Specialist nurseries

While Homestead Gardens and Behnke's are regularly visited, high quality garden centers, they only offer a few of the unusual and riskier plants.  Another favorite local source of hard-to-find plant is the Springtime Garden Fair at the U.S. National Arboretum.  

While each has been provided many of the trees, shrubs, and perennials in the garden, they have limits.  Specialized plant mail order catalogs are the only way to find newer offerings or experimental varieties.  One of my favorites is Plant Delights Nursery in North Carolina.  Their climate and 7b zone is very close to ours in Southern Maryland, though our winters are occasionally colder.

Plant Delights was the source for the Hibiscus 'Robert Fleming,' shown at the left in full blooming mode several weeks ago. It has been a star performer, settling into its site quickly and starting to bloom in the middle of the summer.  It never stopped blooming until the end of September. 


What is equally impressive was to see the trunk that had developed over the summer.  Once the other plants around it had died down and were removed, the large, strong structure of the hibiscus was visible.  Stakes are visible in the photo, both on the right side of the picture and on the back side of the plant.  They were needed to keep the plant upright, since the plant is about 30 inches from one of the labyrinth paths.  Without the stakes, it would have sprawled across the grass, blocking the path.

The full test will be to see how it comes back after our winter weather, which is variable from year to year.  There is rarely enough snow to cover the ground, so there is nothing other than mulch to protect it from all of the fluctuations of temperature. 

I look forward to seeing how it does next year, now that it is fully established.  There will be progress reports in the year ahead.