Sunfinity™ Sunflowers

Sunfinity™ sunflowers make the landscape come to life

Rise and shine—a stand of these bright yellow blooms makes the landscape come to life and puts a spring in the step of anyone who passes by them. If you’re looking for a sunflower with more blooms, multiple branches, and a nonstop show that lasts all season long, Sunfinity™ is the way to go. Customers can expect an average of 50 blooms per plant from late spring through late summer or early fall on this vigorous new cultivar from Syngenta.

‘Gartenmeister’—an uncommon fuchsia

It might look like a honeysuckle but it’s actually a fuchsia—with a somewhat unusual appearance. These orange-red blooms are tubular, unlike the typical shape of a fuchsia flower, and the shrub is upright, though eventually it will become pendulous with age. Add to that the contrast of the satiny bronze-red foliage and you’ve got an eye-catching plant for full to partial shade.

Vigorous ‘Gartenmeister’ has a long, reliable bloom time so you can expect to be awash in red all through summer and into fall, up until a frost. It tolerates heat better than other fuchsias, with a normal watering schedule and an occasional misting when it gets especially hot and dry. An extra application of mulch helps keep the soil moist, and a dose of all-purpose, general fertilizer once-a-month is recommended—the standard diet for most fuchsias.

Attracts hummingbirds to a porch or patio

This selection is a mecca for hummingbirds, and it attracts butterflies and bees as well—making it an interesting choice for a porch or patio where it provides a moment of zen over a morning cup of coffee. When temps drop in fall, the plant can be successfully overwintered indoors.

‘Gartenmeister’ is available in the 8-inch pot.

Vibrant violet flowers

Pretty periwinkle flowers in vibrant violet keep coming all summer, to brighten a woodland edge or rock garden in full sun. We also use vinca for mass plantings and containers—anywhere we need an easy-care splash of bold color. Notice how the extra large flowers pop against the glossy green foliage.

‘Cora Violet’ is a valuable plant to keep in the designer tool box: it cranks out a lot of blooms, stands up to heat and humidity, and bounces back nicely after a rain. As a matter of fact, vinca actually prefers drought conditions so we keep the soil on the thirsty side, watering only when it feels dry to the touch.

Deadheading is not required, and Cora vinca have been bred to resist aerial phytophthora, a fungal disease that is kryptonite to the common vinca—another plus for the series.

This variety is available in the 8-inch pot.