Browallia 'Endless Illusion'

Browallia ‘Endless Illumination’—a unique Impatiens alternative 

Browallia should sound familiar because we’ve offered it in the past and only stopped recently. Typically grown from seed, it’s a great plant for the shade and has been around forever—we’d be willing to bet your Grandmother planted it. Impatiens always gets the attention in the shade, but with Downey Mildew in the picture this plant warrants another look.

Breeders have intensified the color and increased the blooms

Ipomoea SolarTower (not Solar Power) really wants to climb

Wow, what a surprise we had with SolarTower Ipomoea! Our initial thought was: Great, another Ipomoea, just what we don’t need. We brought in a bunch and sold none of it because everyone else must have had the same thought. After that we planted some into the trial beds and made a tower out of Honeysuckle branches for it to climb. Wouldn’t you know—climb it did!

SolarTower in Black and Lime—a pleasant surprise

It quickly found its way up the trellis and filled out nicely. Folks who attended Field Day will remember SolarTower in the center of the Pathway Garden (Bed 14 in the Field Day Book). Our two varieties are beautifully contrasted in both color and leaf so we simply use them together. Black is deep chocolate with a spade-like shape, whereas Lime is vivid bright green with deeply cut edges.

SolarTower quickly screened this 7-foot fence

SolarTower can be used as a normal Ipomoea but it really shines as a trellis climber. If you want to build a natural screen, this is your plant. It grew over seven feet in the season! We donated some to a foundation and they planted it on a chain link fence—the result was impressive, to say the least. By the way, the name SolarTower can be confusingly similar to another series, Solar Power. Remember it this way: Tower is up; Power is down.

Portulaca ‘Happy Hour Peppermint’

Portulaca has been gaining in popularity over the past several years because it is a no-maintenance, no-regular-water-required plant. We find the flowers to be extra vibrant; they’re great for lending a nice pop of cheery color in an otherwise dismal spot that most annuals would not survive. ‘Peppermint’ presents bright flowers that are two-tone marvels—they appear to be a nice pink from a distance but have a cool variegated pattern when viewed up close.