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E-Newsletter: Mid February 2016
The Phoenix Perennials E-Newsletter
Mid February 2016
Celebrating our 13th Anniversary Season! |
Hello Fellow Gardeners!
The Hellebore Hurrah! Opening Weekend is on Fri-Sun Feb 26-28 and this is the Hellebore Hurrah! and marks our opening for the 2016 season. This is the Hellebore Hurrah! issue of the E-Newsletter.
If you're not getting the Hellebore or Shade Alerts then you won't have gotten the 2016 Hellebore Catalogue. Check it out below. It contains almost all of the 110 different hellebores we have this year at the Hellebore Hurrah! You can also check out the video of my segment on CityTV's Breakfast Television and an article on hellebores in Ming Pao, the Chinese language daily newspaper. Please share with your Chinese friends and neighbours. I think hellebores are perfect for Chinese gardeners! Read why below.
We are also excited to launch our 2016 Mail Order site with 800 amazing garden plants for Canadian gardeners. Please share it with your friends and family across the country and help us get the word out.
Our annual Photo Contest with $250 in prizes is still accepting entries with an extended cut off date of March 1st! Get your entries in! You have a great chance to win one of five $50 gift certificates. View the current entries on our Facebook Contest Album. You can also vote for them when you are there. And please enter. We'd love to see your photos!
If edibles are your thing, we've got you covered on the hottest items this year including grafted edibles including 'Ketchup 'n' Fries' and Mighty Matos, plus BrazelBerries, Pixie Grapes, and the hardy 'Owari' satsuma mandarin orange.
This season we are also re-launching our Clematis Conundrum as a pre-sale of 80 of the best and most distinctive clematis varieties plus three new hardy passion flowers. In this way you can carefully select your most desired vines for the garden. It might also allow you to track down that clematis you've always been looking for but could never come across.
The full dates and itinerary are now available for our upcoming trip to New Zealand in 2017 in partnership with alumni UBC and with co-leader Jeff de Jong of CFAX Radio's Gardening 101. Follow our link below to the information page where you can register to get the full, detailed itinerary! It's going to be one of those trips of a lifetime! Many people agree. Three quarters of the spaces are already full!
Cheers,
Gary and the Phoenicians
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Awesome Edible
Pre-Sales
'Ketchup 'n' Fries'
Mighty Matos
Mighty Melons
Mighty Veggies
BrazelBerries
Pixie Grapes
'Owari' Satsumas
More Info |
Three Hellebore Pre-Sales for the New Gardening Season
Order now to get the newest, hottest and best of the hellebore world.

More Info Below |
The Clematis Conundrum
Pre-Sale
Select from 80 Different Clematis
and 3 Hardy Passion Flowers!
More Info |
Please Share The E-News with your Friends and Neighbours
At the bottom of this email there is an option to "Forward Email". We'd love it if you could forward this email to as many of your neighbours and friends as possible! Thanks! |
Services at Phoenix Perennials |
Wish List
Looking for a special plant? Let us know. We'll watch for it. |
Design Service
Let our in-house designers help you create the garden of your dreams! |
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Volunteer at Phoenix
in exchange for plants!
Email Us for Info |
In this Issue
Opening Notes: News, Tidbits and the Phoenix Calendar
Opening Notes: News, Tidbits and the Phoenix Calendar
The Phoenix Perennials Calendar
There's so much going on at the nursery all the time. Here's your resource to keep track. |
Date |
Event Description |
Feb 26-28th |
The Hellebore Hurrah! - Celebrating Early Spring and All Things Hellebore! |
Feb 27th |
Workshop: Hellebore Containers to Die For at The Hellebore Hurrah! |
KEEP IN TOUCH WITH THE EXCITING WORLD OF PHOENIX PERENNIALS |
JOIN OUR ALERTS: In addition to our regular e-newsletter we have 14 different occasional Alerts on a variety of topics: Edibles, Hot Plants, Living Sculptures (Succulents and more), Made in the Shade, Hardy Subtropicals, Sales, Native Plants, Hellebores, Clematis and Vines, Maples and Cool Woodies, Mail Order, Christmas, Fragrance and Kids. Learn More About Alerts. |
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TWITTER
Get your Phoenix updates through Twitter. |
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YOUTUBE
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to be notified of new videos as soon as they are published. We uploaded 24 videos in our first year! |
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INSTAGRAM
Our newest social media platform great for sharing images!
