Dayton "Dirt" - August 12, 2011

Mid-August is the time to finish ordering our perennial “starts” for planting next spring.

It’s amazing how every year more and more new varieties are available from the grower and breeders of this product. The breeder of plants are sometimes quite an odd bunch as they cross and recross plant varieties to come up with something novel.

I remember some years ago watching a National Geographic documentary on tulips and the story of the boom and then bust of the tulip bulb market in the Netherlands with a continuing story about the long quest for the elusive black tulip.

The breeder accomplished this feat of the black tulip and held a news conference to announce his creation. All the while, I’m thinking why anyone would want a black tulip as the flower would not be very showy and difficult to see from a distance!

Plant “finds” come from all over the world and must be tested before marketing as to whether the new plant will do well when exposed to factors such as local climate and soil conditions. For example, plants that are rated for our climatic zone 5 may very well tolerate our cold winters but may not do well in our hot, humid summers.

I remember talking to a young woman in a garden center in France about the French climate just southwest of Paris. Even though my French was rusty, I was able to communicate that I was jealous since normally that area of the country does not get nearly as cold as Ohio in winter and not nearly as hot in the summer. She just laughed but agreed that most of France is fortunate to have such agreeable weather with much of it due to the Gulf Stream current from North America!

Don’t worry, they’ll be plenty of new stuff for 2012.

Tom