The VIP Club

After growing perennials intensely for 15 years or so I had this brilliant idea, we would narrow everything down to the absolute best varieties we had grown and be done with the other less desirable plants. In particular, Coral Bells was a plant I wanted to thin some of the varieties out on. We have a great red one, which was ‘Obsideon,’ a great orange foliaged plant, which was ‘Caramel,’ and a great chartreuse cultivar, which was ‘Citronelle‘. Great idea! Only the best would be grown at Blue River Nursery!!! Where do you go with this approach? It’s like Life is over after you do it awhile. Ok we are growing the best there has ever been done, lets go golfing. I wish I had the time or desire to golf. I think it’s a great sport. However growing plants is my game, my livelihood, passion etc. Back to growing more varieties though. So we are trialing a new one called ‘Midnight Bayou‘ now. Some of the photographs we saw of this plant were stunning. I did not know that God made plants in these colors. It’s more about catching the plant at the absolute perfect time of day and then snapping that picture. That being said, I saw some of the color in the plants the other night and the color was good. The other thing I noticed was how much vigor this plant had in filling out a pot in a short amount of time, good color and an extra thick leaf. Folks this may be a permanent member of the VIP club. That’s Very Important Plants (VIP) for anyone that was confused. Coneflowers, this place was built on coneflowers. A new standout is Meringue. Meringue is a dwarf version of Coconut Lime that only does 18″ instead of 36″ tall. This plant looks like a blooming machine. Double white flowers make this a great plant for planting in front of red brick in full sun. A new variety called ‘Flamethrower’ is also being trialed. This plant is mottled orange with yellow and brownish red petals. Seems to be doing fine but no flowers as of yet.

Penstemon Pina Collada series is impressive. The purple Pinacolada Violet variety is amazingly beautful.Lots of things to check out here, whether they are just being introduced to the nursery or are lasting members of the VIP club.