Colocasia Royal Hawaiian Waikiki drew a lot of comments and stares and I will be using this tropical as a container plant for my designs. Not the first year it has been out, but I couldn’t find it anywhere at retail outlets.

Aspidistra ‘Tokyo Skies’ from Southern Living Collection drew my interest, but since it was a zone 8-10 plant, I knew it would be an indoor plant for me. It was stunning!

I love silver-foliaged plants because they set off so many other plants with that contrasting grey foliage. Centaurea ‘Silver Swirl’ is on my list to get this year.

Fire Ball Seedless

A flaming red ornamental stalwart of the fall landscape, burning bush, has gotten a makeover to create a variety that isn’t invasive. So many people like burning bushes for their fabulous fall color and ease of maintenance and culture, that this is great boon to the landscape industry. The new variety is called ‘Fire Ball Seedless‘ and will be available this spring to wholesale nurseries. I can’t wait to use it!

Native Plants

Native plants are a huge and growing trend and I was interested to see lots of new native plant introductions to fill out my native plant toolkit. I get so many landscape requests, using only natives, that I welcome any new introductions to fill a particular need. American Native Plants is front and center with introducing unusual and worthy native candidates. Who says native plants are uninteresting and messy? These new ones might change your mind.

Plant Screens

One of my most requested solutions as a landscape designer is coming up with a good quick growing screen to block a view like a neighboring property and give people privacy. For arborvitae candidates, I have been limited to Green Giants which top off at 40 to 60 feet and a width of 12 to 18 feet and Emerald Green’s which grow 10 to 15 feet all and 3 to 4 feet wide. There was nothing in between. But now there is Junior Giant which will fill that need. Much more manageable in the smaller landscapes today, I am definitely going to be buying this one for my clients.

Another new screening candidate that I saw was ‘Skinny Skip‘, a cherry laurel that has a more upright columnar habit than the old species. A screen or windbreak for tough narrow spaces, this is now on my list to try.

I also extensively use evergreen Leucothoe, not only because of the different colors in the landscape and toughness, but also for their deer resistance. If I need a full shade evergreen plant that resists deer, I turn to Leucothoe and the more colors available – the better. Burning Love Leucothoe has dark red new foliage that ages to green in summer and purple in winter. It was at the purple stage when I saw it at the show, and I am sold! I love evergreen plants that change colors with the season and stay manageable in the landscape.

Deer Resistance

Another deer resistant evergreen is Osmanthus, an evergreen false holly, and this ‘Misty River‘ from the Southern Plant Collection will be on my list to use this year. Deer resistance in a plant is often over-rated, but Osmanthus is a stalwart one that deer have never browsed on and I love the gold variegation of this plant. Lightening up shade areas, this is another valuable addition to my palette of shade plants.

Cavano’s New Brandywine Cottage Series

Cavano’s is one of my go-to for quality wholesale perennials for my clients. They have added a new ‘lifestyle’ series of plants which is “an expertly curated line of premium, upscale plants focused around six seasons of interest” called Brandywine Cottage. Based on author, gardener, lecturer, plant breeder, and designer David Culp’s book, A Year at Brandywine Cottage, the plants included are both tried and true as well as new, must-have plants.  Ferns, Grasses, Bulbs, and Perennials are all part of the line. David Culp, who was attending the show, says about the new plant line that, ” he hopes to encourage you to embrace gardening – and nature – as a lifestyle, something that enhances every facet of life”.

I whole heartedly agree with the sentiment and looked at the plants selected and the different seasons – Early Spring, Late Spring, Summer, Early Fall, Late Fall, and Winter – and see that his selections are things that I really like and  have been using for years, plus a few new ones for me. Some of the plants like Aster ericoides Snow Fairy, I have been using for over twenty years and thought it should be more widely used. An aster ground cover that is tough and flowers profusely, I use Snow Flurry as a late flowering low mat for tough dry locations in full sun.

Cyclamen coum was also on the plant selection list which is an underused woodland ground cover that easily naturalizes in shady conditions and has fabulous beautifully marked foliage.

Spigelia marilandica Little Redhead was another pick and I love this under-utilized gem.

The one that I was most excited about was Pachysandra procumbens, the native pachysandra ground cover. A great evergreen alternative to the old invasive Pachysandra which is ubiquitous in older landscapes, it is a native that is deer resistant.

 

That’s wraps it up for a successful MANTS show!