New Plant Awardsd were handed out for the best new introductions. The results are:
Begonia 'Glowing Embers'
Category winners
Best Annual Begonia 'Glowing Embers'
Best Shrub Coprosma ‘Tequila Sunrise’
Best Climber Clematis 'Guiding Promise'
Gold
Begonia 'Glowing Embers'
Coprosma ‘Tequila Sunrise’
Clematis 'Guiding Promise'
Nemesia Maritana ‘Bleuberry Ripple’
Nemesia 'Framboise'
Silver
Gazania ‘Apache’
Hydrangea paniculata ‘Bombshell’
Hydrangea macrophylla Endless Summer 'Twist-n-Shout'
Leucanthemum 'Real Galaxy'
Nemesia Maritana ‘Vanilla Lady’
Rosa 'Joie de Vivre' - Rose of the Year 2010
Bronze
Coprosma repens 'Pacific Sunset'
Gazania Garvinea
Geum 'Totally Tangerine'
Nemesia 'Mirabell'
Nemesia ‘Sugar Frosted’
Salvia eigii ‘Christopher Fairweather’
Sambucus nigra ‘Black Tower’
I saw Begonia 'Glowing Embers' earlier this summer at Frosts Garden centres and fell in love with it at first sight - a great new introduction.
Some of the plants are excellent new introduction, most of which I liked. But a few are just a slight improvement on what's already existing in the plants market place or part of the never-ending strive for something 'new'.
This got me thinking. I know it's important to have new plants to excite and interest gardeners, but are there too many? Plants may be seen as 'old' to the gardening trade and people like me who have a handle on what's available, but to people new to gardening an old plant may still be 'new' to them, since they don't know the difference between old and new, having just been bitten by the gardening bug. Some plants have been around and grown in our gardens for hundreds of years and they're still as good now as they were then. So maybe, rather than always getting excited about new plants, we should get excited about good garden plants.
Posts
Hear hear. I'm a bit fed up of the constant striving for the new when they're often little better (and sometimes worse) than the old.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I did make an exception a couple of weeks ago and bought one of the new perennial Nemesias ('Wisley vanilla'), because it's perennial and also because of its knock out vanilla scent. 2 things which in my view were an improvement to the usual annual Nemesias we all know and love for our summer displays.
However, over the past week I've found another 2 vanilla scented Nemesias (including the one you've mentioned in your post). How many of them do we need for goodness sake?
Hi VP
ReplyDeleteI agree that if you can find a plant that has improvements on what you normally grow - then go for it. And I also agree that overkill is the main problem with plant breeders - you just can't stop them! Probably rose breeders are the main culprits!!!