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PINTEREST
Pinterest allows you to create boards on which you pin images from all over the internet so you can organize them in one place. We've created our own boards of inspiring images. You can follow our profile and our boards to keep up to date on our new pins! |
Phoenix Perennials on Pinterest |
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1.
Opening
Weekend 2016
The
12th Annual
Hellebore Hurrah!
Celebrating early spring and all
things Hellebore

Friday-Sunday February 26th-28th, 2016
10am-5pm |
The Hellebore Hurrah! Catalogue 2016
110 Different Hellebores!
The Hellebore Hurrah! Catalogue includes information on hellebores and their cultivation, the breeders whose hellebores we'll be offering plus a catalogue of most of 110 different species and cultivars that will be available at the Hurrah! Enjoy, but beware! Hellebores are addictive!
The catalogue is in pdf format. Click on the link to open it. You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it which you can download for free from the Adobe Site. Once opened you can save the catalogue to your computer or print it for detailed study and pre-shopping.
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Hellebore Containers to Die For
Saturday Feb. 27th at the Hellebore Hurrah! at 1-3pm
Instructor: Kate Herring
ALMOST SOLD OUT!

More Info and Register
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Gary on Breakfast TV
Chatting Hellebores and Early Spring with BT host Jody Vance

Check out the Video! |
Hellebores in Chinese!
Hellebores are great plants for Chinese Gardeners. Tell your Chinese Friends and Neighbours!
This article appeared in Monday's Ming Pao Chinese Daily Newspaper. I have no idea what the article says but this is what I told the reporter: Hellebores should be of particular interest to Chinese gardeners because they look like lotuses or peonies, they are good luck because they bloom during Chinese New Year, they are very strong, healthy plants because they bloom in winter, they are long-lived for 60-100 years or more, there are double forms for double happiness, they have auspicious names from the Winter Jewels series (Red Sapphire, Rose Quartz, Sparkling Diamond, Black Diamond, Jade Tiger, Jade Star, Onyx Odyssey,...) or the Honeymoon or Wedding Series, and you can get them in RED, GOLD, and GREEN, the three most auspicious colours.

Download the PDF and Share. |
2.
Canadian Mail Order Catalogue Launched for 2016!
800 Amazing Garden Plants for Canadian Gardeners
We are proud to launch our fourth year of Mail Order across Canada with our largest selection ever: 800 amazing garden plants including many rare and cutting edge plants you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere else. At Phoenix Perennials we're real plant lovers and we hope you'll be as excited about these plants as we are.
From boisterous and colourful to strange and esoteric, from the height of ornamental horticulture to the cutting edge of edibles, we hope you'll find many wonderful options for your garden. See below for some highlights and special instructions for ordering.
Help Us Get the Word Out: We need your help to get the word out across this great (and very large) country of ours. Please forward this email to all your friends and family across the country to let them know that if they can't visit us in BC, we can ship to them anywhere in Canada!
Without further ado, let's get your hearts beating a little faster and your gardening souls primed for spring. Here it is:
Cheers,
Gary and the Phoenicians
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2.
The Third Annual
Phoenix Perennials Garden Photo Contest
Enter for your chance to win one of five $50 gift certificates!
We're looking for your most beautiful, inspiring, amusing or surprising photos of your garden or a garden you visited in the last year. The photos could be images of specific plants, of a container, a plant combination, a garden vignette or anything to do with plants or gardens. The photos will be posted on Facebook as soon as you send them in for voting by your friends, family and fellow gardeners. Whoever gets the most votes (likes, comments and shares) will win themselves one of five $50 gift certificates! It's so easy.

