The hydrangeas are emerging as this month’s Best in Show, so to speak. They’re looking almost candy-coated in the Home Gardening Center.

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Apologies for the late post! I got caught up ogling the offerings for today’s Greenmarket (it’s free to enjoy on Wednesdays, open ’til 3 p.m.). You can check out the produce, cheeses, pickles and pies for yourself just inside the Mosholu Gate in front of the Library Building, and it’s right near the Home Gardening Center, where many of our own vegetable projects mingle with the flowers.

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

It would be a crime if I kept overlooking what’s going on in the Home Gardening Center. I mean, yeah, the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden is a classic stunner, and you can’t miss the spotted foxglove of Giverny in the Conservatory right now, but the HGC is really putting on a show. Not bad for a “humble” spot by the Garden Café.

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

New Yorkers may wake up tomorrow in a warmer zone, according to the just-released, internet-friendly 2012 USDA Hardiness Zone Map.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has just released a new version of its Plant Hardiness Zone Map (PHZM) for the first time since 1990, updating individual zones with much greater accuracy and detail. This could mean a shake-up for seed distributors and gardeners alike, with a slightly different range of plants being recommended for certain regions across the country.

Also for the first time, the new map offers an interactive format using the Geographic Information System (GIS) and the map website incorporates a “find your zone by ZIP code” function.
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The season is winding down, meaning it’s a good time to reflect and take stock of what was grown in the garden this year. If I don’t keep my records and notes, the observations that seem cemented in my mind will have evaporated into a fuzzy haze of vague recollections in no time. As such, I will begin some initial record keeping here.

At our side entrance gate we planted a trio of coleus (Solenostemon) cultivars. We selected ‘Green Card,’ ‘Saturn,’ and ‘Brooklyn Horror’ for variety. The first two are large-leaved specimens, while the latter has very fine, feathery foliage. In terms of color, ‘Green Card’ is a bright citrine green while the other two are a luxurious combination of the same iridescent green and a rich burgundy.
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We have all heard that ‘cabbage is king’ although I doubt many of us know why.

It is certainly a stately vegetable, its elegant heads outshine all other vegetables in an ornamental vegetable garden. And in past centuries, it was a staple in many diets; it stores well and can easily feed a large family. It also had a reputation for ‘medicinal’ properties. Cabbage is high in vitamin C and fiber, has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties and historically was used as a cure for ulcers and cancer. But are these reasons for such a regal appellation?

I read on the news recently that a retired dentist, Steve Hubacek, won first place in the Alaska State Fair for the largest cabbage. His entry weighed 126 pounds and measured four feet tall and seven feet across. This year’s entry was just shy of the Guinness World Record, already held by Huacek, of 127 pounds.

I have no idea what you would do with all that cabbage, or if the mammoth beast would even taste good (World Record-holding pumpkins certainly do not). I like sauerkraut but that’s a lot of sauerkraut even if you stretch it out over six months (which is generally the length of time that you can keep homemade sauerkraut).

Even if you’re not planning to compete at the State Fair, you should still consider growing cabbage in your own garden.

Get Sonia’s tips for growing kingly cabbages below.

Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education.

Agastache 'Acapulco Salmon & Pink'

An indispensable addition to any late summer garden is the hummingbird mints (Agastache). They are magnets for butterflies and hummingbirds and generally flower from July well into October.

They are heat tolerant candidates for your garden that thrive in xeric gardens with low fertility. They are in the mint family but are the well-behaved cousin that doesn’t run all over the place. With their fragrant foliage, they are deer and rabbit resistant.

We have several cultivars of Agastache in our Trial Bed Garden in the Home Gardening Center. At the end of the Trial Bed we have a tall upright cultivar called Agastache ‘Heatwave’. It reaches between 3-4 feet tall and has deliciously fragrant blue green foliage. It is covered at this time of year with raspberry colored tubular flowers. Based on its growth habit it is an ideal candidate for the middle of a border.

At the other end of the bed is a more compact hummingbird mint named Agastache ‘Acapulco Salmon & Pink™’. It is part of a popular Acapulco series that come in a variety of colors. As the name suggests it has a pretty blend of salmon and pink flowers. The shape of this hummingbird mint is reminiscent of a catmint (Nepeta) and it sprawls to form a low-growing mound that produces colorful spires of flowers.

Meet Sonia’s favorite Agastache below.

Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education.

Coreopsis verticillata 'Moonbeam'

After several spates of sizzling summer weather, many gardeners were left looking for drought tolerant alternatives to lush perennial garden plantings. One perennial that has been a stalwart of my garden has been tickseeds or coreopsis.

