National Garden Bureau Plant of the Year

New, Well-Behaved Butterfly Bushes

My favorite flowering shrub (currently, anyway) is Buddelia, commonly known as Butterfly Bush. Before you start criticizing this choice as invasive and non-native, let me tell you that all eight of mine are sterile, in the Pugster® family, hybrids from Proven Winners. I have the blue, which is really a shade of blue-purple. The small size makes them compatible with the perennials in my mixed beds. The ones in the pollinator bed near my orchard are four years old, and have not exceeded the labeled height of three feet.

The positives: Butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds adore the flowers. Plants do not require deadheading, but will look better if the spent flowers are removed. In my zone 8 garden, they are semi-evergreen, retaining enough leaves to avoid looking naked in winter. In colder zones, top growth may die back to the ground in winter and should be removed but spring growth is rapid. Deer and rabbits leave them alone. Shrubs bloom throughout the entire summer and into fall. The conical flower panicles of the Pugsters are unique, resembling a tightly packed lilac. Buddleias tolerate heat, humidity, and drought. They are hardy in zones 5 – 9, and are not picky about soil but do require full sun. For all types and cultivars, spring planting is preferred to fall planting.

The negatives: While butterflies swarm the flowers for nectar, the caterpillars that produce those beautiful insects will not dine on the foliage. Other food sources must be provided for the larvae. Plants flower on new growth, so an occasional cut-back is needed for maximum flower power. Older cultivars are NOT sterile and produce so many offspring they are listed as invasive in nine states. Standard Buddleia varieties can be much taller, up to twelve feet. If the sight of dead brown blooms is offensive (I get it, I’m a bit compulsive in that regard), regular removal can be a twice-weekly chore.

Buddleia is sometimes spelled Buddleja but in both cases is pronounced bud-lee-uh. The leaves have an attractive grayish cast that contrasts with brighter companions. Flowers are lightly fragrant.

The National Garden Bureau has named Buddleia as the 2024 Shrub of the Year. Of particular interest is Baby Buzz®, a dwarf cascading form that can be used in a hanging basket. In addition to the sterile Pugster series mentioned above, Lo and Behold® series and the Miss series (Miss Molly, Miss Ruby, Miss Violet) are sterile and the Chrysalis™ series is low seed set and also small enough to be used in hanging baskets and containers. The Cascade Collection is low seed set on a large plant for a flowering backdrop. Gold Drop and Butterfly Gold have either variegated or golden foliage.

Look closely and you can see: spicebush swallowtail, Eastern swallowtail, Gulf fritillary, a tiny silver-spotted skipper, and a bumble bee.

Garden Trends and New Plants for 2023

I have given myself permission to be a bit lazy with this blog as I recover from a heart procedure earlier this week. (No hiking through the woods to discover new plants/insects/fungi.) Instead, I want to share some of what I learned about trends at last week’s Fall 2022 GardenComm (formerly Garden Writers of America) conference.

First, the craze for dark-foliage plants (Chocolate Mimosa (Albizia), Black Mondo (Ophiopogon), and burgundy Chinese Fringe Flower (Loropetalum)) may be subsiding. Demand for white or ivory-variegated plants is on the rise. Especially eye-catching at the conference was a Calla, Zantedeschia 'Frozen Queen,’ with mostly white foliage and deep carmine-rose flowers, and an Elephant Ear with pink and white veins, Colocasia esculenta Royal Hawaiian® 'Waikiki.’ The Elephant Ear made me think of a super-sized Caladium.

The second trend was a surprising move among younger (Gen Z) gardeners away from naturalized or meadow gardens towards more formal, structured grounds with a strong Greek influence in statuary. Expect to see more boxwoods and stone archways.

Finally, the National Garden Bureau released the “Year Of” plants for 2023: The Perennial of the Year is Rudbeckia; the Shrub of the Year is Spirea; the Houseplant of the Year is Orchid; the Bulb of the Year is Amaryllis; the Annual of Year is Celosia; and the Edible of the Year is broccoli.

Three new plant introductions that you will want to check out are Hydrangea paniculata Puffer Fish™ (like ‘Bobo’ but with puffy, pure white flowers that age to lime green); Coneflower Echinacea ‘Raspberry Beret’ and a groundcover Shasta Daisy, Leucanthemum superbum ‘Carpet Angel®, that gets only six inches tall but has the same white daisy flowers as the tall variety. Check them out online and look for these beauties in garden nurseries in spring

Lavender Scent for Stress Relief

Politics and pandemics. Hurricanes, wildfires and home schooling. Many of us are feeling stressed. In times of increased tensions, it is tempting to turn to food or drugs to regain our equilibrium (read: to avoid lashing out at the ones we love). The scent of lavender is a natural time-tested anxiety reliever.

Folk medicine has long proclaimed lavender as an effective stress reducer. (Fans of the Downton Abbey series may remember Anna stuffing a sleep-inducing pillow with dried lavender blooms, circa 1920s.) Now the scientific community agrees. A study released in 2018 indicates that linalool, the magic substance in lavender, must be inhaled rather than injected directly into the bloodstream to be effective. In this instance, the marketing world has a head start. There are laundry detergents, candles, deodorants, lotions, air fresheners and even a pillow spray containing this calming aroma. The good news is that home gardeners can grow their own.

Lavender is a member of the mint family. The most common types are English lavender (Lavendula angustifolia) and Spanish or French lavender (Lavendula stoechas or Lavendula dentata). English lavender is the hardiest type, being cold hardy into Zone 5. ‘Hidcote,’ ‘Superblue,’ and ‘Munstead’ fall into the English family while ‘Bandera’ and ‘Primavera’ are Spanish rebloomers. Modern crosses between the two types produce heavy blooming, cold hardy types like ‘Torch,’ ‘Provence’ and ‘Edelweiss.’ All these have flowers in the blue to violet range, but pink and white cultivars are available.

Lavenders are challenging to raise from seed, with low germination rates and slow growth. Start with a purchased plant and propagate from cuttings or layering. Growing Lavenders in clay soil and high humidity of the southeast can be challenging. Like other plants with felted gray leaves, they are heat tolerant but prone to rot if the leaves stay damp. They must be sited in full sun. Water only until plants are established; avoid wetting foliage. They are quite drought tolerant thereafter. Because plants need good drainage and good air circulation, they are ideally suited to rock gardens or container culture. Bagged potting soils labeled for cactus work well. Plants prefer a lean, alkaline soil, so do not add fertilizer but do add lime to keep a pH of 6.4 to 8.2.

Plants may eventually reach heights of 4 feet or more. Tall plants tend to flop open in the middle. This can be prevented by selecting dwarf cultivars or pruning (remove up to 1/3 of the foliage) immediately after they bloom – a perfect opportunity to harvest the flowers for potpourri or even food use. I enjoyed a delicious lavender shortbread cookie several years ago at a gardening event. Lavenders bloom on new growth, so pruning keeps them compact and increases the number of flowers. If pruning is neglected, plants will eventually develop leafless woody stems at lower levels. Once this occurs, replace the plant with a new one. Plants rarely throw new growth when pruned down to this woody section.

Lavenders are evergreen to semi-evergreen. Both flowers and foliage are fragrant. They are not browsed by deer, are not aggressive and are not invasive. Blooms are long-lasting. Bees and butterflies love them.

Lavender is the National Garden Bureau’s Perennial of the Year for 2020. They have kindly provided the accompanying photographs.