The garden merit of any perennial is earned over time. That's why Blooms of Bressingham trials new plants for years with leading growers, universities and botanical gardens throughout North America. Check out these varieties that are proving their garden worthiness.

                    

Penstemon xmexicali 'Sweet Joanne' and 'Prairie Twilight' come from the University of Nebraska. Both are pretty, long blooming and bred for hardiness. 'Sweet Joanne' is particularly pest and disease resistant, too.  

 

'Prairie Twilight' is a top performer at Colorado State University, where it showed off an impressive display of flowers, even while growing in a low-water area. Other top picks at CSU include Euphorbia 'Bonfire' and Echinacea 'Mistral'. 'Bonfire's' fiery colors persisted summer into fall and it proved to be reliably hardy as opposed to others in their trials. 'Mistral', a compact sport of popular 'Kim's Knee High', showed very uniform growth and flowering with long-lasting blooms (pictured above).

 

'Bonfire' was a top pick at the Alberta Perennial Trials in Canada, too, along with Helenium Mardi Gras.

 

Richard Hawke, plant evaluation manager for the Chicago Botanic Garden, raves about Achillea Tutti Frutti varieties 'Pomegranate', for its "fantastic red color and bushy habit with stems that really do stand up and don't flop over," and 'Pink Grapefruit', which has an amazing number of vivid lavender pink blooms. They don't "melt down" in heat and humidity, as confirmed in trials at the Dallas Arboretum in Texas.

 

Complete listing of trial site locations can be found on our Blooms of Bressingham website.