Georgia Gold Medal Plant Program

Vibrant variegated bright and dark purple foliage on this plant are highlighted with a metallic sheen and green rib. Persian Shield makes a stunning 18″-36″ mass planting and glows next to silver or chartreuse foliage. It fills a container well, handling heat, humidity and drought better than most annuals.

Wait until the soil is warm enough for tomatoes to plant Persian shield, unless you are in South or Coastal Georgia, where this plant can be a perennial. Pinch this plant back to get thicker, sturdier growth.

Suitable for bedding, containers, groundcover, hanging baskets. Larger flowers and more uniform growing habit than common periwinkle. Deer resistant and heat and humidity tolerant. Cora® Vinca was selected to grow around the Beijing Olympic Stadium in its hot and humid climate.

Compared to old-fashioned Cleome, Señorita Rosalita® and Señorita Blanca™ offer a bushier form, no spines, no seed pods, a tough constitution that can take hot summers, drought tolerance, and foliage that stays on the plant throughout the season. What has been kept are the charming, airy flowers on an upright plant that stands tall in a flower border.

Looking for an annual for a shady spot? Thirsty impatiens are not the only option. Torenia is a compact plant with pink, blue, lavender, white, yellow or bi-color flowers from spring until frost. The flowers look like small trumpets or individual snapdragon blooms. Inside each bloom are stamens that form a little ‘wishbone’ pattern, resulting in the common name. Torenia is also called clown flower because the colorful faces can be as expressive as pansies. The mounding plant matures at 6-12″ tall and a foot or more wide. No deadheading is needed on this self-cleaning annual.
Wishbone flower thrives in light to full shade. It is heat tolerant and can take a variety of soils, but they must be well-drained. The more heat or sun exposure, the more moisture Torenia needs – afternoon shade is a must.

Million Bells is a close relative of the petunia, with flowers that have the same form but that are smaller in diameter. These finely textured plants are perfect for the front of a border, container, or a rock garden and for blanketing space between immature or high branching shrubs. Two things are needed for abundant blooms: lots of sun and good drainage. Hanging baskets and containers work well, since wet feet will cause problems.

Blooms are available in bright and watercolor shades, including varieties with dark centers, bicolors, and even double blooms

Native black-eyed Susans are familiar, cheerful flowers, often seen in meadows, woodland edges and roadsides. Indian Summer, Denver Daisy,and Irish Eyes are three great cultivars of Rudbeckia to try. Indian Summer has the classic golden yellow petals around a brown center cone. Denver Daisy has two-toned petals creating a golden halo around a large chocolate-russet center. Irish Eyes has bright yellow petals around a green cone.

These black-eyed Susans bloom from early summer until first frost, offering months of bright blooms on plants that stand taller and brighter than many annuals. Removing spent seedheads will encourage more blooms, but toward the end of the season you may choose to leave the seedheads on to feed the birds and encourage self-sowing of new plants.

From spring until fall frost, Diamond Frost Euphorbia produces clouds of dainty white bracts (colored leaves) that elegantly complement other plants in containers or landscape beds. Its sprawling growth habit cascades over the sides of containers or fills in spaces within landscape beds. It also gives a dramatic solo performance in hanging baskets, engulfing them with spherical mounds of color that look like snowballs in the summer landscape.

The true leaves of Diamond Frost Euphorbia are tiny, gray-green and masked by the colorful bracts. They tend to fade into the background and are strictly a supporting actor in the color show.

The flowers of Summer Snapdragon look a lot like those of its cousin, the winter snapdragon. Summer Snapdragons are available in a wide range of colors, including white, rose, lilac, violet, blue and many shades in between. Some cultivars have speckled or bicolor flowers. Flowering occurs over an eight- to 10-week period in summer, peaking in June and July.

Plants have a bushy growth habit. They are quite vigorous and may flop over in late summer. If this happens, cut them back to stimulate new growth and additional blooms in fall. Flower spikes consist of about a dozen flowers, each approximately 1-inch across. They open in sequence from the bottom of the spike upward. The flowers hold up well in floral arrangements.

The Amazon dianthus series are cool-season annuals, so it’s best to plant them in fall for winter and spring color. They make good companion plants for pansies, parsley, ornamental cabbage and ornamental kale. In some locations, the plants may live two years, but it’s best to grow them like annuals, so you won’t be disappointed if they don’t come back a second year.|Plants in the Amazon dianthus series have strong stems, easily reaching 24 inches in height, making them excellent for cut floral arrangements. They hold up in a vase for up to two weeks. To ensure a continuous display of blooms and to maintain a neat appearance, pinch out and remove the old blooms when they fade.

Firespike is a vigorous, shrub-like annual that grows 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide. Its dark green leaves have wavy margins and long, pointed tips. In late summer, abundant upright panicles of brilliant, crimson-red, tubular flowers open over three to four weeks and persist on the plant until the fall’s first frost. As a bonus, the flowers produce sweet nectar that attracts hummingbirds and butterflies like magnets

Plant it as a background plant in a mixed-shrub border where it can rise above smaller plants in the foreground. It’s a knockout in large containers.