Lighthouse Red salvia (Photo by Allen Owings. Click on photo for downloadable image.)

Atomic Violet veronica (Photo by Allen Owings. Click on photo for downloadable image.)

News Release Distributed 07/12/12

By Allen Owings, LSU AgCenter horticulturist

The LSU AgCenter works actively to evaluate new ornamental plants for the landscape industry in Louisiana. This includes plants that may even eventually make their way into home gardens around the state. Much of this work is done at the AgCenter Hammond Research Station.

Efforts in 2012 include new research with roses. One new rose group being evaluated is a collection from Biltmore Home and Gardens. The most popular of these is expected to be Loretta Lynn. These are low-maintenance landscape roses for the South.

The station is working with Jim Mills at K and M Nursery in Buckatunna, Miss., on the landscape performance of different mini-flora roses. The mini-floras are a new class of roses – crosses between miniature roses and floribunda roses. The plant growth characteristics and flower size mostly resemble a smaller-growing floribunda.

Also in the trial garden are the Southern Living Plant Collection’s new landscape shrub roses – Majesty and All A Flutter.

The sun garden plant evaluation area has new plants that will be available in 2013. These are trialed in landscape settings to see how they will perform in Louisiana prior to general introduction next spring. Researchers are excited about the new Cheyenne Spirit purple coneflower – this will be an All-America Selections winner in 2013.

In addition, next year will see a new addition to the Louisiana Super Plant BabyWing begonias –a bronze-foliaged, white-flowered variety. And a new cousin of the popular Senorita Rosalita cleome will be Senorita Blanca cleome.

New perennials that have been performing well include the Atomic series of veronicas. These plants are not widely known to most Louisiana gardeners. Previously, Sunny Borde Blue has been the most well-known and planted variety in Louisiana.

The Lyrical series of salvia nemorosa shows lots of appeal. Most of the perennial salvia species, such as nemorosa, are good landscape performers and are drought-tolerant. The new Lighthouse series of annual salvias are available in red and purple and look to be a great improvement over what has been available in the past.

Copper plants are worthy of increased use. The LSU AgCenter will be adding the Tiki Series of copper plants from Plug Connection to our plantings later this summer. This will bring our collection to more than 30 varieties. Great plants with potential, the Tiki series includes Lava Flow, Tropical Typhoon, Island Sunrise, Firestorm, Peach Whirl, Tahitian Halo, Jungle Cloak and Tropical Tempest. Copper plants are normally available at garden centers late spring through late summer.

Early to midfall is a great time to add perennials to the landscape.

New varieties and series of annual flowers coming in 2013 are in evaluation trials. They include a new dwarf series of angelonias called the Serenitas. These are smaller-growing forms of Louisiana Super Plant Serena angelonias.

You can see more about work being done in landscape horticulture by viewing the LSU AgCenter’s Hammond Research Station website. Also, like us on Facebook. You can find an abundant amount of landscape information for both home gardeners and industry professionals.