yea, the photoshopping

I went cultivar-hunting in the internet for Actinidia argutas, mini kiwi.

Amazing what some catalogues do to the fruit pics,

Thompson and Morgan is another candidate for colorfull truth in the flowers` descriptions....

remember that magic Digitalis-hybrid, did any make it over one winter...?

I recently discovered and am re-reading right now

the sceptical gardener by Ken Thompson

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25330327-the-sceptical-gardener

I like the way he explains why some wonder-perennials just can`t flower that much and survive the next winter and other garden yarn and all sorts of odds and ends

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and especially in the mailorder veggie seed catalogues around here there appear repeatedly "new" marvelous veggies, tasty, easy to start, good for world peace and your skin...

LOL! I am just as jaded and suspicious as the rest of you. I may be in the biz but I don't believe 99% of the hype.......in fact, being involved in the nursery industry may make me more skeptical than others about the marketing efforts growers make with many new plant introductions that simply do not support the claims. And I really dislike how plant breeding has become a financially focused enterprise rather than a horticulturally focused one - e.g. the patenting and trademarking going on with virtually every new plant that comes to market.

I believe that financial focus leads to a rush to market for many new introductions before they have been adequately trialed to accurately evaluate their performance. The red coreopsis fiasco and the various hybrid echinaceas are cases in point. And the Endless Summer bummer, in which a hydrangea intended specifically for flowering in colder zones fails to deliver as promised in those zones (the Hydrangea forum is filled with complaints about this plant).

I tend to disbelieve any claim about an everblooming or even reblooming feature for a specific plant. They never live up to the "everblooming" claim and any rebloom on those plants not normally inclined to such activity is usually grossly overstated and sparse at best.

But some plants DO live up to the hype. Geranium 'Rosanne' comes to mind, as does Helleborus Ivory Prince ('Walhelivor'). Both are exceptional plants with an extended bloom period and robust growth and few, if any, garden issues.

Yea, the marketing hyperbole.... I've now been gardening long enough to be able to see right though it for the most part (same with food marketing, the psychology of which I find fascinating). I also tend to prefer the older standbys - those cultivars that have been around for a long time. Not that I don't every buy a newer cultivar, just that the ol' tried-and-trues have been proven over the long haul and I put more stock in information surrounding them and have confidence they'll perform to expectations (right plant, right place, of course...).

With veggies, though, I realized I do need to seek out cultivars with specific disease resistance, as I had some problems this year, particularly with powdery mildew - what a mess! Not to mention my winter squash didn't fully ripen before the vines got wiped out (although they're edible -- they just won't store) nor did all the melons. So newer cultivars bred for disease resistance is the way to go here, I'll just have to prove them over time and trial and error in terms of resistance and of course taste.

Anyway, I still prefer getting out my gardening books to look up information if it's something not too familiar to me or I need a refresher - information in books tends to be more comprehensive, at least in the references I have, and tends to mention both positive and negative attributes. I love looking at pics in gardening books, too, they're more "real life" opposed to the advertising pics put out by growers/nurseries.

Ah, Endless Summer hydrangea... I was disappointed the first few years I had them, I ran out and bought quite a few when they were first introduced - hardly got any flowers for a couple years. Then by chance one I year I was too busy to prune them in the spring and viola! loads of blooms. After that I just let them be until completely leafed out (which isn't easy, hydrangeas leaf out so late and I hate the bare branches when everything surrounding them is so lush and green in the spring). Once completely leafed out, all I pruned was any dead tips, and they flowered beautifully. HA!

While some is hyperbole, some is also care and growing conditions, which can vary widely and not all plants are adapted. I'm amazed at the variety of ways plants perform. As a mediocre botanist, I can tell you that plants have a huge degree of what is known as "phenotypic plasticity" which is the variety of ways the genes can be expressed given the conditions around the plant while it is growing. There are many cases nowdays of plants that were thought to be different species all together, that upon genetic testing, turn out to be different expressions of genetically the same organisms.

I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned "disease resistant" roses. My ES hydrangeas bloom nicely in May then maybe I get a couple blooms in September. My reblooming bearded iris bloom nicely in May then try to bloom again in November, whereupon frost turns the buds to brown mush. The peonies with "strong stems" flop in the mud unless supported. Cheeze, I feel so cynical composing this list...

this is why I love GardenWeb..real people..real experiences..unbiased opinions..I was one of the many disappointed by ES hydrangeas..reading what seemed like thousands of comments from others was therapeutic lol..

cecily..you're living in a warmer zone than some of us where ES's DON'T bloom (without winter protection, sheltered planting sites, etc)..what I hate is that the marketing was deceitful..

