Canadian Gardening: Plant Atlantic project, 1 by Todd_Boland

Todd_Boland wrote:
Hi everyone; some of you have noticed that I was mewntioned in the latest Canadian Gardening magazine. In the Atlantic Canada section, Carol has written up about the Plant Atlantic project sttarted by the Memorial University of Newfoundland Botanical Garden. I am the project manager. Our project was set up to introduced new (via breeding program) plants for Canada and the US (and I guess the world!), to bring heritage plants back into circulation and to introduced underutilized or relatively unknown ornamentals into the Atlantic Canada nursery industry. Right now we have a partner nursery in Newfoundland and 2 in Nova Scotia. We have about 50 plants in total that we plan on releasing. It will be a slow process but 2008 should have about 25 available at each of our participating nurseries.

Much of my work is an active breeding program...I am hybridizing a mix bag of plants including iris, rhododendrons, columbine, primroses, aruncus, caltha....like I said, a mixed bag! I cannot show any of the hybrids until they have been tested in the US and overseas. We have 8 plants in trial at the moment and 5 more in the pipeline for 2008. Lots of fun!

We have just received our first US plant patent for our new Philadelphus called 'Starbright'. It is being sold in limited numbers in NS and NL but it is being trialled now in the US and overseas. Sheridans also has the plant and hopefully will make it available in the next couple of years. Here's a pic of the flower.