Britain's Favourite Perennial varieties

A few days ago I discussed Britain’s Favourite Perennials, the best selling individual genera as evidenced by sales at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Plant Centre at Wisley in Surrey. And I compared the current list with the Top Ten from three years ago. Today, let’s do the same for individual varieties.

So this is the current Top Ten of individual perennials sold at the Wisley Plant Centre. There are far more comings and goings in the last three years than there were with individual genera:

10 Lithodora diffusa ‘Heavenly Blue' – Up quite a few places from three years ago, it’s been around for ever.
9 Geranium Rozanne (‘Gerwat’) – Number six three years ago, this superb plant for ground cover or containers has been overtaken by both new and old favourites.
8 Primula vialii – The triumph of hope over experience! So enticing in flower in the plant centre but difficult to keep going from year to year so people just go back and buy it again.
7 Heuchera ‘Peach Flambé’ - A new colour in heucheras, these vibrant colours are supplanting those in darker shades.
6 Scabiosa ‘Pink Mist’ – Increased interest in attracting butterflies has surely helped this pretty plant enter the Top Ten.
5 Verbena bonariensis – Amazingly topped the chart three years ago, now slipped but still essential to so many gardeners. A white form would take the country by storm. Anyone ever seen one?
4 Erysimum ‘Bowles Mauve’ – Slipped from number three, but its very long flower season and good foliage still create demand. Technically a shrub but so often, strangely, classified as a perennial.
3 Gaura lindheimeri Cherry Brandy (‘Gauchebra’) – Like a much improved version of the old favourite ‘Siskiyou Pink’. Three years ago there were three gauras in the top twenty, now there’s just this one in the top twenty five.
2 Heuchera ‘Georgia Peach’ – Unique colouring, looks great in a pot on the sales bench and in a pot on the patio.
1 Scabiosa ‘Butterfly Blue’ – introduced as long ago as 1985, missing from the Top Ten (and the Top Twenty) three years ago – and now back on top. In 2000, 'Butterfly Blue' was also voted Perennial Plant of the Year in the United States.

On the other hand, dropped out of the Top Ten over the last three years are:
Imperata cylindrica ‘Rubra’, formerly Number Two, which has now vanished from the top twenty five;
Primula vulgaris, the British native primrose, formerly number four but still in the top twenty;
Erigeron karvinskianus, number five three years ago and not now even in the top twenty five;
Helleborus Ashwood Garden Hybrids has also vanished from the top twenty five;
Delphinium ‘Blue Butterfly’, also gone from the top twenty five;
Heuchera ‘Plum Puddin’’, also gone from the top twenty five;
Gaura lindheimeri has also gone from the top twenty five, but been replaced by a cultivar.

Thank you again to Malcolm Berry, Head of Buying at the RHS Plant Centres at Wisley in Surrey, Rosemoor in Devon, Harlow Carr in Yorkshire and Hyde Hall in Essex, for getting these fascinating figures together for me.

Comments

[Victoria]

That's rather sad and strange about E. karvinskianus. It's one of my must-have plants, because it's so obliging. It's reasonably drought tolerant and self-seeds happily. Any theories as to why the popularity has plummeted?
Oddly, I have only one of those plants in my garden: Geranium 'Rozanne'. I'm not even that crazy about it, but I have to agree it is reliable and long-flowering. (I prefer 'Blue Sunrise'.)

[Graham Rice]

Yes, I agree, 'Blue Sunrise' is superb! I think people are beginnng to look up Erigeron karvinskianus as weedy.. I've heard a couple of peolpe say that.

[VP]

Interesting. I'd spotted last year that the gingery Heucheras seemed to be taking over in the fashion stakes, but on the whole they look rather awful in my garden when compared with the really dark ones like 'Obsidian' and 'Licorice'. The exception seems to be 'Peach Flambe', which has changed from ginger to the deepest red since I planted it out. I've noticed before that Heuchera colouring can be rather variable in the darker hued ones. I have 2 Licorice in mirror beds either side of a bay window and just that slight change of aspect has made them look like completely different plants after a couple of years.

[Jane Perrone]

I absolutely hate those peachy Heucheras, yet I love E. karvinskianus. I must also be the only gardener not to have tried V. bonariensis. Guess I am swimming against the flow (nothing new there ...)

[Graham Rice]

I think these peachy and pinky and fiery heucheras often look best as single specimens in pots - sited amongst appropriate neighbours and moved around if necessary - than in the border. And you're right, VP, the colouring does vary according to exposure to light and to wind as well.

And yes Jane, I have to say I don't quite see what all the fuss around V. bonariensis is about - now if there was a white form...

BTW 'Fire Chief' is the latest bright heuchera - http://tinyurl.com/FireChief

[VP]

I'm more of a 'Sugar Plum' girl having looked at your link. And yes, 'Peach Flambe' is posing most prettily in a pot.

Terra Nova nurseries must have been working overtime!

I treated myself to Dan Heims' book at Christmas and loved it.