Spring Meadow Nursery introduces new varieties for 2021

Spring Meadow Nursery introduced 27 new Proven Winners ColorChoice shrub varieties as part of the virtual MANTS trade show that took place in January.

New varieties include heat-tolerant selections, CHICKLET Orange Tecoma, two new Lagerstroemia colors, CENTER STAGE Pink and CENTER STAGE Coral. Improving on existing cultivars, Dark Lavender CHIFFON Hibiscus is an improved sport of Lavender CHIFFON with richer, darker lavender flower color and replaces the older version. Two improved Weigela include VERY FINE WINE Weigela, which maintains the superior hardiness of FINE WINE Weigela but with darker foliage and better flowering, and  MIDNIGHT WINE SHINE, an improved selection MIDNIGHT WINE, with darker, extremely glossy foliage with excellent hardiness. While its flowers are a bit better than Midnight Wine, the plant is grown for its attractive foliage and habit, making it a suitable replacement for Berberis in places where it's banned.

New colors that expand existing series are also a hallmark of this year's Spring Meadow introductions. The PERFECTO MUNDO series of reblooming, lacebug resistant azalea adds four colors to the line — Double Dark Pink, Double White, Orange, and Red. PUGSTER PINKER is a bright, new color that has been added to the dwarf Buddleia series. It replaces the original PUGSTER PINK but contains the same large blooms on a compact, tidy plant, but with deeper, richer color.

Spring Meadow has introduced five new cultivars for growers in 2021. Adding to their INVINCIBELLE line of pink H. arborescens is INVINCIBELLE LACE is the first-ever smooth hydrangea with plum-purple lacy florets and wiry stems of a dark ruby hue.

The Proven Winners ColorChoice brand has also added a bigleaf hydrangea, LET'S DANCE ¡ARRIBA! , a hybrid between H. macrophylla x H. serrata with large, dense mophead flowers. The flower color ranges from hot pink to purple to blue depending upon soil pH, phosphorus and aluminum levels.

FAIRYTRAIL BRIDE is a new class of cascading hydrangea. Long stems draped in white lace, with a bouquet of florets at every leaf node, yields a dramatic display. It also creates new uses for all kinds of spaces, such as hanging baskets and cascading containers and spilling over rocks and wall spaces. An introduction from Ushio Sakazaki.

The line of panicle hydrangeas is expanding with three new cultivars. FIRE LIGHT TIDBIT is a dwarf hydrangea similar in size to the popular H. Paniculata, BOBO. Appropriately sized for the front of the border, this hydrangea has a bun-shaped habit and large, rounded late-season blooms that emerge creamy, light green-white and quickly begin to turn raspberry pink. QUICK FIRE FAB is an early blooming hydrangea large, football-sized and shaped blooms of densely-packed cruciform flowers in a creamy green color with watermelon hues that appear at the base of the bloom and work their way up toward the tip. LIMELIGHT PRIME is an improved, more refined version of its namesake, ‘Limelight’, but with darker leaves, stronger stems, a more compact habit, and strong, upright growth. The blooms emerge a vivid lime-green and maintain that color until they transition into bubble gum pink and then a deep punch pink.

Finally, unlike other climbing hydrangeas, which can take a while to mature and produce flowers, FLIRTY GIRL Schizophragma hydrangeoides produces beautiful flowering two or three-gallon containers with loads of lightly fragrant white blooms.

The brand has also added several conifers for the upcoming season, with AQUAVITA an aqua-blue pyramidal Juniperus, CHEER DROPS a fresh green, dense Thuja with a teardrop habit, and two Chamaecyparis with very differing foliage; the cheerful gold foliage of PINPOINT GOLD, and the thread leaf-texture of HAYWIRE.

A brochure with images and descriptions of the complete line of new varieties can be downloaded here.

For information on all the new Proven Winners ColorChoice shrubs available for this year, visit SpringMeadowNursery.com.