The early, long-lasting, sometimes fragrant blooms of Helleborus foetidus are a welcome sight in late winter to early spring. PHOTO © DAVIS LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, LONDON, UK

Seeing green BY ELIZABETH PETERSEN

“It’s not easy being green,” Kermit the Frog famously lamented. And it’s true: green flowers go against our intuition. We simply don’t expect flowers to be green. We’re accustomed to verdant landscapes of leaves and needles on trees and shrubs, of lush green ground covers and leafy perennials. But green flowers? Not so much. Flowers typically add drama in shades of red, blue or purple, even yellow or white. Green flowers catch us off guard.

DIGGERMAGAZINE.COM APRIL 2016 21 Seeing green The flowers of Viburnum ‘Snowball’ ripen from lime green in early spring, as seen below, to a creamy white through much of summer. PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVERMFARM.WORDPRESS.COM

Lately however, the shock of green flowers has softened for some people. There’s growing appreciation for the excitement and entertainment value that green flowers bring to bear.

Green gets noticed Green flowers offer designers and gardeners a bold, new look. In a mixed floral bouquet, a single green spider mum brightens all the other flower colors, while a cluster of chartreuse button mums lends a splash of panache. One mum was even named after the Muppet (Green Kermit Chrysanthemum), proving that green can indeed be great. Bill Calkins, product marketing man- ager for Ball Seed Company, sees great potential for such green flowers. “A green flower on a green stem with green foliage creates a fantastic mono-

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22 APRIL 2016 DIGGERMAGAZINE.COM ADVANCED WATERING WITH THE 710A SERIES BATTERY OPERATED CONTROLLERS SimpleSmart™ historical ET that automatically adjusts run times as seasons change. • Four programs with 5 start times per day • Monthly seasonal adjustment from 5% to 200% per each valve chromatic look, a popular design trend in home décor,” he said. • Use 2 AA batteries for up to 3 years In the garden, “green or chartreuse- • Rain sensor connection colored plants can be a great way to lighten • Rain delay up to 99 days with auto-restart up the shade, as they capture dappled sun- light and give off their own illumination,” Calkins said. “Mass plantings of green flowers are powerful,” he said, “but so are plantings in smaller areas or containers.” In color theory, green is directly relat- ed to nature, so it is often used to promote environmentally-friendly products. Dark green is commonly associated with money. “We are fascinated by colors. We identify with colors. We give colors per- sonalities, status and value,” Calkins said. “Recent color breakthroughs in traditional Call 1.800.322.9146 plants like zinnia and petunia can grab today for a catalog attention with fresh new looks. And noth- www.digcorp.com ing builds excitement and energy in your garden more than something cool to show off to your neighbors and visitors!” Grace Dinsdale, owner of Blooming Nursery in Cornelius, Oregon, agreed. “People love the new green flowers,” said Dinsdale, whose wholesale nursery has grown perennials and annuals for 34 years. “When I started in the business, nobody wanted green flowers,” she said. “Now customers are much more sophisti- cated and they get excited about the way the greens soften and blend with stronger colors, especially blue and purple. There is a lot of demand.” Jennifer Williams, a merchandizer at Dennis’ 7 Dees Garden Centers in the Portland metro area, is a big fan of green flowers too. “Customers are looking for plants that produce a big impact,” she said, and “green flowers create a simpler, unique color palette that offers a fresh, clean look.”

Planting an emerald landscape As the calendar turns throughout the year, perennials, annuals and shrubs offer all sorts of options for accenting with green flowers. In the gray days of late winter, many varieties of Helleborus produce nodding flowers that cheer up the shady corners

DIGGERMAGAZINE.COM APRIL 2016 23 Fifty shades of … green? Absolutely. Mass plantings of monochromatic flowers can have a striking effect, as in this container with Nicotiana alata ‘Lime Green’ as its centerpiece. PHOTO COURTESY OF DEBORAH SILVER & CO.

24 APRIL 2016 DIGGERMAGAZINE.COM Seeing green Stronger than ever

• Potting machines • Substrate handling • Robot systems • Transport systems • Tray automation of the garden. Some hellebores produce completely green flowers, like H. foetidus, H. argutifolius ‘Silver Lace’ and the H. × sternii ‘Blackthorn’ strain, while others 770-428-4491 boast green accents. H. lividus cultivars [email protected] • www.javousa.net such as ‘Pink Marble’, for instance, develop creamy green flowers with a pink blush that mature to sage green. Green plays an important role for most hellebores as they age, said Chris MacLaggan, sales manager for Skagit Gardens, which offers a large assortment of hellebores. “Spent hellebore sepals do not fall as flower petals typically do. Rather, most finish their bloom with a beautiful, long-lasting green calyx that can persist • Custom Blending sometimes for months.” Dinsdale recommended the merits of • Dry Fertilizers ‘Green Lace’ primula for the early spring • Liquid Fertilizers garden. Flowers start early and stay attrac- • Organic Amendments tive for a long period of time. Even when • Fertilization Programs the green petals drop, Dinsdale said, the • Pest Management show goes on, since the bracts are green too. • Testing & Analysis When rhododendrons and other spring • Equipment Painting flowers start to strut their stuff, late-flower- • Seed Cleaning ing green tulip flowers continue to astonish • Sand Blasting the unsuspecting observer. And in summer, • Animal Feed all sorts of vivid green flowers can provide • Lime and Dolomite counterpoint to the riots of hot-colored flowers that spill from baskets and beds. Application Dinsdale likes plants with great Our team has the knowledge growth habits such as Echinacea ‘Green and experience to assist you Jewel’ with its wonderful sturdy habit and in making sound decisions. brilliant flowers. Williams recommended ‘Green Jewel’ too: besides having light Farm Store green ray petals around a large green cone, 20160 Main Street, St. Paul, Oregon this beauty is fragrant. KEEP 503-633-4281 • 1-888-814-5727 The combination of purple and lime Home of the St. Paul Rodeo green in Echinacea ‘Green Envy’ produces a “dramatic, splashy effect that really CALM Main Office pops,” according to Dinsdale. 7746 St. Paul HWY, St. Paul, Oregon ‘Lanai Lime Green’, a very popular AND 503-678-5932 • 1-800-648-2718 verbena grown by Blooming, blends well www.marionag.com with and softens strong pink, purple and blue flowers. Alchemilla mollis, commonly known STAY as lady’s mantle, softens everything with its green flowers, and modestly self-seeds around the garden. A. alpina, an evergreen Marion Ag Service is proud to partner ™ ground cover that is about a third the size GREEN with Harrell’s, LLC to bring you Polyon controlled release fertilizer of A. mollis, sports delicate silver-edged leaves and the familiar green flowers.