The odd common name of tickseed comes from the fact that people used to think the seed head looked like a tick. There are a number of species of tickseed but one of the most popular and drought tolerant species is the thread-leaf tickseed, Coreopsis verticillata.

Tickseeds are in the Asteraceae family. They tend to form 1-2 foot mounds that are covered with daisy-like flowers. They are tough customers that don’t shy away from the summer heat and have the added bonus of being deer resistant. Many cultivars flower from June through September–and sometimes into October–and are known for their flower power.

The Home Gardening Center features a number of cultivars which include a few winners in the world of coreopsis. One of my favorites is ‘Route 66’. It is an interesting alternative to your predominately yellow tickseeds. This cultivar has a red eye that bleeds into the yellow petals to produce a brilliant contrast.

Learn more about these tough, but pretty, flowers below.

Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education.

Heuchera villosa 'Tiramisu'

Last week we looked at coral bells and covered some of the dark leaved options that are grown in this garden and easy to find on the market. This week we are going to look at some spectacular options for sunny sites.

Coral bells were traditionally thought of as shade lovers. Heuchera villosa, however, is a species that is native to southeastern U.S. It is an adaptable species that thrives in full sun to part shade, grows happily in soils ranging from slightly wet to slightly dry and is unfazed by high humidity. Understandably, it is a popular plant for southern gardens.

Hybridizers have latched on to this species and it is now part of the parentage of many successful hybrids. The French hybridizer, Thierry Delabroye has taken the world of coral bells by storm by flooding the market with a number of mouthwatering cultivars that are designed to make you either hungry or thirsty. Delabroye’s offerings include cultivars such as ‘Carmel’, ‘Brownies’, ‘Mocha’, ‘Pistache’, ‘Tiramisu’, ‘Pinot Gris’, and ‘Beaujolais’. We have used a number of these cultivars in container displays. This year we are growing ‘Brownies’ in the Trial Bed Garden in the Home Gardening Center.

The reputation of Heuchera ‘Brownies’ as an attractive and adaptable coral bell is attested to by the fact that it is flourishing in the challenging environment of New York’s High Line park. Its foliage emerges brown and then transforms into a greenish brown with a rich purple-red underside. Like the majority of Heuchera villosa hybrids it features large foliage and has a fuzzy texture. It grows over a foot tall and forms a generous two foot clump.

Learn more about these sun-loving coral bells below.

Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education.

When I started gardening, I thought of coral bells (Heuchera) as a pleasant choice for the front of a shade border or a nice accent in a tapestry of low growing woodland inhabitants.

I now have a much deeper appreciation for this versatile plant. While some of it has to do with an increased knowledge in horticulture, and a better understanding of the dynamics of design and what constitutes a garden-worthy plant, part of my growing admiration comes from the vast strides that have been made by hybridizers over the past decade.

In our Trial Bed Garden in the Home Gardening Center we have a bed that is devoted to coral bells. It has been there several years so I have been able to watch and see not only how the Huechera have performed during the growing season but also how they have held up over several winters.

On one end of the bed we have planted a coral bell named ‘Black Out.’ One objective of Heuchera hybridizing programs has been a search for the coral bell with the darkest foliage. The results has been a number of newer cultivars that range from chocolate brown to deep burgundy brown, with the ultimate goal of producing a Huechera with true-black foliage.

Heuchera ‘Black Out’ is one of the blackest coral bells on the market. It has glossy deep burgundy foliage that transitions into black with burgundy overtones on its undersides.  ‘Black Out’s maple-shaped foliage is medium sized and has a compact shape (without being too small) that makes it ideal for container plantings. All of the plants survived this past winter, although a few of them died back a little and are not as vigorous this year. In general, however, their performance has been good.

Another winner in our Trial Bed Garden is Heuchera ‘Frosted Violet Dream’. This coral bell has deep burgundy foliage that is mottled with silver. The maple-shaped foliage shimmers in a garden setting. It is another medium sized coral bell that is a vigorous grower with a spectacular performance record in this garden. In early to mid summer this coral bell is covered with an attractive haze of dainty pink flowers.

One of the casualties in our garden this year was a cultivar called ‘Sugar Plum’. While it performed beautifully last season, it struggled over the winter and we ended up replacing it this year. We were growing this cultivar in full sun whereas it would normally be happier in part shade. I am not sure if that contributed to its demise; poor drainage is a more likely explanation.

I would love to hear back with your experiences. What are your favorite black coral bells on the market and how do they perform in your gardens? Next time we will look at some coral bells that are ideal for tough, sunny locations: the Heuchera villosa hybrids.