Helleborus Walberton’s® Rosemary is a fantastic plant.

But don’t take my word for it – read this article.

Salvia Wendy’s Wish has been voted one of the top plants in the landscape trials at the University of Illinois annual trials. To be given a “standing ovation” in a trial of 1100 plants is quite an achievement!

Greenhouse Grower covers the trials here.

University of Illinois website

Salvia Wendy’s Wish is featured on Graham Rice’s blog at the Royal Horticultural Society website – click here.

Wendy’s Wish is a great plant, with a long season of flower, neat habit and handsome foliage. The flower colour is striking and it is easy to grow.

Need more information? Contact us! Plants For Europe Limited is the EU agent for this variety, bred by Wendy Smith in Australia.

EU Plant Variety Rights applied for.

PFE has recently made two new applications for EU Plant Variety Rights, both on behalf of Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants:

• Gaura Ruby Ruby (HARRUBY) – CPVO file number 20110972
• Linaria purpurea Freefolk Piccolo (HARPICCOLO) – CPVO file number 20111199

Propagation for sale, import, export and marketing of these varieties is illegal without a licence from Plants For Europe.

Ruby Ruby is an excellent new variety of Gaura, neither too compact (some of the smallest varieties are really too small to make good garden plants) nor too tall (which makes some older varieties difficult or costly to transport when in flower). It has dark ruby flowers and foliage coloured with deep red, with red stems. It is easy to propagate and to condition for mother stock and is bound to be a commercial success. It was launched at the Chelsea Flower Show 2010 where it was placed second in the New Plant Competition and is part of this year’s Gold Medal stand by Rosy Hardy.

Freefolk Piccolo is a stunning new compact variety of Linaria purpurea – a well-known cottage garden plant that is generally considered too tall for mainstream container production for garden centre sales. Freefolk Piccolo will open up a new market for this genus by providing a product that can be grown for retail sales and yet is easy to transport. It makes a neat, upright plant with fine foliage and masses of dense heads of rich purple flowers in early to mid summer – a favourite with bees. It also exhibits low fertility, so does not self-seed and tends to produce more flowers than other varieties. Propagation is easy from cuttings and mother plants produce plenty of material for production. It was launched at the Hampton Court Flower Show 2010 and gained considerable press interest.

Plants managed in Europe by Plants For Europe Limited scooped two awards in the new plants competition at Plantarium last month.

Euphorbia martinii Ascot Rainbow, bred by David Glenn in Australia, won a bronze medal. This superb variegated Euphorbia is set to become the benchmark variety by which others are judged. The leaves are have a generous yellow margin on rich green and the stems and young foliage are tinted red. The variegation even continues into the flowers. It has a compact and bushy habit and exhibits a very high degree of stability – far better than any previous variegated Euphorbia.

Cistus x hybridus Little Miss Sunshine (DUNNECIS), bred by Kieran Dunne in Ireland, was award a silver medal. This is an excellent new variegated form of Cistus x hybridus (formerly known as Cistus corbariensis) with leaves of rich green with a broad butter yellow margin. The plant produces a mass of white flowers in summer and is compact and bushy – but more vigorous than competing varieties. It also withstands transport well, particularly if grown hard, whereas competing varieties have been observed to turn black after a period without light in a lorry.

Young plants of the Euphorbia are currently available from Florensis. Young plants of the Cistus are available from New Place Nurseries.

Please contact us if you require further information.

We were impressed by the new HTA National Plant Show at Stoneleigh Park this week. It got a large proportion of the UK’s major growers together under one roof. There seemed a few prominent companies missing, but perhaps they were waiting to see how the first year worked out.

One of the best features was the new plant competition. It was great to see more than 50 entries covering all types of garden plants. A few creases need to be ironed out (why were some Nemesia varieties classed as annuals whilst others were classed as perennials? Surely it would be better to have a “patio and bedding” class instead) but overall our impression was positive. We’ll be looking to support this further in coming years.

This year, five PFE-managed varieties were in the competition. It is a reflection of the quality of output from our breeders that four of these plants were given awards:

• Nemesia Framboise (bred by Martine Tellwright) – GOLD
• Leucanthemum Real Galaxy (Richard Read and Keith Lintott) – SILVER
• Geum Totally Tangerine (Tim Crowther) – BRONZE
• Nemesia Mirabelle (Martine Tellwright) – BRONZE

For details on any of these plants, please contact us.