Incredible Charm: Coral Cove Rose

Simply Delightful…

Sensationally Delicious.

Introducing new ‘Coral Cove’ Easy Elegance Roses

Image courtesy of Baily Nurseries
Copyright © Easy Elegance Roses 2008

Oh what a stunning color! Simply anyone can enjoy this beautiful little shrub rose, ‘Coral Cove’ in their yard or garden. Easy Elegance Roses are so superior in being easy to grow, they come with a 2 Year Guarantee. Be sure to save that receipt, you’ll need it if for some strange reason you have an extraordinary experience.

This is not your grandma’s rose bush!

Image courtesy of Baily Nurseries
Copyright © Easy Elegance Roses 2008

Long on charm, high on color… Coral Cove Rose is also really short on growing issues. You can’t kill an Easy Elegance Rose. Bugs won’t eat all the leaves. You won’t have icky diseases like black spot or mildew either. New selections prove their incredible pest and disease resistance just to earn a spot in the collection offered to increase the beauty of your landscaping and garden design. Shrub roses are the easiest to grow of all rose varieties and Easy Elegance is even better than that.

Coral Cove Rose bushes are compact and will be a great long blooming addition for many spots in your yard. At only 2-feet tall, they easily tuck beneath even low windows and will be fabulous as a driveway hedge that stretches all the way to the street. Very cold hardy, these new rose shrubs will be a cinch for anyone in zones 5-9 to grow. Oh, and don’t worry about having the clip of thousands of spent blooms. Shrub roses don’t need that to look great. Low maintenance and drought tolerant, once establish. Easy Elegance Roses also will easily adapt to many soils and climates.

Coral Cove blooms are a fantastic fusion of hot and pastel colors.

The outer petals and fat rosebuds appear in an pink-orange tone that can be described as persimmon. Each of the many layers of petals grow softer, becoming a whisper of coral at the yellow center. Very yummy natural confections, even while they age.

Coral Cove Rose will continue blasting out vibrant warm color from late spring right up to that first hard frost. An ever blooming selection that you won’t need to spend much time shaping. This bewitching little beauty will form a neatly rounded, dense mound all on it’s own. Leaving you tons of time to kick back and admire the scads of delicious 3 inch wide blooms.

Rosa’BAIlove’ marketed under the trade mark of ‘Coral Cove’ Rose.

Image courtesy of Baily Nurseries
Copyright © Easy Elegance Roses 2008

Look for ‘Coral Cove’ Roses where ever you see the Easy Elegance Rose Collection brand tags on display in the rose department of your local garden center or nursery.

Campanula ‘Viking’: Love at First Sight

There is something undeniably romantic about the blooming presence of old fashioned bellflowers. The blued lavender blooms of Peachleaf Bellfower are a sight to behold in early summer. And then, the magic is over. Undignified and flopping about, the common bellflower is a mess in your garden. Campanula ‘Viking’ is going to change your view of bellflowers completely. Get ready for a love affair that isn’t a flash in the pan two-week stand.

Image courtesy of Plants Nouveau
Copyright © Plants Nouveau 2009

Perennial gardens everywhere in zones 5-8 will be so much lovelier with Campanula ‘Viking’ in May through July. Fat lavender blooms erupting on very upright stems, for weeks on end. The breeding for a compact plant will be the reason that this bellflower won’t be found lolling on the soil surface. No flopping and a vastly extended flowering period. A perennial flower destined to win your heart and be awarded a prized spot in your yard or flower garden.

Do be sure to give Viking all day sun for best flowering and vigor. One of the beauties of Campanula of all types (and there are oodles of them) is that they don’t have issues with pests and diseases some perennial plants can be prone to. You won’t have any problems with it spreading like wildfire and taking over your planting space or creeping into the lawn either. Viking is very well behaved. No runners and the seed is sterile, making it no garden thug you will regret planting forever more.

