Valerie Easton for The Seattle Times
Sunday, April 22, 2007

Powerhouses of change, perennials mark the rhythms of the garden year. Despite their demanding natures — they need dividing, staking and clipping back, and then they still elbow their neighbors aside — they're irresistible. And never more so than in spring, when so many new varieties stretch our imaginations and, yes, our budgets. Here's a sample of what's fresh:

Flowers
What's not to like about a drought-tolerant perennial with fragrant flowers and foliage? Agastache x 'Acapulco Salmon and Pink' has the common name of hummingbird mint, which sums it up pretty well. This is a compact version that blooms summer-into-autumn, with airy, mint-scented foliage and tubular bi-colored flowers beloved by hummers. (From High Country Gardens at www.highcountrygardens.com; 800-925-9387.)

A shadowy English delphinium in deep, dark shades heads the pack of new ebony plants. Delphinium elatum 'Chocolate' has real garden impact. Its flower spikes reach 6 to 8 feet high, bloom June into July and again in the fall. The flowers are a chocolate-sundae blend of colors from cherry pink through cream to semi-sweet chocolate tones.

And what would spring be without yet more coneflower cultivars? Two sound like stand-outs: Echinacea purpurea 'Jade' from Log House Plants in Oregon has bright white petals with green centers surrounding the namesake cone. The daisy-like flowers, long-lasting in bouquets, are lightly scented on strong 3- to 4-foot stems. For a blast of color, choose Echinacea 'Tiki Torch,' billed as more vigorous than many of these newer coneflowers, with oversized blooms in vivid pumpkin-orange.
 
 
No other perennial blooms over a longer period than wallflowers, or is more of a magnet for bees and butterflies. Found on the west coast of Wales in 2001, Erysimum 'Jenny Brook' has multicolored flower clusters in shades of pink, peach and lavender.

Corydalis 'Berry Exciting' (I feel like apologizing for some of these names!) is a ferny-looking little perennial with luminous yellow leaves and spurred purple flowers. It's fragrant, takes full sun to partial shade, and — unlike most corydalis that go dormant in summer — promises both leaves and flowers that keep going all summer long.
 

The official name of this new foxglove is Digitalis purpurea 'Candy Mountain.' But when breeders recognized the plant's unusually strong upright structure, plus its upturned flowers (unusual for a foxglove) they couldn't resist nicknaming it "Viagra." Don't you need to add one to your garden just so you can tell that story?
 
 
 
 









 

Perennial gaillardias are the new darling of summer flowers, probably because they are as showy as annuals yet return dependably year after year. You might not recognize G. aristata x grandiflora 'Dakota Reveille' because its full, crumpled blooms are almost mum-like. The brilliant red and gold petals on this compact, mounding plant last over many weeks in containers or borders.
 




 
Foliage
I'd never recognize pale Ajuga reptans 'Toffee Chip' as a carpet bugle, that dark-purple-leafed mainstay of a groundcover. This updated version is also short and creeping with blue flower spikes, but its leaves are gold, cream and gray-green for a sun-infused look very different than the classic ajuga.
It's hard to know if the new 'Stripe It Rich' Japanese forest grass is an improvement on this most beautiful of all ornamental grasses or just a clever name. Hakonechloa macra 'Stripe It Rich' has the same liquid, flowing qualities that endear it to gardeners, but with a white stripe down each golden leaf, giving it a gilded or frosty look.

A heuchera with leaves so large and soft it might be mistaken for a hosta? Well, maybe . . . At least this is one new heuchera recognizably different from all the other new ones. The scalloped, veined and mauvey-peach foliage of H. 'Georgia Peach' is glamorously super-sized. Don't be put off by the name; 'Georgia Peach' is supposed to grow particularly well in our climate, where its lush leaves last year-round.

A final note: Most of these plants should be available in nurseries this spring, though in some cases not until as late as June.

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and author of "A Pattern Garden." Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net.

The Seattle Times Perennially Inviting