Stars of the 2022 garden

My gardening friend Erin Schanen, The Impatient Gardener, just posted a video on her YouTube channel about the plants she considered award-winners in her 2022 garden. She has a bigger garden than I do and grows annuals, veggies and trials a lot of plants.

But she gardens in southern Wisconsin like me. So I am always interested to see what's doing well for her. Watching her video made me look back at my gardening year to determine what plants are on my awards list.

Here are a few plants — in no particular order — that performed well for me from the get-go in 2022. 

. . .

I bought a dozen bulbs of Gladiolus murielae, split them into two pots and fell in love. They had elegant flowers, very statuesque foliage and looked good in and out of flower.

I just ordered 3 dozen for this coming season. It may have gotten too cold in the garage where I was trying to overwinter the original bulbs for them to survive; we'll see. But I think I may be finally hooked on adding containers to my garden. 

Though I had a Geranium 'Rozanne' surrounded by Calamintha nepeta ssp. nepeta in my Traffic Island bed, I was never that crazy about it. I am much more pleased with Geranium 'Azure Rush' and G. 'Crystal Lake.'

Both are sprawling plants with pale toned flowers with striped interiors. They don't need any attention from me which is always nice. This is G. 'Crystal Lake.'

I love Brunnera and am growing just about every variety I have seen for sale. I don't know when or where I found B. 'Dawson's White,' but it is a winner. I moved it last spring from a shady spot with a lot of root competition from big trees. I put it in a spot that turned out to be quite sunny.

When everything around it was stressed from the heat, dryness and loss of part of the nearby tree canopy, 'Dawson's White' just soldiered on. The expanses of white on the foliage never browned until so late in the season I didn't care. 

I grew a beautiful blue Agapanthus from Seneca Hill Perennials for a good ten years in my garden. When the polar vortex killed it a few years ago I was broken hearted. I didn't think twice when Olbrich Botanical Gardens offered Agapanthus 'Galaxy Blue' for sale in 2020.

It came back again beautifully this past summer and is a clear winner in my garden. I love being able to grow it as a perennial rather than as a house plant. 

I decided to take a chance on a different variety of Hydrangea when I planted H. serrata 'Mountain Mania in 2021. I love its orange-tinged new foliage. Frankly, I adore this whole plant.

It came through its first winter with flying colors. I hope that means it will keep doing so. This year I also added Hydrangea arborescens 'Mary Nell,' highly recommended in the Mt. Cuba trials. It blooms on new wood in the shade!

I've been growing Luzula sylvatica 'Aurea' since I purchased it from the old Heronswood nursery in 2004. I moved a few plants in with some Hellebore seedlings a year ago and I am really happy with this color and texture combination.

The Luzula is very yellow when it first appears in the spring. It can take dry shade, but this group is in a fairly sunny spot and is doing so well it feels like a new plant. Sometimes the oldies are still the goodies.

Speaking of Hellebores, I planted a pair of H. foetidus 'Red Silver' in 2019, but lost one of them last winter. Missouri Botanic Garden says they may not be reliably hardy in Zone 5 but I've had good luck with another one of this type.

The good new is that the departed plant left behind seedlings.That's a first for me — and it puts this plant in the winner's circle even though it will take quite a while to get blooming size plants again. 

Comments

[Kristin]

Oooh, oooh, oooh! Took notes from Erin's video, and will make some note from this post. Thanks so much Linda!

[Linda Brazill]

KRISTIN — ​Isn't Erin the best!

[danger garden]

I used to grow Gladiolus murielae in my Spokane garden (Zone 5) but haven't had any success with it here, maybe I need to try it again in a container. I love that Luzula sylvatica but had to stop growing it because it was a super slug breeding ground!

[Linda Brazill]

DANGER — The Luzula is next to a gravel path which may keep the slugs away.

[Kris P]

Beautiful one and all, Linda! I've tried growing Gladiolus murielae twice here without much success. You mentioned the prospect of growing Agapanthus as a house plant, which I found surprising. Yet another indication of how different our gardening conditions are.