that reaches only three to five feet high and produces four- to five-inch long, showy white flowers. Its beautiful dark green foliage turns wine-red in fall.
   

• Prunus 'Accolade') is an 18-foot-tall spreading cherry bearing masses of pink, semi-double, early spring flowers that has spectacular orange-red autumn foliage.
   

• Chinese fringetree (Chionanthus retusus) is a showy small tree (15 to 25 feet at maturity) that bears clouds of white flowers in May and June.
   

• Western arbovitae (Thuja plicata ‘Atrovirens’) is a fast growing evergreen conifer that can reach 20 feet in five years. Perfect as either a hedge or specimen tree, it has cinnamon-red shredding bark and spreading branches. It grows best in moist but not waterlogged sites but will tolerate shallow, alkaline soil.
   

• Japanese umbrella pine (Sciadopitys verticillata) is a slow-growing, but long-lived evergreen tree that reaches 40 feet tall with a pyramidal shape.
   

• Witherod (Viburnum nudum ‘Winterthur’) becomes a rounded six-by-six-foot shrub bearing white early summer flowers followed by pink to blue fruits and spectacular fall color.
   

• Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens ‘Vardar Valley’) is a deer-resistant substitute for yews. This evergreen shrub grows three to four feet tall with deep blue-green foliage.

Southeast

The Mississippi Medallion Award

The four outstanding performers chosen as 2003 Mississippi Medallion winners, an award sponsored by Mississippi State University Extension Service, Mississippi Nursery and Landscape Association, and Mississippi Plant Selections Committee are:

• Acer 'Autumn Blaze' is a large—to 50 foot—fast growing, disease-resistant hybrid maple with spectacular, fiery orange fall color.
   

• Abelia 'Edward Goucher' is a pest-free, lilac flowered abelia hybrid that blooms for three to four months, attracting both hummingbirds and butterflies.
   

• Salvia guaranitica 'Costa Rica Blue' produces bottle blue flowers that attract hummingbirds.
   

• Lantana 'Sonset' produces flowers that start off yellow then gradually turn red, magenta, and purple, attracting butterflies and ruby-throated hummingbirds.

For more information about this award program, visit http://www.msnla.org/

Theodore Klein Plant Awards

Named after a legendary Kentucky nurseryman, the Theodore Klein Awards, are sponsored by the University of Kentucky Nursery and Landscape Program, Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, and the Kentucky Nursery and Landscape Association. The 2003 winners are:

•  Aster oblongifolia var. angustatus 'Raydon's Favorite' is a cultivar of a mounding Kentucky native perennial that grows to three feet tall and wide with late blue-purple ray flowers and foliage that offers a hint of mint.
   

• Cercidiphyllum japonica 'Amazing Grace’ is a katsura cultivar named by Klein before his death in 1988. Wider than tall, this tree reaches 25 feet and has orange-yellow fall color.
   

• Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas ‘Golden Glory’) is a prolific bloomer that adds color to the late winter landscape through its bright yellow flowers. This broad-spreading tree grows 15 to 20 feet tall.
   

• Ginkgo biloba 'Autumn Gold’) is a male selection (and thereby fruitless) of maidenhair tree with spectacular autumn color.

For more information, visit http://www.ca.uky.edu/HLA/Dunwell/TkleinPA.html.

Athens Select program

Founded in 1999, The Athens Select program of the University of Georgia is a collection of unique heat and humidity tolerant bedding plants and herbaceous perennials. University of Georgia horticulturist Allan Armitage nominates potential plants for the program, and members of the Athens Select committee make final selections based on two to three years of testing in the University of Georgia Trial Gardens. For more information, visit the Athens Select Web site at http://www.uga.edu/athensselect/.

Here are the plants selected in 2002-2003:

• Cleome 'Linde Armstrong'

• Cuphea 'Firefly'

• Graptophyllum pictum Chocolate'

• Graptophyllum pictum 'Tricolor'

• Heliotropium amplexicaule 'Azure Skies'

• Hypericum xmoserianum 'Tricolor'

• Lantana 'Athens Rose'

• Lantana 'Lavender Popcorn'

• Lantana 'New Gold'

• Ranunculus repens 'Susan's Song'

• Rosmarinus officinalis 'Athens Blue Spires'

• Ruellia 'Ground Hugger'

• Pentas lanceolata 'Stars & Stripes'

• Plectranthus amboinicus 'Athens Gem'

• Plectranthus amboinicus 'Variegatus'

• Scabiosa 'Lemon Sorbet'

• Strobilanthes dyerianus 'Persian Shield'

• Verbena canadensis 'Homestead Purple'

• Verbena canadensis 'Ron Deal'

2003 Florida Plants of the Year

The Florida Nurserymen & Growers Association launched its Plants of the Year program to promote underused but proven plants for Florida gardens. The following plants were chosen for recognition in 2003:

Herbaceous perennials

• Stoke’s aster (Stokesia laevis)

• Sandpaper vine or purple wreath vine (Petrea volubilis)

• Evergreen paspalum or crown grass (Paspalum quadrifarium)

Shrubs

• Yesterday, today, and tomorrow (Brunfelsia grandiflora)

• American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)

Trees

• Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora ‘Little Gem’)

• Schefflera arboricola ‘Luseane’)

For additional information about this program, visit http://www.floridagardening.org/plantsofyear

Midwest

The Top 25 Ornamental Plants for Minnesota
Assembled by the Minnesota Extension Service Master Gardeners in honor of their 25th anniversary, these plants for Minnesota gardens were chosen because they are “resistant to pests and disease and require little in the way of pruning and staking.”

