Are you looking for something new and exciting in your garden this year?

Here are a few new varieties that are a must-have for your garden.

Bubbly Wine weigela (Weigela florida ‘Bubbly Wine’)

You are going to love Bubbly Wine weigela. There is just so much colorful detail packed into each leaf.

Its bright yellow and green variegation make the perfect statement for the front of the border as edging or as a low hedge.

A sprinkle of pale orchid, trumpet-shaped blooms arrive in the late spring complementing the burgundy stems, drawing our eyes to them. 

It’s slow-growing, compact habit makes it an easy-care plant. Its flowers attract bees and butterflies as well as hummingbirds.

Bubbly Wine grows best in a light shade to full sun location. It works great in a shrub border, planted in groupings and in containers.

Its flowers are best pruned immediately after flowering. Growing only 18 to 30 inches high and wide, they can add colour to any sized garden.

Pinky Winky Prime panicle hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata ‘ILVOHPPRM’)

Can there possibly be room for another new cultivar of hydrangea? Sure, why not? 

Pinky Winky Prime in an improved cultivar of … you guessed it, Pinky Winky. 

It is a panicle-type hydrangea with large cone-like clusters of flowers. Pinky Winky Prime has truly massive clusters of white blooms that set it apart from other recent introductions. 

The lower florets start to age to a deep dusty-rose pink colour leaving the tip of the panicles with white florets, giving it a unique look. 

While other plants are going smaller, they have gone big with Pinky Winky Prime hydrangea. It grows to be six to eight feet in height and width.  

It’s the perfect size for use as a specimen or a hedge, and with its incredible colour show, it’ll be the talk of the town.

Scentara Double Blue lilac (Syringa hyacinthiflora ‘Scentara Double Blue’)

Tie your shoes tight — the fragrance of this lilac will knock your socks off!

The species of Syringa hyacinthiflora (hyacinth-like fragrance) is the queen of them all when it comes to fragrance and Scentara Double Blue the most fragrant lilac yet!

The cool purple blooms take on a blue tone in the spring sunshine, each one full of petals for a delicate, seashell-like effect.

This very heavy bloomer exhibits excellent disease resistance and a handsome, appealing shape that will look right at home in your landscape. 

Scentara Double Blue will grow to be eight to 10 feet high and wide and does best in full sun or a light shade.

Fizzy Mizzy sweetspire (Itea virginica ‘SMNIVMM’) 

Sweetspire is an adaptable and versatile native shrub that will grow in sun or shade and in regular or wet soils.

Their spikes are fragrant flowers are always a welcomed feature in mid to late spring. The cultivar Fizzy Mizzy adds a new look to these shrubs.

Unlike other sweetspire, whose blooms cascade downward, Fizzy Mizzy has flower spikes that stand upright in an exceptional and long-blooming display.

Fizzy Mizzy is a compact grower, standing two to three feet tall and wide and has thick, dark green leaves that show off the fragrant white blooms appearing in late spring and will put on a fall show turning shades of burgundy and red.

The blooms attract pollinators to the garden, but deer find them unappealing!

Fizzy Mizzy itea is one of the most shade tolerant of shrubs, though flowering and fall colour will be best with at least some sun. 

Joanne Young is a Niagara-on-the-Lake garden expert and coach. See her website at joanneyoung.ca

The Niagara-on-the-Lake Horticultural Society is pleased to be hosting a series of Saturday morning gardening classes, available to the public. They will be facilitated by Joanne Young starting on March 1 and they will run until May 31 at the NOTL Community Centre. Join us for the classes that interest you. For all the details and to pre-register for the classes visit notlhortsociety.com/classes.