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Horticulture News - New Varieties For 2009 Posted 31 January 2009 by Bob Hauer, NEIA ISU Extension Horticulture Assistant As seed and nursery catalogs arrive in the mail, they usually feature their new offerings.  But new introductions may not live up to their billing.  ‘Butterfly Blue’ scabiosa and Limerock Ruby coreopsis looked great in the garden, but didn’t survive Northern winters.  Some of the new plants featured in 2009 come from Bailey Nurseries of St. Paul MN.-so you know they’re hardy. Their Easy Elegance® Rose series has plants that were bred to be hardy and disease-resistant.  One of their new introductions is ‘High Voltage’, a double, fragrant, yellow rose.  The roses are also own-root, so even if it dies back to ground level, it should come back from the root true-to-name. Bittersweet vines are popular for fall decorations, but collecting from the wild has reduced our native plant populations.  If you’re thinking about growing your own bittersweet, be sure to stick with American bittersweet.  You may find Oriental bittersweet in catalogs, but it is an invasive woodland plant that chokes out native plants.  Bittersweet can also “strangle” a tree, so grow it on a fence. While you usually need separate male and female plants to get the berries from bittersweet vines, Bailey’s will introduce an American bittersweet called ‘Autumn Revolution’ with perfect flowers that self-pollinate – you only need one! Honeysuckle vines are hardy and bloom mid-summer to November, well after the first frost.  A yellow-flowering variety called ‘Honeybelle’ should be out this spring. Since Bailey Nurseries is a wholesale nursery, you’ll have to look for these plants at your local nursery.  They may not be available to “big box” garden centers for several years, but since most nurseries in Northeast Iowa order plants from Bailey’s or Sherman’s (a subsidiary), they may have them.  And don’t hesitate to ask!  Nurseries make buying decisions based on what they hear from their customers!

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