These shrubs are Bloomin’ Easy

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/02/2022 (835 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you want shrubs that offer seasonal impact and reliable performance combined with low maintenance, look to the selection of new and improved flowering shrub varieties from Bloomin’ Easy. I’m a fan of Bloomin’ Easy plants because I’ve had so much success growing them in my garden. If you’re not yet familiar with Bloomin’ Easy plants, the good news is that it will be easier this year to get acquainted with this award-winning brand.

Let’s start with Bloomin’ Easy shrub varieties that are ideal for smaller spaces. Weigela is a classic shrub for the garden. New Electric Love is a compact weigela that will bring an element of surprise to your mixed garden bed. Electric Love is the first weigela to contrast deep red flowers with very dark foliage. Low and mounding, Electric Love has a mature height of just one to two feet and a width of two to three feet. John Leperre, sales representative with Bylands Nursery, a Canadian wholesale distributor of plants, says that Electric Love should be available at most local garden centres in Manitoba this spring.

“Electric Love blooms so profusely and with very little winter dieback,” says Leperre. It’s worth noting, too, that Electric Love Weigela was named Plant of the Year for the 2019 Canada Blooms show.

Bloomin’ Easy Stunner weigela is slightly bigger at three to four feet tall and wide and is a product of the latest generation of breeding for floriferous, dark leaved weigela. Stunner has pink bell-shaped flowers and unique plum-green foliage. Matt Kellas, sales manager for Aubin Nurseries, a wholesale plant nursery in Carman, says that Stunner should be readily available at local garden centres. For the best flowering performance, Electric Love and Stunner should be planted in a location in your garden that receives six or more hours of sunlight daily.

I’ve grown Bloomin’ Easy Crimson Kisses weigela in my garden since 2017. Crimson Kisses has the same mature size as Stunner, however, her bell-shaped flowers are siren red which provide vivid contrast with bright, chartreuse green foliage that make this variety a standout in the garden. Crimson Kisses will be available at Canadian Tire stores in Winnipeg this spring. All three of these varieties bloom in late spring to early summer. Weigela is not bothered by pests or disease and are considered deer-resistant shrubs. Rabbits eat practically everything else in my garden but not my weigela plants. As well, these varieties are hardy to zone 4 and can handle temperatures down to minus 34 Celsius. Adding a four-inch layer of mulch (shredded leaves or bark chips) in late fall around the base of your plants along with good snow cover helps to keep zone 4 plants protected in winter.

While we’re on the topic of weigela, how do you usually pronounce it? Weigela is one of the most mispronounced plant names. Some say why-GEE-luh with a soft ‘g’ while others say wy-gee-luh with a hard ‘g’ as in get and still others say wy-GEE-lee-ah. The first pronunciation is correct.

Another question that often comes up is how to prune weigela which is typically a densely branched shrub. Early flowering shrubs like Electric Love, Stunner, and Crimson Kisses need only minimal pruning in the first few years after planting. As soon as they finish blooming, lightly trim the stems to the next set of leaves. What if, like me, you don’t always get around to this? Your weigela will continue to produce blooms the following year but the shrub may produce fewer blooms. To appreciate the full beauty of these early-blooming shrubs, prune immediately after flowering.

But here is the best part: you can sign up for free care reminders at mybloomineasy.com and receive emails when it’s time to mulch, fertilize, prune or prepare for the upcoming season. This applies to any Bloomin’ Easy shrub that you plant in your garden. Bloomin’ Easy wants to ensure that young homeowners and new gardeners as well as experienced gardeners have success with growing plants and more time to enjoy them.

Bloomin’ Easy Pearl Potion lilac will also make its debut at many local garden centres this spring. With an upright shape, Pearl Potion lilac has a mature height of four to five feet tall and a width of five to seven feet wide. This variety would be a great selection if you want to plant a hedge, says Leperre. “The beautiful little leaves shear well.” Pearl Potion is a dwarf Korean lilac with fragrant pearl-white flowers in late spring that are perfect for bouquets. Plant in a location that gets at least six hours of direct sunlight per day. Pearl Potion is hardy to zone 3 and can handle temperatures down to minus 40 Celsius.

Cherry on Top is a game-changing Sorbaria False Spirea from Bloomin’ Easy. If, like me, you planted Sem False Spirea in your garden because you were captivated at first by its distinctively attractive and unusual pink to red, fern-like spring foliage only to fall out of love because of Sem’s rampant suckering, go for the Cherry on Top instead. That’s not to say that Cherry on Top doesn’t sucker at all – it does, but only moderately. This new variety offers the same unique pinkish-red spring foliage colour that ages to chartreuse with bronze tips, however, Cherry on Top’s astilbe-like white flower plumes turn to clusters of bright red seed pods, a vast improvement on Sem’s flowers that transition to dried brown seeds. In addition to being eye-catching, the bright red seed pods persist through winter and provide food for birds.

Find a location that gets at least four to six hours of direct sunlight per day. Cherry on Top has a mounding shape and matures to four to five feet tall and wide. Remove any suckers as they appear if you want to discourage your shrub from spreading. Cherry on Top has excellent cold hardiness. Classified as zone 2, it can handle temperatures as cold as minus 46 Celsius.

If you’re looking for something tall, dark and handsome that goes with everything and behaves beautifully, look no further than Panther ninebark. Introduced by Bloomin’ Easy in 2018 but hard to find until now, Panther’s nearly black foliage and upright-growing form that is distinctly narrower than other ninebark varieties on the market make this a must-have shrub.

Hardy to zone 3, Panther does produce small pale pink blooms that appear randomly but bloom potential is not this shrub’s main feature: that would be the smoky black foliage. I’ve grown mine since summer of 2018 and it reliably comes back every year. Last fall I dug Panther up and relocated him to a newly made bed where he will provide dramatic contrast next to golden-flowered rudbeckia and soft pink fall-blooming anemone. “Panther ninebark looks great with other colours around it,” says Kellas.

No matter that I didn’t have a lot of room to spare. At maturity, Panther only grows three to four feet wide and reaches a height of four to five feet. Kellas says that Panther ninebark should be readily available at local garden centres this spring and summer.

colleenizacharias@gmail.com