The Chelsea Flower Show 2015 has announced the new plant releases that will be at the show: stunning new iris; a swag of roses; a bright white lavender; pretty primula; speckled Streptocarpus; luscious clematis; and a deep purple lupin.
A selection of Chelsea Flower Show releases that have caught GardenDrum’s eye:
Rosa ‘Kelmscott’ from David Austin Roses is a large shrub rose with rich pink flowers and a strong myrrh fragrance that blooms from early summer right through to the first frosts.
Harkness Roses has Rosa ‘Susie’, a new yellow-gold climbing patio rose with a distinct citronella perfume. The golden flowers contrast well against very glossy dark green foliage. A good climbing rose for pots and small spaces.
Most white lavenders are a soft, milky white but the new white English lavender from Downderry Nursery, Lavandula angustifolia ‘Purity’ has been bred for its stronger, brighter white colour. It grows to a neat 40cm x 40cm mound and flowers in mid-summer.
If your a primula fan, you’ll like Kevock Garden Plants new hybrid Primula × anisodoxa ‘Kevock Surprise’. Combining the deep red of Primula wilsonii and yellow of Primula prolifera, the new primula produces a surprising range of different tones of salmon-pink flowers with deep red through to pale peach flowers on the one plant.
Thorncroft Clematis is showing Clematis ‘Innocent Glance’, featuring large double rosy-pink flowers on old wood, and single flowers on the newer wood. Flowers from late spring to mid-summer.
Streptocarpus ‘Polka-Dot Purple’ from Dibleys Nurseries has unusually speckled and striped white and deep purple flowers.
Cayeux Iris is showing Iris ‘Prince Eugène’ (see pic above), a combination of white standards, and beige-white falls with a wide border of vivid raspberry red, and also Iris ‘Cigarillo’, a slightly roasted, copper-honeyed tone with orange beards and generous branching habit producing up to 10 flowers per stem.