Okay, I'm a whiner for wanting blooms all summer ("Endless") when you didn't get any at all.

Admittedly, my Endless Summer were planted next to the house, so of course the microclimate could've aided the blooming; the pruning method absolutely made a difference, no question.

Don't get me started on "disease resistant" roses.... outside of rugosas, there is no such thing (and rugosas are not totally immune to blackspot, it's just very rare, and cultivars with a higher percentage of non-rugose parentage are more prone -- some are downright BS magnets)

I always research sources with Garden Watchdog when deciding to order or not. I'm very skeptical and I realize that only an annual can afford to flower all season long. Sad, but true.

I'm going to have to agree with the ES laments... Here in 4b, after winter protection, I got four flowers... There are three new blooms in the works right now, but I fear they'll never make it by frost. The shrub is huge, I bought it the first summer they were widely available in our area... I do love it, but I am disappointed by all the hype that STILL is spread about this plant by the local nurseries and landscaping companies...

back in my work days ... we would have friday afternoon docket meetings.. who was going where.. who could do what for whom ...

after that was wrapped up... the chief would rub his hands and say.. OK ... rumors .. innuendos and out and out lies.. who has something juicy .. lol

thx for the memory ..

ken

This relates to my previous gripes about patented plants: Really, American Horticulture? Has it come to this?

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1615403/are-patented-plants-ruining-horticulture

(feel free to not bump)

it seems more and more companies involved in commercial horticulture just care about the almighty dollar and not being honest about what they are producing and what to expect from it.

I think the catalogs do themselves a disservice. I see a picture of a "pink" daffodil and I studiously study the color around it - why is the sky purple and the grass blue? Filter much? Anyway, no named pinks in my garden and that's a shame, but no trust!

For those of us with experience and a bit of intelligence, the hyperbole and editing make it harder to convince us when something really great comes along.

I'm also annoyed at the coneflower fiasco. I would like to add some of the fancy colors, but feel like I have to amass a list of ones that basically act as annuals and die out. Well, taking the time to pull together said list so that I'm not tricked by professionals who should know better is obnoxious.

Yes, I hate all the deceptive pictures. So full of huge blooms on every single stem clustered together like a massive pimple outbreak on a teenager!

For the record though, there are some truly pink daffodils! Pink trumpets at least. Just buy from someone reputable like Brent and Beckys or Van Engelen/John Scheepers so you get true to name bulbs.

Good point, but it's the degree of pink that matters to me. Hard to tell when pictures are doctored.

And pink is heavily affected by temperature and far less likely to be very "pink" in the hotter southern areas.

Right, that's a consideration as well. Given all those factors, I'm sitting back on pink and waiting on new developments. I have a mix that's underwhelming although arguably pink.

So, about these fancy day lilies...

I am convinced as cultivars are tissue cultivated over the years that small variations in color/form add up until the plant isn't like the original, even though it's tissue cultivated. We all know what a "sport" is, so why can't tissue cultivation also produce very slight variations, all of which add up over the years? Day lilies seem to be all over the map sometimes. The colors of the same cultivar are so different, and there are enough accounts of expert/experienced gardeners experiencing complete color changes, or color reversions, to make me crazy. It seems you never know what you're going to get, and what you got this year may not be what you'll get next year for the same plant that overwintered in the same spot! I just bought my first day lilies, but they were on huge discount because of their potential variations and untrue colors. I haven't found any explanations online.

I'm sitting and reading through these responses and reflecting on how media has really done a number on people. I remember my excitement as a new gardener and getting those catalogues where the colour would almost make you burst an eye blood vessel, it was so vibrant. Or alliums with huge heads - the pictures always show some sweet kid staring at amazement at the heads:

Of course, mine never got so large. Of course, I didn't have the cute lid running around to do a comparison. I think as jaded as many of us have become with media, we can still be suckered in by it.