DIGGERMAGAZINE.COM APRIL 2016 25 Seeing green In the summer months, Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ produces huge (8–12-inch) round heads of pale green to pure white blooms that remain attractive into fall and can be cut for fresh or dried arrangements. PHOTO COURTESY OF MONROVIA / FHF GREEN MEDIA

Nicotiana langsdorffii produces exotic, drooping sprays of apple green bells on stems up to 5 feet tall, Dinsdale said. A smaller version with an old-fashioned look, N. alata ‘Lime Green’, stays under 3 feet. Williams likes Zinnia ‘Envy’, which produces the best chartreuse coloration in part shade to full sun. Rudbeckia ‘Green Wizard’ also appeals to Williams. Without a ring of petals, the dark cone and long, thin green sepals are the stars of this striking flower. Kniphofia ‘Percy’s Pride’ earns high marks for being “striking, fabulous and robust,” Dinsdale said. Breeders have piqued the interest of petunia lovers by adding lively chartreuse edges to a number of bright pink or purple flowers such as Pretty Much Picasso® and Moonlight Eclipse®. When it comes to shrubs, Williams

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• Shipping Materials - Stickers, shelves and pallets made to your specs, pallet repair boards, shipping gates, tilt sticks, used pallets • Packing Supplies - Shrink wrap, banding • Planting Stakes - Multiple sizes available picks Viburnum ‘Snowball’ as a good option • Treated Lumber for green flowers: blooms, which start as a - Multiple sizes available luscious green early in the season, mature to white and make a wonderful cut flower. 503-434-5525 When the heat of summer makes 1726 SW Highway 18, McMinnville, OR 97218 • www.dstakemill.com 6152 other flowers fade and sag, the huge, ele- gant, celadon green flowers of Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’ and its smaller self ‘Little Lime’ manage a fresh, clean glow despite the heat. Williams also likes the versatility of Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’, with flowers that are green early and late in the season, when the day length is shorter. Green lacecap flowers make a beautiful bouquet. We keep your ‘Pistachio’ (Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Horwack’) creates a sensation with mop- head blooms and petals of dazzling lime green accented with rich, deep pink and business purple eyes.

Greens are hard to get The transition from florist flower to moving. garden plant is not always an easy one, though, Dinsdale said. Take Dianthus ‘Green Ball’, for exam- ple. Its one-of-a kind, vibrant green, globe- shaped, highly textured flowers stand out. Uses for it and other green flower cultivars are only limited by imagination and the willingness to try something new. Availability, however, can be an issue. At Dennis’ 7 Dees Garden Centers last year, Jennifer Williams included ‘Green Ball’ in her recipe for mixed annual hayrack gar- dens that decorated fences at each site, and customers were delighted by the unusual splashes of green in the displays. ‘Green Ball’ put on a great, long- lasting show, blooming continuously from Transportation Brokers May through September and functioning as “filler” and “spiller” in the hayrack gardens, the long-stemmed blooms winding Intermodal | Refrigerated | Van | Flatbed their way among other foliage and flower plants. The color inserted a distinctive “thriller” into the compositions, too. 503-641-8828 Unfortunately, though, Williams has had trouble sourcing these high-interest 800-333-4434 plants because few growers are producing P.O. Box 91220, Portland, OR 97291 them. Williams’s message to growers: pacwesttransport.com “We can’t keep doing the same thing every year. We need new choices to

DIGGERMAGAZINE.COM APRIL 2016 27 Seeing green Echinacea ‘Green Jewel’ has large flowers (4–5 inches in diameter) featuring bright light green rays surrounding rounded, dark green center cones. PHOTO COURTESY OF WILLOWHOUSECHRONICLES.WORDPRESS.COM

spice up the options.” looking good in flats of small plants, even Still, for all Kermit’s lamenting If growers aren’t tuned into the inter- if they make great additions once they get about the difficulties of being green, the est and demand for green flowers with to the garden. verdurous flowers of the plant world are retail shoppers, such flowers won’t reach If plants are already known, people rising to the challenge and showing some the market. may be willing to buy them out of bloom, real gumption. What happens is that some plants Dinsdale said, but when a flower is new don’t lend themselves to being good and its growth gets rangy in the pot, they Elizabeth Petersen writes for the garden options for the retail market, Dinsdale don’t sell. These factors make the differ- industry and teaches SAT/ACT test prep explained. Shoppers want plants to be ence between whether or not growers opt at www.satpreppdx.com. She can be in bloom when they buy them, but some to invest in growing them for the garden- reached at [email protected] or plants have growth habits that don’t stay ing public. [email protected].

28 APRIL 2016 DIGGERMAGAZINE.COM