THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 11, 1996 TAG: 9602090082
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT STIFFLER GARDEN COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Long : 203 lines
WHAT DO GARDENERS do when the ice, snow and wintry weather just won't go away? They pick up those glossy, alluring catalogs, thumb through looking for new and improved offerings and dream about what they'll plant when the weather finally warms.
This winter's storms have prompted an avalanche of gardening madness across the country. Snowbound gardeners sought refuge in seed catalogs and phoned in orders at a rate two to three times higher than usual for several days after the big snow in early January, according to George Ball Jr., president of W. Atlee Burpee & Co. in Warminster, Pa.
Some likely were lured by catalogs touting this year's introductions - products that climax years of research and field trials.
With gardening now the No. 1 outdoor hobby for Americans, plant breeders around the world work at increasing speed to develop varieties for gardeners who are becoming more selective in what plants they want to grow.
Japan and Germany are the leaders in plant breeding, but the big market for their introductions is the United States.
From radishes to roses, there are many new plants for 1996. Here's an early preview of a few of the varieties. VEGETABLES & FRUIT
Radishes: The newest in radishes is Easter Egg II blend. One packet of seed will produce red, purple and white radishes. Radishes are easy to grow, and children enjoy planting them, because you get fast results. Several suppliers are packaging this or a similar radish seed mix. The National Garden Bureau has proclaimed 1996 the year of the radish and sunflower, so you may want to try some radishes.
Melons: St. Nick Hybrid, from Thompson & Morgan, is a Spanish cantaloupe type-melon that was bred for its storage capability. It can be stored for three months. It has high sugar content and creamy white flesh.
Lettuce: Little Caesar is a new lettuce from Burpee. It is a Romaine lettuce, roughly two-thirds the size of ordinary Romaine, making it well-suited for small gardens. It's ready to harvest in 70 days and is not troubled by tip-burn, Burpee claims.
Tomatoes: The all-time favorite tomato, Big Boy, has been bred down for compact gardens and named Bush Big Boy. The plants, developed by Burpee, are half the size of Big Boy and were also bred to provide continuous fruiting. You'll get the same number of big red tomatoes with the same sweet aromatic juiciness but from a small bush, Burpee says.
Burpee's research, which started four years ago with trials in California, Illinois, Florida and Pennsylvania, also yielded a number of other tomatoes, including the previously introduced Northern Exposure and SuperTasty. Ball describes the latter as ``the best tomato we've ever bred.''
A number of gardeners ask where to find seedless tomatoes. According to the National Garden Bureau, there are not yet any seedless tomatoes, though researchers are working to develop one.
Corn: Sweet 'n Slim from Burpee is a slender new hybrid with 8 1/2-inch ears but a very small cob, perfect for roasting or freezing. It has sweet, tender, yellow kernels.
Hot Peppers: There are many new hot peppers on the market. Thompson & Morgan recommends its new Mulato Isleno for use in Chile rellenos, a Mexican dish consisting of cheese-stuffed hot peppers. The Mulato Isleno has green fruit that matures to dark chocolate brown. It is 4 to 6 inches long and mildly hot with overtones of raisins and tobacco.
Burpee offers Salsa Delight, a mild hot pepper. Long and narrow, it came from a Turkish marketplace and has just enough heat to be tantalizing, according to Burpee.
Sweet Peppers: New from Burpee is Early Crisp, a large, high-quality pepper. The first green peppers are ready for picking two months after transplanting. In three weeks more, they turn deep red. Other suppliers have new varieties of both sweet and hot peppers.
Salad Mixes: Many seed suppliers are offering mixes of salad greens, the French approach to ``mesclun,'' meaning mixture. Burpee blended tangy and sweet lettuces and greens, including Prizeleaf, Oakleaf, Red Salad Bowl and Green Ice lettuces, argula, endive, chervil, mache, radicchio and upland cress and sells 1,500 seeds in a packet for $2.95. ROSES
Four roses were selected by All-America Roses as 1996 winners. Most local nurseries will stock these selections, starting usually in mid-February. They also are available through mail-order catalogs.
Alan L. Lutz, rosarian for the Norfolk Botanical Garden, grew the roses for testing and reported his findings in the Rose Novus, the bulletin of the Tidewater Rose Society. The following are his comments, combined with my judgments from testing in my gardens.
St. Patrick: ``This is a yellow hybrid tea rose, praised in many publications, but disappointing to me,'' Lutz says. ``It did not live up to the high expectations in spring or summer but in the fall, blooms started to show. This makes the possibility that it will become an outstanding rose for fall shows. The rose has a light green tint.'' I grew St. Patrick last season and agree with Lutz's comments. It does have a distinctive lime-yellow color but is not a heavy bloomer.
