Ok, ready to put those new seed growing tips to use? Here’s a Plant of Merit introduction for 2009 that is not only a great performer HERE, but is also easily started from seed. Seed may be started indoors about 10-12 weeks before last spring frost date.

Also called the summer snapdragon, the flowers are two-lipped and bloom from spring to early fall. ‘Serena Lavender’, ‘Serena Lavender Pink’, ‘Serena White’ and ‘Serena Purple’ feature flowers of the color described by the cultivar name. SERENA MIXTURE is, as the name suggests, a seed mixture of the four different Serena cultivars.

Plants typically grow 12-18” tall on stems clad with narrow, oblong to lanceolate, green leaves. It shows some drought tolerance and has good tolerance for summer heat and humidity. Plants may also be purchased in spring from local nurseries. Deadheading is not required.

A new addition to the 2008 Plants of Merit list includes this dwarf cultivar of the Norway spruce family. ‘Acrocona’ is a broad, upright-spreading shrub or small tree, growing 5 – 10 feet over the first 10 years. Mature size is 20 feet tall. It features dark green needles and is perhaps best know for producing showy immature red cones at the branch ends in spring. (Acro meaning at the end) I’ve also heard ‘flowering spruce’ used as a common name because of its prolific brown-magenta colored cones. Cones mature to tan by summer. Use as a small specimen tree or large shrub. Also works well for screening.

Looking for a local source for this tree? Go to: www.plantsofmerit.org, then click on ‘plant finder’ for garden centers stocking this plant. Be sure to call ahead and check for availability.

It’s not too late to plant a few last bulbs for spring! Each fragrant, 4-inch, double flower of this ‘Tahiti’ daffodil features showy yellow petals and frilly, orange-red cup segments.

Easily grown in average, well-drained soil, full sun to part shade. Plant bulbs 4” – 6” deep and 3” – 6” apart in fall, before the ground freezes. After spring blooming, do not cut back the foliage! This is how the bulb stocks energy for next year’s bloom.

Best in beds, borders, wild gardens, open woodland areas, in front of shrubs or massed under trees. Best planted in quantity, i.e., from smaller groupings of at least 6 bulbs to large sweeping drifts. Mixes well with other spring-flowering bulbs.

**Deer, rabbit, and squirrel resistant!

To find a location that may still have these bulbs in stock, go to: www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/. Look under ‘N’ for narcissus, then ‘plant sources’. Also, if you’ve grown this plant in the past, please be sure to enter your comments on the ‘rate this plant’ page. We want to hear from you!

Bright golden autumn leaves make this tree famous in the fall. And don’t worry, this is a fruitless male cultivar! ‘Autumn Gold' Ginkgo is tolerant of a wide range of soil conditions, including both alkaline and acidic soils and compacted soils. Also tolerant of saline conditions, air pollution and heat. Adapts well to most urban environments.

Ginkgo is the only surviving member of a group of ancient plants believed to have inhabited the earth up to 150 million years ago.

Excellent choice for a variety of uses, including lawn tree, street tree or shade tree.

To find a local source for this historical tree, click on “Sources for this plant” on the PlantFinder page of this plant.

While forging for mushrooms one hot day in July, I came across a beautiful stand of buttonbush. The shrubs were of various sizes, but all were well attended with butterflies! The tiny, tubular shaped flowers give a pincushion-like appearance in the shape of a globe. Flower heads mature into hard spherical ball-like fruits, usually persisting throughout the winter. The leaves are a bright, glossy green. Buttonbush grows well in wet soils, including flood conditions and shallow standing water. Use in naturalized areas, pond margins, and low spots. A native to Missouri, give this plant plenty of room to spread out, then, just wait for the butterfly show!

Ahhhh……. It’s summer in St. Louis and the plant-a-holics are reaping the benefits of their work.

One old-fashioned plant making a comeback is the Trumpet honeysuckle: Lonicera sempervirens. NOT to be confused with the invading variety of bush honeysuckles native to Asia that form dense thickets, crowding out Missouri’s native forest plants. This non-invasive, semi-evergreen vine is noted for its showy, non-stop spring-to-fall bloom of red to peach colored trumpet shaped flowers with golden throats. Needless to say, hummingbirds LOVE this plant. Flowers give way to orange-red berries in the fall that are attractive to birds. It typically grows to 8-15 and responds well to shaping and pruning. Perfect for a ‘hard-scape’ softener such as fences and walls.

On a personal note, I fondly remember playing hide and seek in the neighbor’s yard, and planning my camouflage underneath their trumpet honeysuckle trellis. While hiding, I eagerly picked the trumpets and pull out the stamens, revealing sweet nectar. Hhhhmmm…. Maybe that’s when my love of flowers (and my sweet tooth) first begun to evolve!

Discovering new wet areas in your yard? Here’s an easy to grow perennial for the shade. Polygonatum odoratum var. pluriflorum ‘Variegatum’ common name: Solomon’s seal, actually prefers moist to wet soil in part shade to full shade conditions.

This variegated plant will slowly spread by rhizomes to form colonies in optimum growing conditions. Typically growing to a 1 – 2’ tall mound, the single stems maintain a graceful arching habit. The leaves are a soft green with white tips and margins. In fall, the leaves turn to an attractive yellow.

The flowers are white and bell-shaped and very sweetly fragrant. Flowers are followed by blue-black berries in autumn.

Try incorporating Solomon’s seal in naturalized areas and woodland gardens. The foliage is especially striking in dark shade. Variegated foliage is attractive in flower arrangements even if stems are not in flower. Companion plants include astilbe and ferns.

A new addition to The Plants of Merit program for 2008 is an ornamental pepper called ‘Black Pearl’. Capsicum annuum ‘Black Pearl’ is grown as an annual here in St. Louis and thrives in our heat and humidity. The foliage is a glossy black, and its fruit also starts out black, but then matures to a cherry red. The fruits are edible but very hot! The best black foliage color occurs in full sun. This plant grows vigorously in an upright bushy mound up to 18” tall. It is an excellent selection for beds, borders and mixed containers. An All America Selections Winner (AAS).

For more information about The Plants of Merit program, be sure to visit: www.plantsofmerit.org

One of my Favorites! This true, hardy geranium is also the 2008 Perennial Plant of the Year. The large, violet-blue flowers (2.5") bloom from late spring to early fall. May be used as a ground cover, in a mass planting, or even in a patio container.