Are you making these lists in your head? Best of this, best of that? It’s fun to think back on last summer in the garden when everything was vibrant and blooming, especially now, when it’s cold and the days are still too short.
Best Traditional Perennial: Hemerocallis ‘Bela Lugosi’ has the deepest purple, most vibrant color, of any daylily we’ve grown. Everyone who saw this wanted it, including me! Daylilies are long-lived, easy-to-grow plants for Colorado, as long as deer aren’t a problem.
Hemerocallis ‘Bela Lugosi’ at Perennial Favorites.
Best Native Perennial: This year there was a tie in our garden for the best native. Both of them are yellow daises, both are extremely long blooming and drought tolerant. The first is Hymenoxys scaposa (Perky Sue) a short, smaller plant that looks good in a rock garden or the front of a xeriscape. It does well in pots, too, for those who want to grow perennials in pots. The second is Thelesperma ambiguum, Showy Navajo Tea. This plant never looks like much in flats in the nursery, but it is great in the garden. It self sows, so it will spread, and I love how it weaves itself into the midst of other plants. 
Best Annual: This was our first year for growing Cuphea llavea, the bat-faced cuphea, and as the summer waned and this plant continued to look better and better, it became a favorite. It’s really different, yet it fits in with more traditional annuals if you want to do a mixed container. Makes a nice hanging basket– it’s cute, unusual, long-blooming–a winner.
Best Tomato: Sungold will always hold top honors here, but the best new tomato had to be the Flint Tomatoes–Flint Red and Flint Yellow. Productive, delicious, relatively early to produce–I hope we have enough plants this year to meet the demand, because everyone who grew these last year wants them again!
Flint Red tomato from Yvonne Ellis in Pueblo West
Best Gardening Book: Grow a Little Fruit Tree by Ann Ralph was the most helpful and inspiring gardening book I read this year. I’ve been telling everyone about it. Sometime in January I’m giving a talk at the La Veta Library about how to use this technique in Colorado. We’ll let you know more when we know the exact date.
Best Dog in the Garden: Xander, no contest! Here he is on the day the Craver School kids came to help with the prairie restoration project. He loves kids, dogs, cats, and basically everyone!
We hope you had a good 2015 and that your 2016 is filled with peace, happiness, and flowers!