Carefree Delight: ``This is a pink landscape rose that was a big surprise,'' Lutz writes. ``Twenty bushes planted 4 feet apart spread out 6 feet in each direction. It's very thorny with 2-inch blooms that are plentiful, and the rose is disease resistant. If you need a groundcover-landscape rose, I recommend Carefree Delight.''
Livin' Easy: ``This apricot-orange floribunda rose was just average. Its first year of growth was not spectacular, although it was resistant to black spot,'' Lutz says. ``I'd personally wait another year to see if it grows any better before spending any money for it.'' I grew Livin' Easy, and my analysis was that we don't need more orange floribunda roses. In my garden, ``Singin' in the Rain,'' an All America rose in 1995, is a better rose.
Mt. Hood: ``I was not particularly impressed with this ivory-white grandiflora,'' Lutz says. ``Bushes had average vigor, and blooms were not really great. Unless this variety shows improvement in 1996, I would not waste precious garden space on it.'' Again, I agree with Lutz. I had two Mt. Hood bushes and had high hopes, because we need more easy-to-grow grandiflora roses. The bush is vigorous, but this rose never produced a bloom worth picking. They either had weak stems or the blooms became rusty before they were picked. SHRUBS
Two shrubs worth looking for are Bonanza Gold Barberry and Triumph Viburnum from wholesale grower Lake County Nursery.
Bonanza Gold is a dwarf golden pygmy barberry that grows to 18 inches tall and 36 inches wide, with bright gold foliage. It makes a stunning contrast in a landscape when interplanted with red or green foliaged plants. It must have full sun for best color.
Triumph viburnum is said to need no maintenance. It flowers heavily with white snowball-like blooms, followed by red to black berries. It is good used as a hedge, because it has a dense compact form or can be used as an accent plant.
These plants should be available in local nurseries or can be ordered for you. FLOWERS
All-America selections picked only three flowers and no vegetables for 1996. The three winning flowers are:
Salvia Farinacea `Strata': This is the first salvia to have blue and white bicolor blooms. It blooms earlier than other salvias.
Heavenly Lavender petunia: An improved multiflora petunia with double lavender blooms, this variety blooms a week earlier than others and matures 12 inches tall and spreads to 2 feet. I grew this petunia in containers last year, and it is one of the few double petunias that will grow in this area. They're a nice peaceful lavender, unlike some other new purple varieties.
Fantasy Pink Morn petunia: This petunia blooms early and flowers when 3 inches tall, making it ideal for containers. It has petite blooms that are light pink with cream centers. Mature plants reach and spread to 12 inches. I also grew this one in containers last summer, and it was easy to grow. The soft delicate miniature pink blooms make it a nice addition, because it blends well with other colors.
Other new flowers worth noting this year include:
Sunflowers: They bounced back into seed catalogs with a boom last season and are a featured flower again this year. One of the oldest flowers grown, what's new about sunflowers is that they now are available in many colors, such as creamy white, golden yellow, maroon-striped or mahogany red. They're also available with single or double blooms and in various heights.
Burpee offers `Chianti,' a sunflower hybrid that is a deep red velvety color. Plants grow 4 to 5 feet tall. Park Seed offers several sunflower seed mixes, including `Velvet Tapestry,' a mix of yellow, gold and red sunflowers that grow to 5 1/2 feet tall. Another mix called `Music Box' offers all colors that grow only 28 inches high. `Italian White' grows to 7 feet tall with ivory white blooms.
Sunflowers should be grown from seed sown directly into the garden. Because of their height they often have to be staked. They're being promoted as cut flowers in this rebirth.
Many local garden centers already have a wide selection of seeds and plants available, in addition to the numerous catalogs coming in the mail. It's not too early to make your purchase so you'll be sure to get what you want. New varieties normally sell out early.
Remember that the new varieties often must be grown from seed because greenhouse growers are reluctant to grow them until they know which ones gardeners will prefer. MEMO: Marty Hair of Knight-Ridder Newspapers contributed to this story. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
National Garden Bureau
EASTER EGG II BLEND RADISHES
W. Atlee Burpee & Co.
SWEET 'N SLIM CORN
BUSH BIG BOY TOMATOES
All America Rose Selections
ST. PATRICK ROSES
HEAVENLY LAVENDER PETUNIA
National Garden Bureau
SUNFLOWERS
Lake County Nursery
BONANZA GOLD BARBERRY
Photos
W. Atlee Burpee & Co.
Salsa Delight peppers
Little Caesar lettuce
by CNB