This photo is by Jackie H. from Victoria, one of last year's winners.
How to Enter
1. Send up to five of your best garden, plant or flower photos to phoenixperennials at shaw.ca. Please send high resolution photos. You may need to send them in multiple emails if the files are large. Please put in the subject line: "Photo Contest". Also include your full name and city (only your first name, last initial, and city will be published) and a description of your photo(s). Entries will be accepted until March 1st, 2016 (EXTENDED from February 15th).
2. As soon as you send them in we'll put them up on our Phoenix Perennials Facebook page for everyone to see and vote for by clicking "Like", leaving a comment or sharing with their friends. Please note that if we receive a number of entries at a time we will queue you up and post one photographer's photos each day so it could take a few days to post your photos. We will email you once your photos have been posted.
3.
Send your photos as soon as possible. The sooner you get them in, the sooner they will be online where your friends, family and fellow gardeners can start voting for them and the better the chance you have of winning a gift certificate.
4. Voting will run from when the first photos go up until March 15th, 2016 (EXTENDED from March 1st). The five photos with the largest combined number of likes, comments and shares will win the five gift certificates. Note that a single person can actually vote three times for a photo by liking, commenting on and sharing that photo! Please also note though that in order to spread the fun around any one person can only win one gift certificate, even if you have more than one photo in the top five.
5. The winning photos will be specially featured in the March e-newsletter guaranteeing each winner not just fortune but also fame!
We can't wait to see your photos!
3.
Awesome Edible Pre-Sales for 2016
'Ketchup 'n' Fries', Mighty Matos, Mighty Melons, Mighty Veggies, Pixie Grapes, BrazelBerries, 'Owari' Satsumas
Our popular pre-sales allow you to shop from the comfort of your own home and secure the hottest and most beautiful new plants for your garden. Pre-sales also help us at Phoenix Perennials to plan in advance and provide the right number of plants for our valued customers and fellow gardeners so that everyone receives all of the garden bliss that they desire.
'Ketchup 'n' Fries', Mighty Mato, Mighty Melon & Mighty Veggie Pre-Sale
Welcome to our exciting grafted vegetable pre-sale where you can pre-plan your 2016 edible bounty from the comfort of your own home with the most cutting edge edibles available. Pre-sales allow you to secure the exact plants you desire and allow us to make sure we have exactly what you want.
Full Descriptions and Ordering
'Ketchup 'n' Fries' - The Revolutionary, New "TomTato" is a hand-grafted plant that brings together tomatoes and potatoes, two close relatives, that together give us one of life's great pleasures: 'Ketchup 'n' Fries'. It produces the sweetest cherry tomatoes you've ever tasted by the hundreds. This year an improved grafting method should ensure much larger crops of potatoes than in 2015 with a few pounds per plant.
Mighty Mato and Mighty Mini Mato Grafted Tomatoes consist of desirable heirloom and cool modern varieties hand-grafted onto super strong tomato rootstock that confers greater disease resistance, greater cold tolerance, and greater vigour resulting in up to 2-3 times more tomatoes per plant than ungrafted plants! Heirloom tomatoes that are sometimes shy in their yields produce like never before. Cool modern varieties also produce extra large yields. The new Mighty Mini Matos are dwarf plants growing to just 3-4 feet tall. Though all Mighty Matos can be grown in large pots, these Mighty Minis will be right at home in containers and will stay compact so they won't overwhelm your small spaces.
