Plant Trial Results - Fine Gardening

  • new heucheras
    Design

    Expert-Tested New Heucheras That Are Better Than the Classics

    Who remembers when ‘Palace Purple’ was one of the hottest perennials in the market? It was the heuchera I planted in my new garden 30 years ago. I liked its…

  • best native hydrangeas
    Design

    The Best Native Hydrangeas: Plant Trial Results

    Everyone loves hydrangeas, but nobody wants to see a year’s worth of blooms wiped out by a deep winter freeze or a badly timed pruning session. Fortunately, there are a…

  • bush clovers
    How-To

    Best of the Bush Clovers: Trial Plant Results

    By the time August rolls around, I’m looking for something new in the garden to pique my interest. I’m not quite ready for fall plants to take their turn, so…

  • the best petunias
    Design

    The Best Petunias: Trial Results from Southeast Universities

    My garden is not heavily planted with flowering annuals. I focus more on trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials. However, I can’t resist adding color to my containers and filling blank…

  • new burnets
    Design

    These New Burnets Deserve Your Attention

    These burnets are new on the scene, but they're already showing promise. ‘Blackthorn’ burnet Robust ‘Blackthorn’ burnet (S. ‘Blackthorn’) was one of the largest of all the burnets after just…

  • Oriental burnet
    Design

    Burnets Are Tough and Beautiful Plants

    I have no recollection of burnets—native or cultivated—before my back-to-back encounters with great burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis) in the South Korean countryside and on the grassy steppes of Siberia. The sight…

  • How-To

    The Ins and Outs of Molinia

    Naming issues Research at Kew Gardens in England established that the different foliar traits of Molinia caerulea ssp. caerulea and M. caerulea ssp. arundinacea are cultural rather than genetic, which…

  • Collection

    Plant Trial Results: The Best of the Best Plants for Every Garden

    One of the best parts of being a gardener is plant shopping. But the variety of options for any given plant can be overwhelming. Every year new cultivars come out,…

  • best persicarias
    Design

    Persicarias Deserve Your Love—Trial Results

    For many years, persicarias—also known as knotweeds—inhabited the periphery for me. I saw them but mostly looked past them, thinking of them as filler more than thriller. My first genuine…

  • Lady and Painted ferns side by side
    Design

    Lady and Painted Ferns—Trial Results

    If you’re like me, you find that plants come in and out of favor all the time. A few years ago, I was all over blue grama grass (Bouteloua gracilis,…