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New perennials to delight gardeners

Every spring, gardeners head back to their local garden centers anxious to discover new perennials to add to their gardens. Here is just a sampling of the new perennials I will be searching for this season.

I never met a Baptisia australis I didn't love. Commonly called false blue indigo, their stems look a little like asparagus as they rise from the soil in spring. Pretty, lupine-like flowers in late spring become black seed pods that rattle in late summer breezes. Their roots reach deep into the earth, giving plants excellent drought tolerance.

This year, I will be scouring garden center benches for Baptisia Decadence Dutch Chocolate. Spikes of decadent chocolaty purple flowers bloom on 3-foot stems from late spring to early summer. I imagine it planted in the middle of the border with an ornamental grass like Panicum virgatum Northwind positioned behind and the fine-textured, yellow-flowering Coreopsis verticillata Zagreb at its feet.

Not typically a gardener who jumps on the red bandwagon, Dianthus Rockin' Red has me searching my sunny rock garden for a space large enough to squeeze in this foot-wide blast of color. Its glowing red, lacy flowers begin blooming in spring and keep on blooming well into fall. Dianthus Rockin' Red grows 18 to 24 inches tall.

Coneflowers always seem to be popular with hybridizers and 2018 offers a host of new members to the coneflower family. I think my favorite is Echinacea Sombrero Granada Gold. It boasts flowers with prominent golden cones surrounded by golden-yellow petals from July to September.

This compact coneflower grows just 18 inches tall and 24 inches wide, perfect for the front of the perennial border partnered with the violet-blue flower spikes of Salvia East Friesland. Butterflies and bees love their blooms in summer. Leave the seed heads standing and the birds will enjoy their seeds in winter.

I was smitten by Purrsian Blue catmint as it grew in containers on my sun-drenched deck last summer so I can't wait to try Nepeta Cat's Pajamas this year. Heat- and drought-tolerant, its indigo-blue flowers bloom from late spring to mid summer and makes an encore performance from late summer to fall if it is sheared back after the first show.

I am going to plant a few of these dwarf catmints beside a grouping of Kim's Knee High coneflowers.

There are a couple of new ornamental grasses that have made their way toward the top of my wish list — Miscanthus sinensis Bandwidth and Panicum virgatum Prairie Winds Totem Pole.

Bandwidth is smaller than other Japanese silver grasses — just 30 inches tall and 18 inches wide. It sports broad and bright, horizontal, gold stripes across rich green leaf blades. It is drought-tolerant and rarely bothered by rust. Bandwidth is sterile so seedlings will not pop up throughout the garden.

Miscanthus sinensis Bandwidth would be beautiful planted in the garden with asters, black-eyed Susan and sedum or in a container with red zinnias, coleus and yellow lantana.

Totem Pole switch grass grows 6 feet tall but just 30 inches wide, standing straight-as-a-soldier in the garden. Clouds of golden seed panicles glow in fall sunsets.

Choose Panicum virgatum Prairie Winds Totem Pole to screen undesirable views or as a vertical accent in the landscape. Gardeners planting in narrow spaces will love this switch grass.

• Diana Stoll is a horticulturist, garden writer and speaker. She blogs at gardenwithdiana.com.

Totem Pole switch grass grows tall but narrow.
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