Amazing new plants for 2021

Vigour and repeat flowering are key benefits, says Peter

- Peter Seabrook

THE new-season catalogues are arriving like falling leaves, but with fewer press-briefing open days on trial grounds and no trade shows, checking out the listed new plant arrivals is not so easy this year. Fortunately, we have been able to grow many of these novelties in the Floral Fantasia area at RHS Garden Hyde Hall in Essex, and even now some are still flowering.

A number of these modern introductions have remarkable vigour that allows repeat flowering for many months. Nepeta ‘Purrsian Blue’ is an excellent example, with a neat semi-global habit. It provides lovely blue colour from May to Christmas if trimmed over after every flush of flowers.

‘Purrsian Blue’ makes the purrfect(!) border edging, and we are going to use it as a formal rose-bed edging. Two more under trial are nepeta ‘Kitten Around’, an even more compact form, and the slightly larger flowering ‘Whispurring Blue’.