I have never been one much for plant catalogs. First, I don't order plants by mail so never saw the need to sign up to receive them. I have gotten a few over the years but my favorite plant nursery catalogs have been those with NO photos at all to entice you by just an overly pretty face :-) The old Heronswood Nursery of Dan Hinkley fame is ony a short drive away so I shopped there in person. But the arrival of the new catalog each year was an eagerly anticipated event, not only to see what wonderful new additions to the plant selection were available but mostly for the wonderful prose and the excellent descriptions of the plants - Dan is a very talented garden writer as well as being a world reknown plant hunter.

And I'd have to say that the descriptions of plant apearance and behavior were very true to life but that may well be because we lived and gardened in the same area and under the same climate conditions.

I am seldom taken in by just photos. In fact, sometimes the photos serve to put me off because I kind of steer away from overly large, too much in-your-face flowers and plants. I remember when I first saw photos of the Hydrangea 'Pistachio', I thought it was hideous!! But when the plant came into my local nursery and I saw it in person, I changed my mind and it is now one of my favorites.

I am so jaded I have come to believe the only plant that will live up to hype is a weed. You cannot kill them, they are reliable. Will return every year bloom and never get a disease that will kill them.

My biggest later years beef is Heuchera. I feel I am experienced after gardening for over 30yrs. They were the rage. I love foliage more than flowers. I was so excited. They were expensive when they first showed up at 24 - 30 dollars in my area. They promptly died either during extreme heat periods or over our wet cold winters. What really tested my belief in my skills is that others were saying they were having stunning results.

I am truly thankful for MtCuba that give them a real test and supply a report so I can check what is really worthy of my garden budget.

Odd.....I have never had any problems with heucheras.......other than them sometimes developing rust. They grow beautifully in my climate without many issues at all. And I have grown a whole bunch of different ones without any noticeable differences.

For me, its been difficult to grow heucheras and I had to find JUST the right spot for them. Too much sun too hot, too wet, too dry, etc.

Yep heucheras fussy expensive plant. So much promise. They are getting better and cheaper. The Villosa breeding are stronger.

All the native heucheras I started from seed years ago are thriving with no care at all. All the fancy cultivars died.

My ES Hydrangea blooms once a year, for a couple months. I cut the booms for drying when they start to fade. But I have never got a second bloom. And that is the only pruning I do unless there is frozen damage to new growth in early spring. They are said to bloom on new and old growth.

I have 'reblooming' day lilies that bloom only once. It gets hot and rainless and I'm not up to watering and fertilizing as the catalog companies do any longer. I do manage to deadhead and prune and that helps. So I'll take the short bloom time and their claims with a grain of salt. And look for how they can handle heat and humidity and no cooling down at night. California natives hate the southeast climate. There should be a new way to 'zone' plants based on tolerance of various factors. It is helpful to have the internet to look up plants and photos before believing the claims of catalogs. I appreciate people who blog and all of you here too, to report how the plants really fare compared to the claims in catalogs.

the original Heucheras and earlier hybrids like 'Pewter Veil' were tough perennial plants. The new ones seem like annuals for a lot of people who aren't in maritime climates.

However, a number of the new heucheras have a villosa parent and are far more heat and humidity tolerant than those introductions between the oldest solid garden varieties and the ones that started flooding the US market about 8-10. Maybe my date ranges are off but the point is still the same.

Could you give us a couple examples of those? I'd like to try one in the garden.

Well one that I tried (and my favorite color foliage) is Heuchera 'Southern Comfort'. It's working great for now (trialing to see how over-wintering goes)...it was planted in July and doubled or tripled in size (so it withstood the heat and humidity).

My only surviving Heuchera of the fancy types is Georgia Peach. I tried at least a dozen of the pricey things, drawn to their colors like a silly addict and now, like a reformed addict I like an opportunity to rant about how bad they were. And indeed most were. I look at the fewer that I see in nurseries today with dislike at how artificial they seem.

Heuchera Georgia Peach. Photo taken in March so it looked pretty good considering that it was taken just coming out of winter in early March and before any spring growth started..

i recently received an advert from a nursery that is out of my driving range by a few hours. It does have lots of great plants. But I have to laugh at the prose used to describe almost all of them. Talk about over the top poetic language that is languished on every plant. Goodness! It must cost a fortune to pay someone to come up with prose like that. I've become too cynical to appreciate it.

at a nursery event in Switzerland 3 years ago they presented all sorts of chique Heuchera (caramel, pink, red foliage, lemon green...) to be used in "throw-away" seasonal plantings

reading these comments about heucheras makes me feel better..I killed Key Lime Pie and Creme Brulee and wondered what I did wrong..now I know - nothing!

