Gardening is, or at least should be, an ongoing learning process. It can include trial and error (and sometimes failure), but for me, the most exciting part is discovering new plants. When I find an unfamiliar plant, it’s pretty exciting, since I’ve grown nearly everything over the years and not much surprises me.
Trying out new plants comes with its risks, especially in our unpredictable northeastern climate. A species native to a dry desert or a cool alpine meadow may not perform as well in our hot and humid summers or cold, damp springs. Yet when a plant suddenly outperforms everything else you’ve planted in a container or garden, that is remarkable. Here are a few of my most recent remarkable plant discoveries. These plants include annuals and tender perennials, but I recommend trying them all as annuals if you live in the Northeast this summer.
Ursinia anthemoides ‘Solar Fire’, annual
How this plant ever escaped my radar still confounds me, but I believe it is a winner. Ursinia is a rarely grown annual native to South Africa, which gives us a hint about what conditions it loves—heat, well-drained soil, and full sun. I first ordered one of these plants via mail from a West Coast nursery to see if it might do well in an alpine trough that I had. Not only did it bloom like crazy, but it also grew much larger than I had expected, overtaking all of the alpine plants in just a single season.
It did so well that I decided to search for some seeds online, as I knew that it was a plant I was unlikely to find at any garden center in the Northeast. While this is one of those annuals that you will need to sow yourself (indoors, under lights, about 6 weeks before planting out), it’s easy enough to attempt and worth the extra
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