Every year there are new plants that come onto the market and soon become a firm favourite of gardeners all over.
This year is no exception. We love that the garden is a place of change and when things get a bit boring around the home, updating the garden is a relatively economical way of creating new interest.
Here are three of the newest plants to inspire the gardener in you.
New variety of lemon tree
Genoa – A delicious and cold hardy lemon has its origins in Italy and is similar to the eureka lemon, which is the most popular lemon in Gauteng.
This lemon tree grows in a shrub-like form and it grows wide rather than tall, making it quite easy to harvest these delicious lemons. Its size also makes it ideal for container planting.
The fruits on this robust shrub ripen throughout the year on branches that are less thorny than some lemon varieties.
The brightly coloured peel is very high in lemon oil making it great for use in flavourings. The juice is perfect for marinades and drinks. It is known for its cold hardiness, dense foliage and vigorous growth and will bear fruit even as a young tree.
The fruit is smooth and more rounded than a eureka lemon and has a small pointed neck. The fruit has less seeds than most lemons which makes it an attractive juicing lemon. Genoa lemons are bound to be one of the favourites in South Africa for many years to come.
Stairway to heaven
An exciting new addition to the selection of border plants is Polemonium or “stairway to heaven”. Also known as “Jacobs ladder” because of the symmetrical leaves arranged like the rungs of a ladder.
They are a clump forming perennial with a mound of soft fern like leaves edged in a creamy green. During cooler weather the leaves tint pink and bright new leaves appear right through the summer months.
They grow best in well-drained soil and need some shade to protect the leaves from sun scorch in midsummer. Clusters of blue fragrant flowers towards the end of spring into summer makes them a great addition to any garden border, the flowers are special as they also attract birds and bees to the garden.
Pure blond lilly turf
The new lilly turf “pure blond” will add a sparkle to the shade to half shade garden. Lilly turf or as they are also known liriope, grow well in almost any soil condition and make an excellent ground cover and filler in-between shrubs and along the border as an informal hedge.
What attracts us to this new introduction is that the new foliage is blond – or as they say in the classics a “platinum blond” and then as the leaves mature they get a green colouring which leaves the plant with a mix of blond and green coloured foliage.
Once a year they do well if they get cut right down to freshen up the plant. Do this in late winter or spring when growth is the most active on grasses.
n Information from Eckards Garden Pavilion.
