Plant Select® Introductions For 2019

The United States is a huge country and includes a tremendous variety of regional ecosystems, each with distinct weather, climate, geology, soil types and elevation differences. There is often a “one size fits all” mindset when it comes to looking for perennials and other plants for our gardens and landscapes.  And while there are a handful of perennial plants that have tremendous adaptability such as Daylilies (Hemerocallis), Hostas, Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ (Sage) and some Old World Salvia (Sage), the smart, long term choice is to find regionally suitable perennials best suited to local growing conditions.  And this is a good thing.  A difference in regional plant palettes give our gardens and landscapes a sense of place that ties in with the area’s native vegetation and the look of our surroundings.

Plant Select®, a cooperative organization run by Colorado State University Dept. of Horticulture and Denver Botanic Gardens, is a plant introduction program that focuses on finding regionally suitable plants for the Intermountain West and Great Plains (the two primary ecosystems found in Colorado). Since the program was founded in 1996, Plant Select has introduced a tremendous number of outstanding plants, some of which have been grown successfully in other parts of the US as well.

Red Feathers (Echium amoenum)

A 2010 Plant Select® winner.  A very showy perennial recently introduced from the Caucasus Mountains of western Asia, the plants have beautifully Liatris-like spikes of russet-red flowers in spring.  It’s right at home in the xeric garden that thrives in a variety of soils types including clay.  Plant it in full sun.  A short-lived perennial, mulch it with small gravel mulch (to encourage the plant to re-seed itself) and leave some of the faded flower spikes when flowering is finished to allow the plant to ripen seed.

Recommended Companion Plants: Gaillardia grandiflora Mesa™ Peach (Peach Blanket Flower), Linum perenne ‘Appar’ (Blue Flax) and Salvia daghestanica (Dwarf Silver Leaf Sage).

Silky Rock Jasmine (Androsace sarmentosa ‘Chumbyi’)

A 2015 Plant Select® winner, Chumby Silky Rock Jasmine is a wonderful late spring/early summer blooming perennial that flowers with clusters of fragrant pink flower with a yellow eye. This is a tough little plant from high in the Himalayas that likes moderate moisture and most any well-drained soil. The foliage makes furry gray-green rosettes that gently spread with strawberry-like red runners making it a superb groundcover for shady and morning sun (partial sun) locations in the garden.

Recommended Companion Plants: Heuchera x bryzoides ‘Weston Pink’ (Weston Pink Coral Bells), Salvia arizonica ‘Deep Blue’ (Deep Blue Arizona Sage) and Festuca ‘Siskiyou Blue’ (Siskiyou Blue Festuca Grass)

Granita™ Orange Cold Hardy Ice Plant (Delosperma ‘PJS02S’)

A 2019 Plant Select® winner.  This wonderful orange-flowering Ice Plant was discovered as a hybrid seedling in the Salt Lake City rock garden of John Stireman.  Blooming in late spring with large, clear-orange-fading-to-rusty-orange flowers, the plant grows to form a low, tight mat of evergreen foliage.  Like all the cold hardy Ice Plants, it should be grown in full sun in sandy to loam or clay-loam soil. While xeric, all Ice Plants like some summer irrigation if the rains are scant.

Recommended Companion Plants: Select Blue Catmint (Nepeta faassenii ‘Select Blue’), Mersae Yellow Pineleaf Beardtongue (Penstemon pinifolius ‘Mersea Yellow’) and Gazania ‘Butterscotch Baby’ (Dwarf African Daisy)

Undaunted® Silver Spike Grass (Achnatherum calamagrostis ‘PUND02S’)

A 2019 Plant Select® winner and the 2006 High Country Gardens Plant of the Year. Silver Spike grass is an outstanding Old World species from the Alps of Europe grown for its very showy late spring display of silver-green flowering plumes. The seed heads age to tawny brown and hold on the plant into the fall. This xeric (waterwise) species is a cool season grower that is best grown in the Intermountain West where the summers aren’t too hot and humid and nights are cool. Introduced into cultivation in the US by Lauren Springer Ogden. 

Recommended Companion plants:  plant Achnatherum with late spring bloomers like Red Jupiter’s Beard (Centranthus ruber ‘Coccineus’), Coronation Gold Tall Yellow Yarrow (Achillea fillipendulina ‘Coronation Gold’) and Rocky Mountain Beardtongue (Penstemon strictus).

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