What's Blooming: Spring Plant Sale Preview
Don't miss the plants our horticulture team is most
excited to be growing!
VEGETABLES
Community Garden Program Outreach Coordinator Mary Miller
is quite passionate about the favorite peppers she grows year upon year – this
selection ranges from sweet (not spicy) to medium heat to medium hot.
‘Jimmy Nardello’ Sweet Italian Frying Pepper boasts
a dedicated following among gardeners, farmers and cooks. Guiseppe and Angella Nardiello who immigrated
from southern Italy to Connecticut in the 1880’s, brought with them seeds saved
from their favorite garden vegetables.
Jimmy was the child who followed in his mother’s love of gardening,
creating terraced gardens in which to plant the seeds his parents had brought
from Italy. What became known as Jimmy
Nardello pepper was his favorite. Each
year he saved seeds from what he grew and continued to grow them until he
passed away in 1983. Prior to that he
donated peppers seeds to Seed Savers Exchange for continued propagation and
availability for others.
Considered to be among the best frying peppers, these
thin-walled, bright red fruits are fruity and sweet flavored. Cooked, they are tender and sublime. The thin-skinned, long, pointy peppers may be
dried and stored easily. Quickly fried
in olive oil for a traditional taste of the southern Italy region where
Guiseppe and Angella lived and determined to bring seeds with them and which
Jimmy Nardello shared for all of us.
‘Bastan’ Poblano Pepper
‘Baron’ Poblano Pepper and
‘Bastan’ Poblano Pepper are both excellent varieties of poblano
chiles. When dried, these peppers are
referred to as anchos, fresh they are referred to as poblanos. Originating in Mexico, these distinctly
flavored chile peppers are not to be overlooked in the hallowed list of
fabulous peppers. Fire roasted in autumn
in outdoor farmers’ markets is akin to a giant swoon of amazing aromas and
crisp air. Poblanos are thick-walled,
usually two lobed large fruits (five to seven inches long and three inches wide)
that are deep green, even almost black, and wedge shaped with broad shoulders
tapering to a thick point. Their heat is
usually mild to medium. Dried, stuffed,
put in stews or sauces, cut fresh in toothpick size and placed in salads, or – as
my family does, chopped small and put on pizza – these are the peppers that
freeze well to be enjoyed year round.
Poblanos are the pepper that put chile rellenos on the plates of many!
These cousins of the jalapeno, serrano chile peppers can be
up to five times as hot / spicy as jalapenos.
Jalapenos usually fall in the 2,000 – 8,000 Scoville Heat Units range,
while serranos may range from 8,000 - 20,000 units. Named after the Puebla and Hidalgo states in
Mexico where they originated, serrano references the mountains (sierras) of
this region. ‘Altiplano’ Serrano
Pepper plants produce loads of uniform, easy-to-harvest, large four- to five-inch
fruits with traditional flavor and pungency and classic slender shape. Considered essential to many dishes, serranos
bring their bright crisp flavor and texture to salsas, pickling and especially
to the green sauce for tamales – usually made with tomatillos and serranos. When creating a summer fresh salsa and a bit
more spice than jalapenos can deliver is needed, serranos fill the gap. ‘Altiplano’ is the plant that just keeps on
producing wonderful, spicy deliciousness through the season.
A rising annual in the plants trade that made Greenhouse
Horticulturist Kelly Kellow giddy inside when she saw it in a Proven Winners
plant catalog, Oenothera (Calylophus) ‘Ladybird Lemonade’ is a
native perennial to Texas that has been cultivated as annual for other parts of
the United States. It's tough as nails
being both drought and heat tolerant, blooming with two-inch flowers in a
pale-yellow color that mature with peach-pink undertones. The foliage is fine and a bright green that
adds texture against the disk-like flowers.
It’s mainly for combination planters and hanging baskets and may even
make a great addition to pollinator gardens.
Petunia Crazytunia ‘Golden Eye Purple’ is a new series of petunia with corn genes bred into
them to create shocking colors. 'Golden Eye Purple' features a deep vibrant
purple flower with a dark yellow eye creating an appealing look, perfect for
hanging baskets or combination planters.
