Arie von Spronsen, propagation manager at Connon Nurseries, told us ( Mississauga Master Gardeners) that perennial propagation was four weeks behind schedule this year. It explains the sparse perennial benches at many garden centres!

Connon Nurseries are known for propagating beyond the usual rudbeckias and coreopsis. I didn’t have the time to investigate every perennials, but here is a sample of perennials that caught my eye.

Blue False Indigo

Blue false indigo, Bapistia australis, was the first plant that caught my eye in Connon Nurseries’ demonstration garden. The lush bluish-green foliage on 4-ft bamboo-like stalks and deep blue pea-like flowers gives this shrub-like perennial a deceptively tropical look. But appearances are deceptive. Not only is blue false indigo native to central and eastern North America, it is also hardy to zone 3! In 2010 blue false indigo was named Perennial of the Year.

I first came across this 4 ft mounding shrub-like perennial in Jodi DeLong’s book, Plants for Atlantic Gardens. Handsome and Hard-working Shrubs, Trees and Perennials. Don’t feel bad if you haven’t seen it before. Jodi says that blue false indigo is “an excellent and often underutilized perennial.”

Hardy Gloxinia 

I immediately fell in love with foliage of Incarvillea delavayi ‘Alba’ … deep green, glossy and deeply divided. It looks a bit like a tamer foliage version of Acanthus spinosus. Your usual garden variety gloxinia has pink flowers; this variety has glowing white trumpets. Again … another tropical looking plant with hardiness to Zone 5. But to overwinter, you do need to mulch “hardy gloxinia” in Zones 5 and 6.

Dicentra ‘Fire Island’

Truly unusual and breathtaking was Dicentra ‘Fire Island’ with its delicate grey foliage topped with the ethereal pink flowers. I did a little digging on the internet and discovered that ‘Fire Island’ was recently developed and released by Japanese breeder Akira Shiozaki. Akira crossed one of his small blue-grey leaved cultivars Dicentra pergrina ‘Hien’ — developed from the species native to Eastern Siberia and China — with Dicentra exima. For details on the grey-leaf dicentra breeding story, drop by Graham Rice’s blog.