Saturday, July 11, 2009

"THE" Hydrangea of the decade?

"Dr. A" (Allan M. Armitage, Ph.D.) was waxing poetic about the Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight' this morning at the Open House at the UGA trial gardens, and for good reason; it is a gorgeous plant, it grows in the sun (hurrah!) and it blooms profusely. What's not to like?

Oh, those orange things? Visitors to the gardens this morning were all given three small plastic flags, to stick in the plants we liked the best. Dr. A and his students will count the flags (probably more than 300 by the time the Open House ended), making note of which plans received the most, and this will become the topic of a speech he is to give in Ohio on Wednesday. Perhaps he will also blog about it.

My three flags went to the Petunia 'Easy Wave Burgundy Star', the Begonia 'Solenia Salmon Coral' (I noticed that the 'Apricot' variety had received more), and a small tree labeled "Osmothamus", that had a pine-like appearance and was topped by white flowers reminiscent of a Yarrow (Yarrow having become pretty much my favorite perennial this year). It may well have been the only vote (flag) the poor thing got!

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