As spring begins to emerge across the country, consumer magazines are
full of articles predicting the newest, hottest garden trends for 2005.
Gardening Life, January/February 2005, for example, lists the top 10 trends to watch for as:
New Garden Trends for 2005
As spring begins to emerge across the country, consumer magazines are full of articles predicting the newest, hottest garden trends for 2005.
Gardening Life, January/February 2005, for example, lists the top 10 trends to watch for as:
1. Yoga gardens, including outdoor terraces and platforms for doing your exercises.
2. Clover lawns – lush, drought-tolerant and pest-free, planted alone or blended with grass.
3. Planting in blocks or rectangles of individual plants in varying heights, textures and hues, influenced by display gardens at the Chelsea and Hampton Court Palace Flowers Shows in England last summer.
4. Glass tiles, pebbles and mulch in all sorts of watery tones made of standard glass or recycled bottles.
5. Astrantias, attractive perennials with deeply cut foliage and pincushion blooms, ranging from white (Astrantia maxima ‘Alba) through pink (A. m. ‘Rosea’) and red (A. ‘Ruby Wedding’) to burgundy (A. ‘Moulin Rouge’) and new for this year A. major ‘Abby Road.’
6. Season-extending fire pits and fireplaces for warmth and cooking.
7. Blue and green plant colours as found in larkspurs, balloon flowers and Himalayan poppies.
8. Rain gardens – natural or created depressions that collect storm water run off – to prevent the water from carrying pollution and dirt into storm drains and beyond. (Plants in a rain garden need only be big enough to absorb runoff and mustn’t mind wet feet. Good examples are sedge and astible.)
9. Tropical panache in northern gardens with big-leafed plants such as banana trees, cannas and towering castor beans.
10.See-through screens providing privacy, drama and an airy feeling – from Lucite panels to cable-rail fencing and horizontally slatted wood ‘blinds.’
The Garden, Journal of The Royal Horticultural Society, January 2005 issue, predicts that more British gardeners will be growing their own vegetables and herbs from seed this year, based on large increases in vegetable seeds. Healthy eating and the high cost of buying organic vegetables are cited as reasons. Record sales of basil and coriander seeds as well as other herb salad crops were noted.
Canadian Gardening, March 2005, recommends 25 hot new plants for 2005, including such perennials a Gaura ‘Karalee Petite Pink,’ a compact Australian-bred gaura hardy to Zone 3; Gaillardia aristata ‘Arizona Sun’ with fiery orange-red blooms tipped with a ring of flame yellow from June to September, hardy to Zone 2; Moroccan sea holly (Eryngium varifolium), a good plant for exposed, difficult, sunny sites with poor soil; and the Dolce Series of Huechera including H. ‘Key Lime Pie’ with chartreuse leaves, H. ‘Crème Brule’ with bronze leaves with a purple underside and H. ‘Peach Melba’ with peach leaves with red undersides, both hardy to Zone 5.
Recommended new annuals include: Calibrachoa ‘Crackling Fire’ with vibrant orange flowers and dark orange and yellow striations covering the plant from early summer to frost; brilliant-red Easy Wave Red Petunia that will bloom all season in full sun; larger-than-life Colius Kong with 10 centimetre-long leaves available in five colour varieties; and two new Profusion Series zinnias – reddish-orange ‘Fire Zinnia’ and light-orange to peach-coloured ‘Apricot.’
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