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Mighty Mato ‘Amish Paste’ |
Mighty Mato ‘Beefsteak’ |
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Mighty Mato ‘Big Beef’ |
Mighty Mato ‘Big Zac’ |
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Mighty Mato ‘Black Cherry’ |
Mighty Mato ‘Black Krim’ |
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Mighty Mato ‘Brandywine’ (Sudduth’s) |
Mighty Mato ‘Bumble Bee Purple’ |
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Mighty Mato ‘Celebrity’ |
Mighty Mato ‘Cherokee Purple’ |
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Mighty Mato 'Chocolate Stripes' |
Mighty Mato 'Costoluto Genovese' |
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Mighty Mato ‘Early Girl’ |
Mighty Mato ‘Homestead 24’ |
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Mighty Mato Indigo ‘Apple’ |
Mighty Mato ‘Mortgage Lifter’ (Estler’s) |
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Mighty Mato ‘Pineapple’ |
Mighty Mato 'San Marzano' (Redorta) |
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Mighty Mato ‘Stupice’ |
Mighty Mato ‘Sun Sugar’ |
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Mighty Mato ‘Sweet Million’ |
Mighty Mini Mato 'Iditarod' |
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Mighty Mini Mato Indigo 'Dwarf Shadow Boxing' |
Mighty Mini Mato 'Tasmanian Chocolate' |
Mighty Melons and Mighty Veggies consist of desirable heirloom and cool modern varieties that are grafted onto super strong rootstock that, like the Mighty Matos, confers greater disease resistance, greater cold tolerance, and greater vigour resulting in extra large crops of fruit and vegetables. The grafting can make a particularly positive difference in our cool summer climates with melons, peppers and eggplants that all require hot seasons to produce good crops.
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Mighty Melons 'Ambrosia' Cantaloupe |
Mighty Melons 'Swan Lake' Honeydew |
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Mighty Melons 'Sugar Baby' Watermelon |
Mighty Veggies 'Coolcumber' (Khassib) Cucumber |
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Mighty Veggies 'Gigabite' Cucumber |
Mighty Veggies 'Epic' (Dusky) Eggplant |
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Mighty Veggies 'Anaheim' Pepper |
Mighty Veggies 'Golden Bell' Pepper |
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Mighty Veggies 'Jalapeno' Pepper |
Mighty Veggies 'Orange Bell' Pepper 9 + GST |
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Mighty Veggies 'Red Bell' (King Arthur) Pepper |
Full Descriptions and Ordering
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Pixie Grape Pre-Order
The Pixie Grapes are a new series of dwarf grape vines for containers and small spaces developed in the Niagara region of Ontario that will often produce fruit in their first year and forever more after that. They are perfect for small spaces and patios, conversation pieces, and as a gift for every wine lover you know. In 2015 the first Pixie Grape 'Pinot Meunier Purple' hit the scene. This year two new Pixie Grapes join it: 'Cabernet Franc' and 'Riesling'. Now you can really get your Pixie Vineyard going!
Pixie Grapes only grow to about 2+ feet tall and wide and get lots of bunches of grapes on its small frame over a long season. They require minimal pruning.
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'Pinot Meunier Purple'
One of the famous Champagne grapes. |
'Cabernet Franc'
A fabled variety from Bordeaux and the Loire. |
'Riesling'
Most varied white from the Mosel of Germany. |
More Information and Ordering
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Brazelberry Pre-Order 2016
Brazelberries are one of the hottest items for gardens and patios. They are dwarf berry bushes (four blueberries and one raspberry) that can be grown in pots on your patio or in the garden. They are attractive plants that produce tons of fruit. What could be better than fresh blueberries and raspberries right from your own garden on beautiful plants that make your garden look great year-round? Pre-order now for pick-up in mid April (exact date yet to be determined). We will email you closer to the pick-up date to let you know exactly when you can get your hands on your new berry bushes!
NEW! Vaccinium 'Perpetua' -- Blueberry
'Perpetua' is the newest BrazelBerry. It is a true double-cropping blueberry that sets one crop of fruit in mid-summer, and then flowers and fruits a second time to provide ripe fruit in the fall.
The leaves are dark green, somewhat shiny, and curly or twisted in the spring and summer, turning to deep reds and greens in the winter. The new canes are bright yellow and red in winter.
