Dazzle your landscape with these Radiant Rhodies from Briggs

If you have difficulty with areas in your landscape that begs for a large, stately shrub, you really need to check out these “radiant” rhodies from Briggs Nursery: Polarnacht and Trocadero, available in 2009. And Briggs knows rhododendrons! As the nation’s largest producer and of woody ornamentals, when they say their new rhodies are exceptional, folks the world over notice.

The two new rhododendrons - ‘Polarnacht’ and ‘Trocadero’ - are making waves for their exceptional color, ease of care, and garden attributes. “The intense shades of the deep purple on the ‘Polarnacht’ variety and the great true red color of the ‘Trocadero’ are making folks do a “double-take,” says Dan Meier, production manager of Briggs.

With Paris runways buzzing about the upcoming “hot” color-red- for the 2009 season, consumers are demanding this hard-to-achieve blazing, saturated red color for their garden landscape, but according to Meier, a true red is difficult to find in cold hardy rhododendrons.

‘Polarnacht’ is another Hachmann hybrid. Like the German word “nacht” or “night,” the blooms are such a rich deep, dark purple that is so intense it tricks the eye into seeing the color black -- as night. The almost black buds come early, opening to ruffled purple blooms with spotted red throats that command admiration. The blooms are held in trusses of 12-14. Among its great attributes, ‘Polarnacht’ is 3’ x 6’ in 10 years. It’s mid to late flowering season rewards consumers with deeply passionate color. The foliage stays extremely clean and resistant to the typical purple foliage leaf spot. This is hard to come by, which will make this beauty wildly popular to Zone 6.

Rhododendron 'Trocadero' Hachmann has large, vivid red trusses and shiny dark green foliage. This Hachmann hybrid makes a statement. ‘Trocadero’ is greatly improved over its parents -- ‘Torero’ X ‘Erato’ which both proved hardy beyond minus 20 range. A compact grower it will reach 3’ x 4’ in 10 years. This new hybrid is hardy to Zone 5! Trocadero should be considered a hardy red production plant.

For more information please visit www.briggsnursery.com.