Campanula Viking will do well in average garden soil, but be prepared to give it consistent moisture. Bellflowers will not reward you with great vigor in heavy clay soils; prepare a well drained planting space. With the proper foundation, you’ll find that the superior strength and vigor of this bellflower, paired with months of luscious fat purple blooms, draws interesting visitors to your garden. Hummingbirds and butterflies will be magnetized to your new stand of Campanula Viking.

You won’t be sorry for adding this perennial plant to your front foundation plantings. The compact nature will keep this perennial in great shape. At only 18 inches tall in full bloom, be sure to plant your Viking Campanula in the middle to front of your border gardens. For those who enjoy a sampling of cut flowers extending the garden to bouquets in the house, Viking is an excellent addition to your cutting garden. For cottage garden and English garden plantings, here you have a winner in plumping up the romantic theme. In your garden or landscape, this lovely and nicely mannered perennial will mature to 24 inches across.

Image courtesy of Plants Nouveau
Copyright © Plants Nouveau 2009

New to the US gardening scene for 2011, Campanula ‘Viking’ PPAF is a Plants Nouveau introduction. You can count on the discerning judgment of anything Angela presents. Plants Nouveau has strict standards in deeming a new perennial plant fit for growing. This gorgeous new bellflower is the breeding work of Arie Blom and A-B Cultivars. This is just one more phenomenal perennial flower crafted by the Netherlands breeder who brought us the Cone-fections Echinacea series. Thanks Arie!

For more information about new Campanula ‘Viking’, contact Plants Nouveau.

In the Pink for Spring

Carpeting blooms so divine,
They named them Flower of God.

Introducing Dianthus gratianopolitanus ‘St. Benedict’

Image courtesy of Intrinsic Introductions
Copyright © Intrinsic Perennial Gardens 2008

Clearly beyond pink. Just look at the brilliance of that bloom. Imagine a perennial plant forming a sliver blue carpet covered with hundreds of these scented flowers in spring. Against the uniquely blue foliage, St. Benedict Dianthus is quite an arresting show. An instant pairing of glorious color springs to mind, I can see the low sweep of these spicy little blooms in front of Gold Variegated Iris (Iris pallida ‘Aureo Variegata’).

Variegated Iris
Image courtesy of Missouri Botanical Garden.

Quite an amazing spring rock garden scene would be created with two of these perennial plants, and such a planting situation does both of them justice. St. Benedictine Dianthus, like all Cheddar Pinks, is an excellent easy to grow pink flowering perennial that forms a low mat that is a lovely color both in and out of bloom. While the silvery blue grass-like foliage is not quite as dramatic as those late spring flowers, you will find that it makes a lovely unique note amidst many greener leaved plants in the garden.

If you are wondering where the ‘Flower of God’ comes from, Dianthus is the combination of the Greek words for flower and god. We shouldn’t be surprised; the sight of Cheddar Pinks in bloom during May to June really is quite heavenly. Other forms of Dianthus are known as Sweet William and Cottage Pinks. Dianthus gratianopolitanus is a different variety than either of them and imparts a spicier scent much like cloves. The common name of Cheddar Pinks comes from their source of origination, an area known as Cheddar Gorge in southwest England where they grow in wild, natural abandon.

Image courtesy of Intrinsic Introductions
Copyright © Intrinsic Perennial Gardens 2008

For best vigor and beauty, St. Benedictine Dianthus requires excellent drainage and soil with a 6.6-7.8 pH level. If your soil is more acidic, you can bring it into the desirable balance with periodic additions of lime. You want a full sun spot for this alpine style glory of spring. The more silvered than most foliage of St. Benedictine reaches 6 inches tall and forms a 12 inch wide clump. The splendid almost beyond pink blooms appear on stems no taller than 8 inches. Blooms measure 1” wide with 4-5 serrated edge petals.

St. Benedictine Dianthus is hardy for zones 5-10 and being introduced to the world by Intrinsic Perennial Gardens. For those of you living in the deeper reaches of the hardiness zones, you will do best to give Dianthus filtered shade. St. Benedictine is really a lovely little source of early season vibrant color well worth a spot in the landscape and garden.

For professional growers seeking more information on the plant, visit Intrinsic Introductions.