I’d like to begin today’s newsletter by continuing my coverage of the California Summer Trials.

Helenium HayDay

Here are a couple of great new helenium cultivars. HayDay Gold Bicolor has beautiful bright golden yellow blooms with red undersides and HayDay Yellow produces loads of bright yellow flowers. They each have nicely controlled upright habits with dense branching resulting in lots of flower power from summer through fall. The HayDay cultivars are hardy to Zone 5 and make great summer perennials.

Lavandula stoechas Violeta Purple XL

This breeding breakthrough from Syngenta Flowers is the first ever Spanish lavender from seed with repeat flowering. It grows 14- to 20-in. tall and produces loads of attractive purple flowers. Violeta Purple XL is vigorous, blooms early and produces flowers over an extended period. Hardy to Zone 7.

Delphinium Jenny’s Pearl

American Takii has a couple of great F1 cut flower delphinium cultivars I thought I’d pass along. They are Jenny’s Pearl Blue and Jenny’s Pearl Pink. These are both Delphinium grandiflorum cultivars, which may mean that even though they're not being marketed as perennials, they likely also have some cold hardiness (most G. grandiflorum cultivars are cold hardy to Zone 3). At the very least, they make great cut flowers and offer at least one season of interest when used in containers or gardens.

Asiatic Lilies

It seems like many of us overlook Asiatic lilies when putting together perennial programs. Therefore, I thought I’d share some of the Asiatic lily cultivars Flamingo Holland had on display at the summer trials.

Classic Joy has crisp, bright yellow flowers. Sunset Joy is a great bi-color cultivar with orange and yellow flowers. Trendy Nicosia has bubblegum pink flowers with spotted white eyes. Each of these cultivars are compact and have short grow times. Hardy to Zone 4.

Echibeckia Summerina Sunchaser

This cross between echinacea and rudbeckia from Pacific Plug & Liner (PP&L) has absolutely huge summery yellow and orange flowers. Check them out.

The individual flowers are easily 8-in. across. Sunchaser blooms its head off throughout the entire growing season and into the fall. This Zone-7 perennial is an excellent container plant and is also wonderful in the landscape.

Salvia Midnight Rose

PP&L put together a wonderful comparison side-by-side trial looking at numerous types of salvia. It included about 100 different salvias from all classes: annuals, tender perennials and hardy perennials. There were many great cultivars—too many to share here—but one of my favorites was Midnight Rose. It’s an S. nemorosa type that has tons of flower power and the dark flower stems look great even after the plant is past its flowering prime. Midnight Rose is a great rebloomer and hardy to Zone 3.

In the last issue, I mistakenly listed the wrong hardiness zone for Dianthus Pemán Fancy Cerise from Dümmen Orange. I’m happy to pass along this correction and announce that Pemán Fancy Cerise is definitely cold hardy. Here’s the revised picture and description along with the correct cold hardiness information.

Dianthus Pemán Fancy Cerise

Pemán Fancy Cerise is a colorful dianthus hybrid that definitely caught my eye while visiting the summer trials. As you can see here, it has attractive evergreen foliage and produces tons of brilliant double cerise flowers. Pemán Fancy Cerise is ideal for containers and would make a fine addition to landscapes across much of the country as it’s cold hardy to Zone 4.

Since I’m on the subject of the great new Pemán Dianthus from Dümmen Orange, I thought I’d take this opportunity to show you a couple more colors in the series.

While on the subject of new perennials, Eason Horticultural Resources (EHR) has just released their 13^th edition of their new perennials booklet, amply titled "Hot New Perennials for 2022." EHR compiles this booklet each year containing many of the upcoming new or recent introductions from breeding companies and perennial young plant producers. New to this year’s edition is a section featuring selections EHR feels are underutilized or underappreciated in the garden.

Click HERE to download a copy of EHR’s "Hot New Perennials for 2022" booklet. If you’d prefer to receive a printed hard copy, you can request one at info@ehrnet.com.

I don’t think it’s fair to tease you like that. Instead, why don’t I show you some examples of some great new perennials in EHR’s "Hot New Perennials for 2022" booklet.

Hibiscus Summerific Edge of Night

I’ve been meaning to share this one for some time now. As you may recall, I’m already a huge fan of both hardy hibiscus and plants with colored foliage. Summerific Edge of Night from Proven Winners sure whets my appetite with its jet-black foliage and large bubblegum-pink flowers. Edge of Night has the darkest foliage I’ve seen on a hibiscus, a compact 3.5-ft. growth habit and produces tons of 8-in. flowers. Hardy to Zone 4.

Echinacea Sweet Sandia

I really like novelty plants and echinacea, and Terra Nova Nurseries’ Echinacea Sweet Sandia delivers both. It sure makes you take a second look when you see it in person. The flower petals are described as a slice of watermelon with their light green edges and deep pink centers. Sweet Sandia is well branched and produces lots of eye-catching flowers. Hardy to Zone 4.

Salvia Blue by You

Blue by You from Darwin Perennials is one of 19 perennials in the "Under the Rader, Underappreciated, Underutilized Above-Bar Perennials" section. These aren’t new introductions, but represent many strong performing classic perennials worthy of most perennial programs. Blue by You is a hybrid between Salvia nemorosa and S. pratensis. This hybrid not only produces long, bright blue flower spikes, it blooms two weeks earlier than the industry standard May Night and reflushes quickly—up to five times per growing season. Hardy to Zone 4.