Trees:

• Pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia)

• Flowering crabapple (Malus ‘Prairie Fire’)

• Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus)

• Bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa)

• Japanese tree lilac (Syringa reticulata ‘Ivory Silk’)

Flowering shrubs:

• Serviceberries (Amelanchier spp.)

• Forsythia (Forsythia ovata ‘Meadowlark’)

• Pee-Gee hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata ‘Grandiflora’)

• “Northern Lights” azalea series (Rhododendron spp.)

• Korean lilac (Syringa patula ‘Miss Kim’)

• Compact American cranberrybush (Viburnum opulus var. americanum ‘Compactum’)

Shrub roses:

• Rosa ‘William Baffin’

• R. ‘Winnipeg Parks’

• R. ‘Morden Sunrise’

• R. ‘Therese Bugnet’

Herbaceous Perennials and Grasses:

• Salvia species (sages)

• Hemerocallis species (daylilies)

• Rudbeckia species (cone flowers)

• Sedum species (upright sedums)

• Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ (feather reed grass)

• Hosta species (plaintain lilies)

• Heuchera species (coral bells)

Iowa Nursery and Landscape Association

Named the maple cultivar Acer 'Autumn Blaze’ its "Tree of the Year" (For more on ‘Autumn Blaze’, read the listing under “Mississippi Medallion Awards,” above.)

Rocky Mountains and Great Plains

Nebraska’s GreatPlants Program Releases

A joint effort of the Nebraska Nursery & Landscape Association and the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, the GreatPlants program aids Nebraska gardeners in finding dependable new plants that perform well in their region. The 2003 GreatPlants selections are:

• Concolor fir (Abies concolor), which grows 35-50 feet with soft green to blue-green foliage.
   

• Blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium), a 12-15 foot shrub with late spring flowers, black fruits, and outstanding fall color.
   

• Coneflowers (Echinacea spp.), summer flowering perennials with pinky-purple flowers.
   

• Prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis), a two-foot-tall mounding grass that turns a pale almond after frost.

For more information, visit http://arboretum.unl.edu/greatplants.html.

Pride of Kansas Program

A cooperative venture between the Kansas Nursery and Landscape Association and Kansas State University Research and Extension, Pride of Kansas Plants of the Year, was developed in 2001 to draw attention to well adapted trees and shrubs for Kansas landscapes. For more information, contact the Kansas State University Research and Extension Web site at: http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/dp_hfrr/extensn/horticul.htm

The four plants chosen for 2003 are:

• Annual of the Year: Purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum').
   

• Perennial of the Year: Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea).
   

• Shrub of the Year: Dwarf Korean lilac (Syringa meyeri)
   

• Tree of the Year: Shantung maple (Acer truncatum).

Plant Select

Now in its seventh year, Plant Select is a cooperative program administered by Denver Botanic Gardens and Colorado State University Cooperative Extension, together with landscape and nursery professionals throughout the Rocky Mountain region. The program is designed to recognize and promote the very best plants for gardens from the high plains to the intermountain region. Plants chosen for 2003 are:

• Gazania (Gazania krebsiana trademarked Tanager)

• Coral bells (Heuchera sanguinea 'Snow Angel')

• Waxflower (Jamesia americana)

• Geranium (Geranium magniflorum trademarked Lavetalace)

• Mountain lover or ratstripper (Paxistima canbyi)

• Veronica (Veronica 'Reavis', trademarked Crystalrivers)

• Corsican violet (Viola corsica)

Pacific Northwest

Great Plant Picks

Initiated by the staff of the Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden in Seattle, Washington, Great Plant Picks is a program designed to help home gardeners in the maritime Pacific Northwest identify outstanding plants for their region. The plants are selected by committees composed of horticulturists and nursery owners.

Plants are selected based on the following criteria: hardy in USDA zones 7 and 8; long-lived; vigorous and easy to grow; reasonably disease and pest resistant; have a long season of interest and preferably multiple seasons of interest; adaptable to a variety of soil and fertility conditions. They should not require excessive supplemental irrigation or be invasive or overly vigorous in colonizing the garden or natural areas.

For more information, visit the Great Plant Picks Web site at http://www.greatplantpicks.org

Here are just a few of the Great Plant Picks for 2003:

• Wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa)

• Goldleaf Adriatic bellflower (Campanula garganica ‘Dickson’s Gold’)

• Persian ironwood (Parrotia persica)

• California wax myrtle (Myrica californica)

• Delavay’s osmanthus (Osmanthus delavayi)

• Sonoma dove tree (Davidia involucrata 'Sonoma')

• Autumn Gold maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba ‘Autumn Gold’)

• Oyama magnolia (Magnolia sieboldii)

Carole Ottesen is an associate editor for The American Gardener.