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New Plants for 1998

Hi SQ Footers,
After attending two nursery trade shows in August, wading through a mountain
of press releases and talking with many plantsmen, I come up with a view of
what to expect in stores and seed catalogs in 1998.  Hope some of these
goodies interest you!
Doreen Howard
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  Exciting plants are coming.  Garden centers and mail order catalogs will
be chocked full of departures from the same old stuff in early 1998.
  Wal-Mart will carry a hardy hibiscus series called Morrison's Mammoth.
Three colors are available of this new cultivar--pink, red and white.
  Plants grow to six feet tall, survive within a temperature range of minus
40 to 120 degrees and produce flowers that are a foot or more in diameter.
When a number of plants are set close together, they grow into hedges.
Foliage is resistant to fungal diseases, too, unlike tropical hibiscus.
  Look for them in early February, packaged in boxes.  The plants will be
dormant at that time.  Two-gallon container-grown plants will appear at
Wal-Mart in mid-summer.
                                Fill the Teapot
  The dried tea leaves from which a pot or cup of tea is brewed come from
camellias.  The plant family also includes the familiar Camellia japonica,
which has large, waxy blossoms that are prized fall flowers here.
  True tea plants (Camellia sinensis) will be offered for the first time in
the United States in 1998 by a mass market seed catalog.  Nichols Garden
Nursery (1190 Pacific Hwy. N.E., Albany, OR 97321) lists Tea Breeze, a white
flowering plant, and Blushing Maiden, which has pale pink blooms.  Both
flowers have a subtle fragrance, much like fine perfume,
according to Rose Marie Nichols-McGee, company owner.  Flowers are not as
large or showy as are those of Camellia japonica.
  Tea leaves are picked in the spring when plants are rapidly producing new
leaves.  The first two leaves in a shoot, plus the leaf bud, are what is
harvested.  Leaves are dried and then steeped for green tea.  Black tea is
produced by fermentation of the leaves after they are dried.
  Herbs and fruits can be added to dried green tea leaves to create custom
blends. Pineapple sage, lemon verbena and various mints are easy and
attractive herbs to grow along with Camellia sinensis if you want to plant a
tea garden.
                                Bee Borders
  Nichols Garden Nursery also lists a wildflower and herb seed mix that will
attract bees, hummingbirds and butterflies to your garden.  Bee and
Butterfly Wildflower Border is designed to be planted at the garden edge and
left untended.
  A two or three foot wide strip is suggested for enticing pollinators such
as butterflies and bees into vegetable patches.  Various herbs and
wildflowers bloom at staggered times throughout the season, so that there is
always something to attract pollinators.
  Foliage may look a bit ragged at times, but Rose Marie Nichols-McGee
suggests leaving it as such.  "The wild look is an attraction, too, and we
gardeners need a rest from weed-pulling," she said.
                                New Blackberry
  The world's largest blackberry will be on the market in the spring,
according to the United States Dept. of Agriculture's Research Laboratory.
Look for Black Butte plants at nurseries and in catalogs.
  The berries average one inch in diameter and two inches long and weigh
more than a half ounce each.
                                Monster Impatiens
  There are more than 1,000 species of impatiens, but we only plant three of
them regularly--the common walleriana, New Guinea impatiens and flowering
balsam.  Now a six foot tall variety is available from the Himalayas,
Impatiens glandulifera.
  The tall plant bears white or pink-purple flowers and is a shade-lover
like all impatiens. Plants can be ordered from Flowery Branch, Box 1330,
Flowery Branch, GA 30542. Catalog is $3.
                                Bubba and the Earl
  The big news in vegetables for 1998 is okra.  Southern Exposure Seed
Exchange (P.O. Box 170, Earlysville, VA 22936) is the first seed house to
sell Burmese okra, an heirloom from Southeast Asia.  Plants bear when they
are 18 inches tall and continue to bear until frost. Leaves are
huge--typically 16 inches across.  The spineless pods range from nine to
12 inches.
  Baby Bubba is the newest okra offering from Burpee's.  The plant grows
only to four feet and ripens its first pods just 53 days after seeds are
planted.  It's suitable for containers, too.
  Earl of Edgecomb has enough of a royal pedigree to impress most social
climbers, but it's only an heirloom tomato from New Zealand.  When the sixth
Earl of Edgecomb died in the 1960's, the heir to the title of the seventh
Earl was a relative in New Zealand who was a sheep farmer at the time.  When
he traveled to England to claim the title, he brought this
tomato with him from New Zealand.
  The tomato is orange and disease-resistant.  Flavor is tangy, but yet
sweet.  Seeds can be purchased from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.
  Park Seed Co. is introducing Container Choice, a hybrid that yields
enormous amounts of eight-ounce tomatoes on determinate plants that are
suitable for containers.  The company said that the fruit-to-vine ratio of
this new variety is incredible.  It's not unheard of to harvest 60-70
tomatoes from one plant.
  Seeds can be sown directly in containers, according to Park Seed, and the
first fruit will be ready to pick 69 days after seeding.
                                Sweet Sprouts?
  Mustard oil is what makes Brussels sprouts taste slightly bitter and
unpalatable to most of us.  Despite their high vitamin C content and other
antioxidant properties, most of us just don't like the taste of Brussels
sprouts.
  Thompson & Morgan, Inc. (P.O. Box 1308, Jackson, NJ 08527-0308) has bred
the mustard oil out of their new sprout Trafalgar.  It's one of the sweetest
tasting Brussels sprouts available.
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