By Dan Rahn
University of Georgia
For 13 years now, the Georgia Plant Selections Committee, Inc.,
has been recommending each year a new, short list of beautiful,
proven landscape plants.
|
The committee, an elite group of people who are experts in the
plant and landscape business, was organized in 1994 to break up a
vicious plant cycle: Deserving plants remained little known
because no nurseries propagated them, because no customers asked
for them, because they were relatively unknown. …
Each year the committee selects one plant from five classes —
annual, perennial, shrub, tree and vine — from a long list of
nominees and awards them Georgia Gold Medals.
“The selection process is tedious, sometimes resulting in heated
debates prior to the final secret ballot,” said Gary Wade,
University of Georgia Cooperative Extension horticulturist who
helped get the program started. “But the cream always rises to
the top. In the end, the honors are always well deserved.”
The committee decides the winners based on seasonal interest,
outstanding or unusual qualities, ease of propagation, hardiness,
adaptability, durability, pest tolerance and lack of
invasiveness.
They announce the winners first to growers so they can have them
available when the public promotions begin.
Here are the 2006 Georgia Gold Medal winners:
Cuphea species are dependable,
low-maintenance annuals. They tolerate the heat and humidity of
the South with extended bloom periods, attracting butterflies and
hummingbirds like magnets. Three stand out. Firecracker plant (Cuphea ignea),
about a foot tall, has abundant tubular, scarlet-red flowers
edged in black. Tiny mice
(Cuphea llavea), up to 2 feet tall, has flowers resembling
the face of a mouse, with two red petals tinged in purple. And
tall cigar plant (Cuphea
micropetala) grows 3 to 5 feet tall with 2-inch-long,
cigar-shaped, red-yellow-green blooms.
Perennial plumbago
(Ceratostigma plumbaginoides) grows just 6 to 10 inches
tall and spreads 1 to 2 feet wide. A terrific groundcover, it
tolerates drought and deer and has a long bloom period. The plant
dies back to the ground each year, then leafs out late in the
spring, with shiny green leaves that turn bronze-red in the fall.
Its medium-blue flowers emerge in late summer and keep coming
until the fall frost.
Chinese Snowball viburnum
(Viburnum macrocephalum ‘Sterile’) is a large, deciduous
shrub that grows 10 to 15 feet tall with an equal spread. The
showy white flower clusters, up to 8 inches across, look like
giant snowballs, offering a virtual whiteout of flowers. The
flowers emerge green, then gradually fade to pure white.
Eventually, they become light brown. They’re commonly cut and
used, both fresh and dried, in floral arrangements.
Overcup oak (Quercus
lyrata) grows well on dry, upland sites and adapts to many
soils and growing environments. It also grows fast, particularly
when it’s young. It typically grows 50 feet high and equally wide
but has been known to reach 125 feet in the wild. Its acorns,
with
warty caps almost covering the nut are a good food source for
wildlife.
Amethyst Falls wisteria
(Wisteria frutescens ‘Amethyst Falls’), is an improved
cultivar of our native American wisteria. It will climb 20 to 30
feet. But it’s less vigorous, less invasive and much easier to
manage than its Asian relatives. And while the Asian types may
take 10 years or more to begin flowering, Amethyst Falls
wisteria’s fragrant, lavender-blue flowers start cascading from
the foliage at 1 year old.
To learn more about on the Georgia Gold Medal Winners program,
visit the Web at
www.georgiagoldmedal.com. The site shows the
plants the GPSC has chosen since 1994.
(Dan Rahn is a news editor with the University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)
