New Viola (AAS Winner)
-
- January
- 14
Every year, the prestigious All-America Selections committee picks the best new plants for home gardeners. For 2008, the committee has chosen three winners: Eggplant ‘Hansel,’ Viola ‘Skippy XL Plum-Gold’ and Osteospermum ‘Asti White.’
‘Skippy XL Plum-Gold’ looks like a winner indeed — a golden face surrounded by a rich shade of plum and radiating black lines known as whiskers.
I like to grow violas and pansies in containers because it’s so much easier to deadhead them at eye level rather than stooping over ground-level planting beds. This new viola is said to be particularly good for combination planters.
The blooms are fairly small, about 1 and one-half inches wide, but this viola won the nod from the AAS committee because of its extremely floriferous habit. Mature violas should reach a height of 6 to 8 inches.
In the Hudson Valley, ‘Skippy XL Plum-Gold’ should begin to take off in early spring and go well into the heat of summer.
Look for ‘Skippy XL Plum-Gold’ at the better garden centers in spring or try growing them from seed from mail-order sources such as W. Atlee Burpee & Co. or Park Seed.
For a look at other All-America Selections winners, visit their Web site. The Web site also has a retail locater section.
This entry was posted
on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 2:27 pm by Bill Cary.
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Bill Cary grew up in Louisville, Ky. His gardening was limited to growing parsley and impatiens on the windowsill of Manhattan walkups until the mid-1990s when he bought a rundown old chicken farm on 8 acres in the Hudson Valley. Now he spends his weekends chasing deer, hacking away at invasive shrubs and vines and wondering why he doesn`t have more meadow and less lawn.
