Athens Select‚Ñ¢ and Southern Living‚Ñ¢ Launch Five 2010 Varieties

Gardeners in warm and humid southern climates can use the 2010 Southern Living™ Plant Collection as a source for first-class southern landscaping plants. According to Allan Armitage, horticulture professor at the U. of GA (Athens) and Athens Select™ founder in a recent news release from Athens Select™, “These hot new introductions are sure to be best sellers. They’ll heat up any garden with their spectacular color and exceptional heat and humidity tolerance.”

The 2010 Southern Living™ Plant Collection

All of the five cultivars in the 2010 Southern Living™ Plant Collection are outstanding in containers, window boxes, landscape beds, and mixed landscape plantings. These cultivars are:

• Verbena ‘Princess Blush,’
• Verbena ‘Princess Dark Lavender,’
• Mandevilla Vogue® ‘Vivian’ PPAF,
• Mandevilla Vogue® ‘Sophia’ PPAF, and
• Pentas lanceolata ‘Stars and Stripes.’

Growing Conditions

These plants all require full sun. Verbena and Pentas require acid, moist, well-drained, humus-rich soil kept on the dry side of moist. Mandevilla also prefers the same type soil; however, these plants need to dry out between waterings.

Good media choices for growing these plants in containers and window boxes are commercial soil mixes like:

• Miracle-Gro® Moisture Control® Potting Mix, and
• Miracle-Gro® Potting Mix.

Options with merit for blending with native soil in a 50:50 ratio in small areas, or for amending beds by applying a 3-inch layer and then working this into the top 6 inches of native soil are:

• Miracle-Gro® Moisture Control™ Garden Soil, and
• Miracle-Gro® Garden Soil for Flowers & Vegetables.

In the greater part of the southern growing zones, gardeners can best utilize these five cultivars as annual flowering plants rather than perennials. Verbena ‘Princess Blush’ and ‘Princess Dark Lavender’ are hardy only as far north as USDA Zones 8 to 11 – Tifton, GA; Dallas, TX; Austin, TX; and Gainesville, FL. Mandevilla Vogue® ‘Vivian’ PPAF, Mandevilla Vogue® ‘Sophia’ PPAF and Pentas lanceolata ‘Stars and Stripes’ are hardy to USDA Zones 9 to11 – Houston, TX; St. Augustine, FL, Brownsville, TX; and Fort Pierce, FL.

2010 Southern Living™ Collection Plant Characteristics

• Verbena ‘Princess Blush’ delivers blush pink flowers that display centers with a tinge of deep pink.
• Verbena ‘Princess Dark Lavender’ delivers crowns of rich pale purple blooms that form masses of color.

Both of these cultivars bloom from spring until fall on plants that produce outstanding green-leaved mounds 4 to 6 inches high and of an equal spread.

• Mandevilla Vogue® ‘Sophia’ PPAF features luminous and vivid red blooms that contrast pleasingly with glossy green foliage.
• Mandevilla Vogue® ‘Vivian’ PPAF produces plentiful attractive pink flowers above solid green leaves.

Both of these cultivars bloom from spring until fall on bushy plants that produce 18-to 24-inch high mounds that are of an equal spread. This habit is atypical of the usual high vine-like tendency of most Mandevilla plants.

• Pentas lanceolata ‘Stars and Stripes’ blooms from spring until fall with plentiful clusters of scarlet flowers with pink centers that attract hummingbirds. Lush dark green and white variegated-foliage mounds are 12 to 24 inches high and of an equal spread. These make great patriotic plantings for Memorial Day and Independence Day.

History of Athens Select™ and the Southern Living™ Plant Collection

Although the Athens Select™ program for commercial plant introduction began in 1999, the Southern Living™ Plant Collection first offered plants that help solve southern landscape challenges in spring 2008. In spring 2009, the Collection provided landscape gardeners with six flowering plants specifically suited to southern U. S. garden landscapes.