The Washington Post - 22.08.2019

(Joyce) #1

the washington post


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thursday, august


22


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2019


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Robert “Buddy”
Lee has been a
grower of
wholesale plants
and a registered
nurse over the
years, but his one
abiding
preoccupation has
been his need to
find a spring-
flowering azalea that blooms
through summer and fall.
More than 40 years ago, from
his fields in southern Louisiana,
this was a lonely quest, but not a
quixotic one. As the inventor of
the Encore Azalea brand, he has
given gardeners more than 30
azaleas in various sizes and
bloom color, with more in the
works.
“You have waves of color in
summer,” he says, “and as it cools
down to return to more of the
spring temperature range, you’ll
get a lot more bloom.”
Lee may have been a pioneer
in the desire for a deja vu
moment in the garden, but he is
no longer alone. The ornamental
plant industry is defined by a
race to develop and trademark
plants that keep on blooming
beyond their natural moment in
the growing year.
“It’s what we are all striving for
in every genus,” said Jonathan
Pedersen, vice president of sales
and business development at
Monrovia Nursery, a major
wholesale grower.
In addition to fall-blooming
azaleas, consumers can find
hydrangeas that flower in
September, sunflowers still going
strong in October, lilacs in
fragrant bloom in August and
even a clematis that produces its
bell-like blooms until frost.
Roses have always been
pushed by breeders to re-bloom,
but the days of them flushing
every eight weeks or so have been
replaced by near continuous
display.
The floral conveyor belt may
upend our sense of a garden’s
seasonality, but the breeders,
growers and marketers are
confident that homeowners will
be drawn to the continuous
displays like bees to nectar. They
already are.
More than 2.6 million of Lee’s
creations are sold annually, and
their popularity is squeezing out
traditional evergreen azalea
offerings.
Garden centers are reducing
classic offerings, said Kip
McConnell, director of Plant
Development Services, which has
brought Encore Azalea to
market. It works with 70 licensed
growers, who also grow
ornamentals for others, and

many of them have dropped
spring-only azaleas in favor of re-
bloomers, he said. “It’s been a big
transition.”
There may be purists who feel
a garden is characterized and
made more interesting by a
parade of blooming plants
adhering to their own season, but
such a view may not be widely
shared.
“Anything that gives gardeners
more confidence and
gratification is good for the world
of horticulture,” said David

Roberts, head breeder at Bailey
Innovations. “It makes it easier
even for a novice gardener to feel
successful, and that drives the
industry.”
The company is the plant
development arm of Bailey
Nurseries, which markets the
Endless Summer brand of re-
blooming hydrangeas,
represented by five varieties.
Since their introduction in 2011,
almost 30 million plants have
been sold.
Shrubs that bloom in spring,

such as azaleas, must get their
flower buds through the winter.
Summer-flowering shrubs flower
from new growth, so the key to
developing ever bloomers is to
find plants that do both.
All those years ago, Lee
noticed that some azalea
varieties had a tendency to
flower sporadically in the fall, so
he crossed those with a summer-
blooming azalea from Taiwan
(and many others along the way).
The 31 he and McConnell have
introduced were selected from

tens of thousands of seedlings
Lee has made over the past four
decades.
Another way to keep a plant
flowering is to give it sterile
flowers. Denied successful
pollination, it keeps producing
blossoms.
A few practical points:
Flowering takes a lot out of a
plant, so it’s a good idea to give
the plants optimal conditions.
For azaleas, that means a little
shade, organically enriched,
moisture-retentive soil on the
acidic side, and a light mulch.
Some of the re-flowering
shrubs should be given a light
trim after the initial spring
flowering. This will encourage
the new growth that carries the
new flower buds.
More so than with other
plants, it’s important that re-
bloomers be allowed to rest
before the arrival of freezes,
because if they are in tender
growth, they are prone to
damage or death. Stop fertilizing
by the end of July, don’t prune
them in late summer and cut
back on watering in early fall.

Azaleas


The first Encore Azalea, Autumn
Rouge, was introduced in 1997.
The series includes dwarf plants
(up to three feet) and
intermediates (three to five feet
high), and colors such as red,
purple, shades of pink and white.
Spring Meadow Nursery in
Grand Haven, Mich., under the
Proven Winners brand, produces
a re-blooming azalea developed
by North Carolina State
University breeder Thomas
Ranney and named Perfecto
Mundo. It was selected for its
compact size, hardiness and
resistance to lacebug, said Stacey
Hirvela, horticulture marketing
specialist at Spring Meadow. A
second will be available to
consumers in 2021, she said.
Monrovia has five varieties
under its Double Shot series. The
energy the plant puts into the
flowers helps to keep it compact,
Pedersen said.

Hydrangeas


We speak here of the eternally
popular hortensia hydrangea
that blooms in June (in the Mid-
Atlantic) known botanically as
Hydrangea macrophylla. Its
flowering on the previous year’s
wood led to three basic
problems: In northern states, it
could be counted on to survive
but not bloom after a harsh
winter, especially without a
protective snow cover. In the
South, it was prone to sprout in
early spring and then get
damaged by a late frost. The

Sunflowers in October? Re-bloomers create deja vu in the garden.


Adrian
Higgins

GARDENING


MONROVIA

Double Shot Watermelon is among a new breed of azaleas developed to bloom in spring and fall.

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