What Do Our Master Gardeners Grow? Part 3

We polled our Master Gardeners, and this is what they said....

Plants I'll Always Plant:  Verbena bonariensis

Plant I'm Itching to Try:   Salvia Dorris (Desert Sage)

Forget About It:  Hibiscus - I’ve tried about 6 times!
~Master Garden Cherie

Plants I’ll Always Plant:  Denver Gold Columbine (Aquilegia chrysantha)

Plants I’m Itching to Try:  Coral Baby Penstemon (Penstemon barbatus)

Forget About It:  Roses

~Master Gardener Carol 

Plants I’ll Always Plant:  Dreamland Series ® Zinnias – all colors

Plants I’m Itching to Try:  Struggling to get a Munstead Lavender garden established – hope springs eternal!

Forget About It:  Probably 10 different iceplants have expired in my garden, and none of my echinacea look like the pretty pictures in the catalogs ☹
~Master Gardener EJ 

Plants I'll Always Plant:  Penstemons - any and all

Plants I'm Itching to Try:  Zig Zag Blue Grama grass, Bouteloua gracilis (I ordered it from High Country Gardens & it should arrive in April)

Forget About It:  Dahlias, or anything else that needs to be lifted in the fall.  Not my style
~Master Gardener Michele 

Plants I’ll always plant:  I’ll always plant an annual flower with the trade name Vermillionaire.  It’s a variety of the firecracker plant sold by the Proven Winners plant company.  I love Vermillionaire because it’s a guaranteed hummingbird magnet.  If you want some hummingbirds whizzing around your patio this summer, plant some Vermillionaire in a nearby pot or hanging basket.  The plant holds up well the entire summer and doesn’t need maintenance except watering the pot.  In 2015, Vermillionaire was on the CSU Trial Gardens annual plant honor roll, which means it’s a really great plant.
  
Plants I’m itching to try:   I’m itching to try a tomato variety called Estiva.  Estiva is a hybrid indeterminate producing a medium-size red tomato.  According to the Johnny’s Selected Seeds catalogue, Estiva is “well known in hot, dry regions for its ability to set fruit in excessive heat.”  After our recent summers with excessive heat, this seemed like a great variety to try.  I’ve bought some seeds and will grow Estiva this summer.
 
Forget about it:  

           

       Healthy Speckled Roman Tomato
Photo:  Amy Norwood

                   

          

        Blossom End Rot on Speckled Roman Tomatoes
Photo:  Amy Norwood

    

I’m still trying to forget the Speckled Roman tomatoes I grew last summer.  The Speckled Roman is a gorgeous tomato.  It’s an elongated tomato with bright red skin and golden streaks.  However, a Speckled Roman with blossom end rot is a horrifying freak show that will give a gardener nightmares.  About half of my Speckled Roman tomatoes had blossom end rot (which wasn’t the case for the other tomato varieties I grew).  The Speckled Romans that didn’t have blossom end rot tasted like sawdust (i.e., flavorless).  So no more Speckled Romans for this gardener!

CSU - Plant Talk Tomatoes
~Master Gardener Amy