I Can’t Live Without You…. Teza’s Top New Plant Additions for 2011

I’m a bit of a list guy – you know the type – favourite actor, favourite book, favourite movie, so it should come as no surprise that I also compile a yearly list based on new and exciting plants that have been added to the garden’s repertoire. I find myself laughing mirthlessly every year when I discover just how many new plants I have managed to add to what I jokingly refer to as my ‘postage stamp’ sized property. Over the years I have learned that contrary to opinion, and the possibility of crushing the male psyche, ‘size’ is not everything! Its really quite amazing just how many plants you can fit into a 30cm x 30cm speck of fertile soil!

 Dysosma versipelle [also known as Podophyllum versipelle] was one of the most anticipated additions to the garden this year. Everything about it, from its irregularly large hexagonally lobed foliage, to the interesting ruby fruit bespeaks that it is definitely not the ‘Mayapple’ that you grew up with! Methinks its Chinese heritage has something to do with it! I was so excited that I had to buy two! Here’s hoping they adapt and do as well as the ones in this photo!

While this photo doesn’t come close to doing the plant justice, Aralia cordata ‘Sun King’ was another recent introduction that did it’s damndest to remain elusive! Luckily I embarked upon a return pilgrimage to Lost Horizons and came home with this robust specimen. I have another of the species within the garden, but was more than impressed with the fabulously chartreuse foliage that this latest introduction flaunts so effortlessly. I cannot wait for it to add its infamous wine coloured clusters of berries to the picture! A veritable hortgasm waiting to happen!

Having been a staunch advocate of the genus Roscoea, I was thrilled to be able to add two new species this year. Pictured about is Roscoea purpurescens, with its dazzling display of pink infused flowers, while below, is the more demure, but equally mesmerizing Roscoea cautleyoides ‘Kew Beauty.’ I cannot pontificate the importance of adding at least one of this ‘flowering ginger’ to your garden enough!

  For the past four years, I lusted after a diminutive, variegated hedge Maple, Acer campestre ‘Carnival’ and this past June I added one to the garden as a birthday present to myself! It offers delightful pink, green and cream infused Spring foliage, is a somewhat slow grower and is likely to remain rather demure in height [2m] which makes it a perfect addition to my smaller property.

 With the success of my first within the genus, Cypripedium reginae, I decided that I would boldly move forward with my new obsession. Cypripedium formosanum var. japonicum stole my heart with her stunning pleated, fan shaped foliage, so reminiscent of a Victorian collar, to say nothing of her bloom’s dazzling beauty! I am told that it is another rather ‘easy to grow’ species, so my fingers and toes are crossed! 

I could go on, but for me seven is a lucky number, so I shall pontificate on only one more plant. Its the same as the wonderful drift depicted in the photo that begins this post. That photo is courtesy of Lost Horizons, where, four years ago I questioned L about a most unique plant whose inflorescence reminded me of the genus Hydrangea. Turns out, Deinanthe caerulea is in fact a distant relation. I started with its cousin, Deinanthe bifida, whose white flowers are smothered with bees during its bloom period, but was never able to shake the intoxicating allure that D. caerulea held over me. I felt like a drug addict, desperately in need of a fix. And now I have one of my very own. I cannot wait to fall under its spell once again when I am rewarded with its exquisite blooms! Of all my additions this past year, this one makes my heart sing loudest!

Do share your favourite recent garden additions! Please!