The Villosas I remember without thinking too hard are Caramel, Key Lime, Autumn Bride and Brownies. Excellent return. Caramel shrinks after 2 full seasons in the ground, but quickly put on good growth after division. At least none of these died the first year! I've heard good things about Sweet Tea. some others of those intense orange, red hued ones.

I don't remember if Green Spice is villosa but it returns and grows well.

Tony Advent has a good heuchera article on his Plants Delight website/catalogue.

Sweet Tea, Gunsmoke and Brass Lantern are the most relaible returners for me...but they are heucherellas and seem to possess some hybrid vigour lacking in straight heucheras (apart from the plain greens).

dbarron:

"it was planted in July and doubled or tripled in size (so it withstood the heat and humidity)."

But to me that sounds more like the growth you'd expect out of an annual. Most very long-lived perennials do not size up quickly, especially in their first year.

echolane - it's hilarious to know many of them are behaving as annuals even in your incredibly benign climate (provided water is always available...!) where you can grow and flower freakin' Aloe polyphylla! The breeders really outdid themselves with 'de-perennializing' a genus!

camp & marie: thanks for the recommendations...although the overlap, for example, of 'Key Lime' makes it look like it could survive in Marie's garden but not in nichol's.

Google, for some odd reason, is popping this in as an advertisement when you search for certain Heuchera cultivars. https://www.mtcubacenter.org/trials/heuchera‎/

linaria, that's really interesting about Switzerland. Sounds like they're being honest about the whole thing. I hate planting advertised perennials as annuals because they are EXPENSIVE!!! I gravitate towards the cheap and easy six-packs. Until all four kids are grown and gone I can't spend that kind of money each year, especially considering how short our growing season is.

Heuchera, hmmm, most do well in my zone 5 garden. Magnum are from magnum but survive. Fall plantings have failed here, most need periods of dry to thrive here. I added Paris this spring, it did bloom all summer, will see what next season brings. Green Spice and Autumn Bride are a couple of favorites.

Daylily color depends greatly on the soil and air temperature. Here in the Midwest there are few cultivars that are a vibrant purple. Grow the same plant in the northeast and the purple is glorious. Pink daylilies can very from mauve to peachy depending on where you grow. Amending the soil doesn't change the color. I've learned to enjoy them the way they are where I live. I think everyone at some time has been tempted by those photoshopped pictures. Like earlier posts, I do research before I buy!

Sherry

I have to admit I am more than a little surprised at the difficulty reported in growing heucheras in other parts of the country. I have never found any of them to be overly short-lived and I have had heuchs grow on for years with little to no attention.

About the only thing that limits their growth here is the occasional outbreak of rust and the even more infrequent attack by root weevils. Even the slugs and deer don't seem to bother with them!!

But then, I couldn't get a hybrid echinacea to overwinter here on a bet, so I guess it all evens out :-))

Have you tried the trailing heucheras GG? My priority is to cover the vacant soil so will be trialling heucherella Redstone Falls this year. For those experiencing some difficullty with heucheras, I definitely recommend giving heucherellas (and tiarellas if you have the moisture) a go. They have been by far the most reliable for me with Sweet Tea practically an immortal.

My nursery grows them - I don't care for them. And not all that wild about heucherellas, either. 'Stoplight' is about the only one I care for.

I just like heuchs - hybrids or species :-))

I killed Sweet Tea (in a single season) in s prior location, however I do have a tiarella that's going strong now in my new best spot for heuchera (lol).

It's a struggle to get the smaller heucheras to perform well here in middle TN. But possible. I am constantly trying to improve soil conditions for them.

The villosas are much easier. Citronelle is almost indestructible. Autumn Bride gets bigger every year. And Brownies reseeds everywhere.

And...to continue the Heuchera discussion, have you seen one of this year's new introductions? Will it match the hype?!

Wild Rose Coral Bells

Looks a lot like Forever Purple which I have. But I want it anyway.

Campanula, don't know how I missed your post. I checked out Redstone Falls. An absolute must-have! Will definitely be trying it this year. Thanks!

Didn't know there was such a thing as 'trailing'.

Ordered Redstone Falls at Santa Rosa a little while ago. Only 10.00! Scheduled for delivery in April. Yippee!