It’s that time of year again: Mail-order nursery catalogs are arriving with their long-anticipated promise of Spring and of gardening anew. As usual, one of my all-time favorite nurseries, Klehm’s Song Sparrow, has a catalog filled with choice ornamental trees, shrubs, vines, and perennials. I’ve been a Klehm customer for over 20 years and can attest to the quality of their plants and customer service. Needless to say, the most difficult thing is limiting my 2015 choices.
Selecting the first two plants on my list was not difficult. Nursery owner, Roy Klehm, is an accomplished hybridizer of peonies and daylilies, and since I wrote about his peonies last year (See Post “2014: What’s New”), his daylilies have been rightly demanding equal time. A good place to start:
Hemerocallis ‘Bearded Dragons’
photo credit: www.songsparrow.com
One look was enough. My order is in for this exquisite daylily with flowers of royal purple edged with creamy-yellow ruffling. Mesmerizing! Think runway and Alexander McQueen.
Hemerocallis ‘Rumba Picotee’
photo credit: www.songsparrow.com
I was also captivated by the recently introduced Rumba Picotee, an ivory-buff daylily painted with a green throat, a rich purple flare, and a purple ruffled edge. Moreover, the 6 inch flowers are fragrant. A most welcome bonus.
As my readers know, I am a fragrance groupie, constantly on the prowl for beautiful and hardy perfumed plants. Klehm’s Song Sparrow shares my addiction, as evidenced by the upcoming parade:
Clematis ‘Sweet Summer Love’
image courtesy of Proven Winners
The clematis vine, Sweet Summer Love, inherited the important attributes of fragrance, health and vigor from one parent—the floriferous, snowy-white-flowered Autumn Clematis (See Post, “Fall 2014: The Fragrant Garden”)—and from the other parent (unknown), the assets of cranberry-violet color and summer flowering. A winning combination.
Clematis tangutica ‘Helios’
photo credit: www.songsparrow.com
photo credit: www.songsparrow.com
Golden-flowered Helios has small, coconut scented, bell-shaped flowers in summer, followed by awesome, silky, seed heads. A compact grower, it would be perfect in a container, or growing through a shrub.
Klehm’s ships two-year-old Clematis plants, well rooted and trellised. They have always bloomed the first season in my garden. (Note: This is my experience, not a Klehm guarantee.)
Lonicera periclymenum ‘Peaches and Cream’
image courtesy of BallHort
Every garden should have at least one fabulously fragrant Honeysuckle vine. I have several, but I’m adding super-compact Peaches and Cream for its non-stop, spring to late summer bloom, and vibrant pink buds that open to ivory and peach flowers.
Tree Peony ‘Joseph Rock’
photo credit: www.songsparrow.com
This rare heirloom plant is celebrated and highly prized for its beauty, vigor and fragrance. An elegant garden jewel that will lend radiance and gravitas to any landscape.
Tree Peony ‘Shima Nishiki’
photo credit: www.songsparrow.com
For years I having been searching high and low, without success, for a variegated Tree Peony. Finally, there it was, calling out to me from page 49 of Klehm’s print catalog, the gorgeous red and white Shima Nishiki, plant of my dreams. And it is even said to be mildly fragrant. Amen to that!
Can’t wait for Spring.
To easily access Klehm’s website, go to LINKS and click on.