Perpetua has smallish berries that are mild and sweet.
1.5g pot. $24.99 + GST |
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You can also order five other BrazelBerries:
Blueberry 'Peach Sorbet' |
Blueberry
'Jelly Bean' |
Blueberry
'Blueberry Glaze' |
Blueberry
'Pink Icing' |
Raspberry 'Raspberry Shortcake' |
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More Information and Ordering

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'Owari' Satsuma Mandarin Hardy Citrus Pre-Sale
Grow your own satsuma mandarins outside in coastal BC and harvest your delicious fruit at Christmas time!
Citrus reticulata ‘Owari’ is a satsuma mandarin orange that is hardy outdoors in coastal BC! Plants form lush, tropical-looking, evergreen shrubs to 5-8 ft tall, bloom with white, incredibly fragrant flowers, and produce excellent crops of sweet, juicy, seedless fruit just like you buy in boxes at the supermarket but these you can pick off your very own tree at Christmas time!

More Info and Order |
4.
The Clematis Conundrum
Pre-Sale
Select from 80 Different Clematis
and 3 Hardy Passion Flowers!
We have a huge selection of the best and most unique Clematis available through our Clematis Conundrum Pre-Sale for pick-up at the nursery in late April 2016!
The Vancouver Series
Bred right here in the Lower Mainland, this new series from Clearview Clematis is making waves in the clematis world with large flowers sporting unique colours and forms on vigorous plants that bloom for months on end. |
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Vancouver Series - 'Cotton Candy' |
Vancouver Series - 'Danielle' |
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Vancouver Series - 'Daybreak' |
Vancouver Series - 'Deborah Dahl' |
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Vancouver Series - 'Fragrant Star' |
Vancouver Series - 'Morning Mist' |
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Vancouver Series - 'Mystic Gem' |
Vancouver Series - 'Sea Breeze' |
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Vancouver Series - 'Starry Night' |
Species Clematis & their Cultivars |
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Clematis armandii 'Apple Blossom' |
Clematis armandii 'Snowdrift' |
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Clematis cirrhosa 'Freckles' - Evergreen and winterblooming! |
Clematis crispa |
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Clematis florida 'Sieboldi' |
Clematis montana 'Grandiflora' |
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Clematis montana 'Pink Perfection' |
Clematis montana 'Rubens' |
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Clematis paniculata (terniflora) - Sweet Autumn Clematis |
Clematis tangutica 'Aureolin' |
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Clematis texensis 'Duchess of Albany' |
Clematis texensis 'Gravetye Beauty' |
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Clematis texensis 'Princess Diana' |
Clematis viticella 'Minuet' |
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Clematis viticella 'Polish Spirit' |
Clematis viticella 'Venosa Violacea' |
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Clematis x chiisanensis 'Lemon Bells' |
Hybrid Clematis |
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'Allanah' |
'Asao' |
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'Ascotiensis' |
'Barbara Jackman' |
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'Bees' Jubilee' |
'Burning Love' has some of the reddest flowers of any clematis. Up close the flowers are a mix of true red and deep fuchsia with a velvety texture. The flowers are produced in profusion in late summer. |
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'Carnaby' |
'Daniel Deronda' |
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'Diamond Ball' |
'Etoile Violette' |
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'Fuji Musume' |
'Gillian Blades' |
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'Jackmanii' |
'Joe Zary' |
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'Julka' |
'Konigekind' |
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'Lord Neville' |
'Madame Le Coultre' |
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'Mrs. N. Thompson' |
'Multi Blue' |
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'Perle d'Azur' |
'Pink Champagne' |
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'Pink Fantasy' |
'Pink Mink' |
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'Romantika' |
'Rooguchi' |
