Snow Princess now 'blushing' with success
Three years ago Snow Princess lobularia shocked the gardening world with a dazzling performance through the long hot summer. It became a plant that left many horticulturists scratching their heads in disbelief. Now, after more than 130 awards, Snow Princess appears to be blushing with all of that success.
You know where I am headed right? In trials across the country there is the new Blushing Princess showing out with distinctive blushes of lavender, offering gardeners even more options whether in the landscape or designer mixed containers with petunias and verbenas.
The success of Snow Princess has not just led to the Proven Winners release of Blushing Princess but other companies are now introducing their own selections, many of which look impressive. Danzinger, a company from Israel, is introducing three new selections, White Stream, Summer Stream that has hints of golden yellow, and Lavender Stream.
If you are not familiar with these plants, they are like having a sweet alyssum that incredibly blooms all summer. The industry has chosen to refer to them as lobularia, which is probably good to help delineate these rugged performers from the ones we use as pansy partners.
In 2009 when Snow Princess made its debut everyone was skeptical that a lobularia could indeed survive a summer anywhere with torrid heat. At the time I was with Mississippi State University and we planted ours in raised beds that were rich and fertile and watered with a drip-type system. The beds were out in full sun with zero shade. To make matters even more challenging the beds were surrounded with rocks, which no doubt gave off even more heat during the day and into the night. They established quickly, filling out their allotted space and creating a blanket of snow flakes all summer.
As great as they are in the landscape, know that they are unmatched in containers. It will take your breath away to see a blanket of white that seems suspended in air. But they have the ability to work wonderfully in partnerships. One such partnership I recently saw was a mixed container featuring Bouquet Rose Magic dianthus, Becky Shasta Daisy and the hot new Blushing Princess. This was a dream of a mixed container featuring three award winning plants.
I saw containers where Blushing Princess was combined with Pink Caliente geraniums and another with burgundy leafed coleus. In each case it was the Blushing Princess that gave the finishing touch.