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| Ipomea Proven Accents® ‘Sweet Caroline Medusa Green’ |
This new ipomea is going to be your next favorite foliage plant to add to your collection of annuals—Proven Accents® ‘Sweet Caroline Medusa Green’, Sweet Potato Vine is among those showcased at Colorado State University's Annual Trial Gardens. It features a unique, crown-shaped, many-fingered foliage that is bright green, unlike any other sweet potato vine in the trade. They are more mounded than trailing with overlapping leaves that leans toward a fun, unique look.
Another Trial Garden favorite, Dahlia Happy Days™
‘Fuchsia Halo’ Dahlia has dark, almost black, foliage and bright pink
flowers beloved by pollinators. It is well branched, making it great for
cutting gardens, combination containers and landscapes.
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| ‘Blaukappe’ Eryngium (blue cap sea holly) |
PERENNIALS
Curator of Plant Collections Bryan Fischer indicates that The Gardens continues to offer a spread of tasty perennial morsels, ranging from icy-blue flowered Amsonia to crisp, citrusy lemon thyme. Hard-to-find and best-of offerings include the tough and unique ‘Blaukappe’ Eryngium (blue cap sea holly), with vase-shaped sprays of prickly, metallic bracted flowers, Campanula cochlearifolia, a delightful European alpine with innumerable, dainty, dancing bell shaped flowers—and a name that refers to its uniquely ear-shaped leaves—and the striking, if prickly ‘Snow Leopard’ cholla (Cylindropunita whippleyi ‘Snow Leopard’), which adds sparkling, tessellated textures and a unique shape thanks to dense, clean white spines and tubelike cactus pads.
Offerings that have been of particular interest to
visitors in recent years include the Plant Select® Liatris ligulistylis
(Rocky Mountain blazing star), a spectacular five-foot-tall native liatris
suitable for medium to medium-dry sites that is also one of the most asked-about
plants on our grounds and a monarch favorite. Not sold anywhere else that we
are aware of, we will also be offering a very unusual running form of Oenothera
cespitosa ssp. marginata, or tufted evening primrose, collected
by our former curator, Sherry Fuller in Southwest Colorado two decades ago. The
perfect filler between flagstones or living mulch for sunny beds, plants
smother themselves in a veil of large, clean white, four petaled satiny flowers
each evening to the delight of hummingbird moths across the Front Range.
HERBS
Cilantro 'Cruiser' has
a tidy, upright habit with excellent bolt resistance. It has a delicious cilantro flavor for
salads, salsas, dressings, and much more. Large leaves and sturdy stems make it
an ideal bunching variety meaning you can harvest a lot of stems at once or use
them as needed. When the weather warms,
its flowers are loved by the native blue swallowtail butterfly. Let it re-seed, die back mid-summer and come
back when the weather cools to continue the delicious taste.
A true beauty in any herb garden or container, lemon
verbena is a unique herb to add to your garden this year. Young, tender leaves can be finely sliced and
used raw in pesto, salsa and vinaigrettes or tossed into salads and soups. Larger, more mature leaves can be used in
cooked preparations and removed before consumption. The flowers are white and inconspicuous but
if you let it flower, the pollinators will appreciate you.
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| Salvia elegans, pineapple sage |
Salvia elegans,
pineapple sage is a fun herb to grow
with leaves that truly taste and smell like pineapple! In late summer, showy scarlet red flowers
bloom on tall, spiked racemes. Not only
are they pretty and attract pollinators but they are great for cut flowers and
used in fresh bouquets. Like many
salvias, its bright red tubular flowers attract ruby-throated hummingbirds just
before they venture back to South America for the winter. Both the leaves and the flowers are edible on
this plant. Add the leaves to teas,
marinades, jams, and jellies.
An underutilized annual herb that deserves more attention in gardens, Monarda citridora, lemon bee balm, has a distinct lemon flavor that is wonderful in teas, cooked foods, and salads. The flowers are whorls of light pink petals that fully circle around the stem of the plant, coming through light green foliage. Flowers last for weeks on end making it perfect for pollinators. Plants grow in large clumps making it perfect for herb gardens or perennial borders. Lemon bee balm is an annual but will re-seed freely and will come back year after year.