Leesburg Flower and Garden Festival Feature Plants

Posted by on Apr 25, 2014 in News | Comments Off on Leesburg Flower and Garden Festival Feature Plants

Below are the plants featured in our Leesburg Flower and Garden Festival display.

Trees

  • Appalachian Red Redbud – This cultivar of our native Redbud has very bright pink flowers.  It grows well in a partially shaded to full sun location and will be a short, wide spreading flowering tree.  Gorgeous heart shaped leaves turn yellow in the fall.
  • Fern Leaf Maple – A slow, small growing Japanese Maple.  This tree will reach perhaps 10′ in height and spread and is a unique specimen accent tree.  In fall the foliage turns a bright crimson color. 
  • Holly Robin – One of the newer Red Holly cultivars.  Robin was bred for it’s uniformity of growth and ability to stay a more mangeable size than the Nellie Stevens Holly.
  • Red Maple – This is a native shade tree, growing well in sunny or partially shaded locations.  It grows very well in our climate and many cultivars have beautiful fall colors.  October Glory and Red Sunset are two of the most popular cultivars.

Shrubs

  • Boxwood – Dee Runk, Green Velvet – Dee Runk Boxwood grows in a narrow pyramidal habit.  It’s slow growth make it a great plant to use for creating some height in a foundation planting, where there is usually not room for a large, wide spreading evergreen.   The Green Velvet Boxwood maintains a uniform mound shaped habit and is slow growing.  It can be expected to reach 3′ x 3′ and then slow down in growth.  Also a very useful trait for use in foundation plantings.
  • Fothergilla – This shrub has unusual almond scented flowers in spring born on a nicely architecturally branched small shrub.  It grows slowly, but, can reach 4 – 6′ in height.  Fall color is very attractive on this shrub.
  • Juniper – Blue Star, Sargent – These are low growing Junipers, suitable for accent or ground cover plantings in sunny areas.  The Blue Star is slow growing and has silvery blue foliage.  It is used where a color accent is needed.  The Sargent Juniper grows faster and can be used as a groundcover.  This selection also is deer resistant.
  • Korenspice Viburnum – This shrub has attractive pom pom shaped flower clusters that are exceptionally fragrant.  The buds are a pretty red color which opens to white.  Overall look is of a shrub with very pale pink flowers.
  • Red Twig Dogwood Mid Winter Fire – A great plant for providing winter interest.  This cultivar features brilliant orange to red tipped branches which are most colorful in the winter months.  The coloration shows up especially well if they are planted with an evergreen backdrop.  These shrubs enjoy moist sites.  They have cream colored flowers in late spring and attractive foliage throughout the summer months.

Perennials

  • Ajuga Metallica Crispa – Great little groundcover for moist locations.  The foliage on this cultivar is fantastic.  It has beautiful dark glossy purple crinkled leaves.  The flowers appear in spring and are a brilliant lavender purple.
  • Astilbe Amber Moon – A new astilbe cultivar chosen for it’s interesting foliage.  The leaves are a light yellow color and have a dark red border around the edges.  The flowers will be rose-pink on tall blush red stems and appear in late spring.  Astilbe’s grow best in partially shaded, somewhat moist locations.
  • Bergenia – Bressingham Ruby, Dragonfly – Another shade loving perennial.  This plant has great foliage, which, is evergreen for us in milder winters.  It likes moist, well drained soils, somewhat hard to find in our area.  A beautiful accent, where it can be kept happy.  Great as a container accent.
  • Black Mondo Grass – This form of Mondo Grass seems to do best in shade and is somewhat slow growing.  The dark foliage is it’s ornamental attraction and looks exceptional when paired with other contrasting foliage or flower colors. 
  • Bleeding Heart – White, Pink – The Old Fashioned Bleeding Heart when established will reach 24 – 36″ tall and provide flowers for several months during the spring.  Once the heat of the summer arrives, the foliage usually dies down and the plant will remain dormant until next season.  Try pairing it with late emerging Hosta or planting shade loving annuals to fill in when the foliage dies down.
  • Candytuft Alexander’s White – An evergreen, low growing perennial liking sunny spots and tolerating drier soils.  Makes a nice border plant for formal garden areas and the flowers will last up to two months in the spring. 
  • Carex Evergold – Easy to grow and deer resistant !  This showy Carex is very popular – looks fantastic in containers also.  It stays in a nice clump about 12″ tall by 14 – 16″ wide.
  • Dwarf Mondo Grass – Very short, this selection creates a dwarf, grass like groundcover in partially shaded to shaded locations. 
  • Epimedium – Red, Royal Flush, Sulphurem – Epimediums are lovely groundcover plants for shaded locations.  Their foliage is very attractive during the growing season, deer do not seem to care for them and they are very drought tolerate once they become established.
  • Fern Autumn Brilliance – This fern will reach 24 – 30″ in height and has attractive orange red to bronze tinted new fronds.  The foliage remains green during most winters in our area.  Like most ferns, deer do not usually eat these.
  • Hellebores – Maestro, Merlin, Mahogany Snow – These cultivars are some of the newest members of the “Gold Collection Series”.  This series of Hellebore features plant selections with outward facing blossoms that flower earlier in the Winter.  The flower colors range from white, creams and pinks.  The flowers on some cultivars dry nicely and remain attractive on the plant for several months.
  • Hosta lancifolia – A nice edgeing Hosta with profuse lavender flowers in August and September. 
  • Juncus Unicorn – This Rush has interesting curled reeds.  It likes sunny, moist locations.
  • Pea Bush – (Thermopsis chinensis ‘Sophia’)  A very cheerful early flowering perennial for sunny, dry to average locations. 
  • Smooth Solomon’s Seal – A native Solomon’s Seal with beautifully arching foliage.  Graceful white bell like flowers dangle from the stems.  This Solomon’s Seal can get quite tall.  In a partially shaded, moist location it has been known to reach heights of 5 – 7′.
  • Viola Etain – Lovely pale yellow with a dark lavender border.  This perennial pansy will flower for a long time during the spring and early summer.  If kept moist, it will return to flower again in the fall.  It also has been known to winter over and flower again the following season.  It will also re-seed.
  • Virginia Bluebells –  This native spring ephemeral is particularly showy in early spring.  This plant prefers a partially shaded, moist location.  It starts emerging late winter to early spring and by mid April is usually in full flower.  The flowering period will last until the weather gets too hot.  Once that happens the plant’s quickly go dormant and disappear into the ground.  They will return again next year !

 

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