Tough guys

Today more than ever, clients are demanding value for their landscaping dollars and insisting that installed plants grow and thrive.

Growers and breeders are working to develop plants with valuable characteristics such as longer bloom season, improved disease resistance or unusual leaf color. And drought tolerance is proving increasingly important to our industry. These new plants fulfill the designers’ specifications while simultaneously adding value in the landscape.

Here are three real-world solutions to these challenges.
 

Tough-as-nails dwarf shrub.
Consider using a native holly to meet your job specifications. New on the market is Micron Dwarf Yaupon Holly (PPAF), an extremely durable shrub that flourishes in a wide range of conditions ranging from sun to shade and from wet to dry soils.

Micron Holly is an exceptionally versatile garden performer because, although it is tolerant of wet soils, it is also more drought resistant than other hollies. This makes it an ideal landscape plant in temperate U.S. gardens for a multitude of uses, including small hedges, garden borders, edging and foundation plantings and massed on slopes.
 

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Heat/drought-tolerant ornamental tree.
Landscapers looking for a tough and beautiful small native tree should consider Merlot Redbud (PPAF), a good selection for hotter, drier areas (Zones 6-9). A cross between Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ and C. canadensis var. texensis, Merlot Redbud is much more drought and heat tolerant than eastern redbud trees and has appealing wine-red foliage.

The glossy leaves of Merlot Redbud are dark wine-purple and are smaller and more rounded than other redbuds, staying attractive late into the season, well into late summer and fall. The reduced size and rounded shape accommodates the stress of hot climates, while the glossy leaf surface slows water loss of this hybrid redbud.

Shade tree for harsh conditions.
A good tough and colorful shade-tree selection is Fire Dragon Shantung Maple (PP 17367). It delivers vivid reds and dazzling scarlet shades rarely seen in the Midwest or lower-Midwest landscape in autumn. A tough, hardy and well-behaved mid-size shade maple (to 35 feet), Fire Dragon is the first introduced selection of Acer truncatum, commonly known as purple-blow or Shantung maple.

According to a Kansas State University study, Shantung maples were the least damaged/best performing in ice storms, and are similarly good for windy sites.

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Geri Laufer is a media/marketing consultant for Garden Debut and Greenleaf Nursery Co.