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'Rouge Cardinal' |
'Sunset' |
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'Sugar Sweet Lilac' - The Sugar-Sweet Series is a new line of wilt-resistant clematis with beautiful, fragrant flowers. Sugar-Sweet Lilac's fragrance is reminiscent of sweet honeysuckle. It is one of the only flat-petaled, larger-flowered, scented clematis in cultivation. In addition to the beautiful smell the flowers put on a stunning show with lilac-pink, star-shaped blooms. |
'Sugar Sweet Blue' - The Sugar-Sweet Series is a new line of wilt-resistant clematis with beautiful, fragrant flowers. Sugar-Sweet Blue's fragrance is reminiscent of gardenias. It is one of the only flat-petaled, larger-flowered, scented clematis in cultivation. In addition to the beautiful smell the flowers put on a stunning show with blue, star-shaped blooms that develop silvery-white central stripes as they age. |
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'Sweet Summer Love' - Fragrant! |
'Tie Dye' |
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'Ville de Lyon' |
'Walter Pennell' |
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'Warsaw Nike' |
The Riverside Passion Flowers
These more tropical-looking friends of clematis can be grown on their own or planted with Clematis to intermingle blooming throughout the summer. These Riverside clematis are hardy to zone 8 and should be just as hardy as the hardy blue passionflower, P. caerulea, especially if you bury the stem 4-6" below ground when planting. |
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Passiflora 'Betty Myles Young' is a vigorous, very hardy passion flower that can be grown in containers or in the ground. It is evergreen down to -8 Celsius and hardy to about -12 Celsius. The blooms are up to 12 cm in diametre and lightly scented. The broad petals are pale to deep lilac with white central streaking that contrast perfectly with the maroon filaments. The fruits are large, decorative, and ripen to a yellow orange. Bury stems six inches deep to increase hardiness. |
Passiflora 'Silly Cow' is a vigorous, very hardy passion flower that can be grown in containers or planted in the ground. It is evergreen down to - 8 Celsius and hardy to about -12 Celsius. The blooms are up to 12 cm in diametre. The broad petals have white to pale lilac centers and deep purple borders that contrast with the bright blue filaments. Rarely sets fruit. Bury stems six inches deep to increase hardiness. |
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Passiflora 'Star of Surbiton' - 'Star of Surbiton' is a vigorous, very hardy passion flower that can be grown in containers or planted in the ground. It is evergreen down to - 8 Celsius. The blooms are up to 12 cm in diametre and lightly scented. The broad petals are pure white and contrast dramatically with the bright blue filaments and pale pink centres. The fruits are large, decorative, and ripen to a yellow orange. Bury stems six inches deep to increase hardiness. |
Order Now
(We recommend right-clicking on the Order Now button and opening the order page in a "new window". Then you can have both this page with pictures and the order page available at the same time.)
5.
Garden Tour
Gardens
of New Zealand
January 22-February 2, 2017
DATES AND ITINERARY ANNOUNCED!
Join alumni UBC and tour leaders Phoenix Perennials owner Gary Lewis and Gardening 101 Radio Show host Jeff de Jong to see the gardens, flora, scenery and culture of New Zealand.
THE TRIP IS NOW 3/4 SOLD OUT. REGISTER SOON IF YOU'D LIKE TO GO!





More Info |
Join Our Email Alerts: In addition to our regular e-newsletter we have 14 different occasional Alerts on a variety of topics: Edibles, Hot Plants, Living Sculptures (Succulents and more), Made in the Shade, Hardy Subtropicals, Sales, Native Plants, Hellebores, Clematis and Vines, Maples and Cool Woodies, Mail Order, Christmas, Fragrance and Kids. Learn More About Alerts. To subscribe as a new subscriber or to add the Alerts to your existing profile, enter your email below and press Go.
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Phoenix
Perennials and Specialty Plants Ltd.
One of the largest and most exciting selections of perennials
in Canada.
3380
No. 6 Road (Between Bridgeport and Cambie)
Richmond, BC |
604-270-4133 |
www.phoenixperennials.com
Opening Dates and Hours
February 26th to October 30th, 2016
10am-5pm
Copyright Phoenix Perennials and Specialty Plants Ltd.
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