The Garden 2013 – The Best New Plant

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“Hotlips” Houlihan got her nickname when she was having sex with Frank, unaware that a microphone for the public address system had been placed under her bed, so that everyone at the MASH camp heard her say “Kiss my hot lips, Frank”.  Until recently Houlihan was the best known “Hotlips” on the planet, but her place has now been usurped by the variety of Salvia Macrophyllia, which is named, (apparently) after the sexy Mexican maid who introduced it into California.  It only reached my garden this year, courtesy of Cath’s Garden Plants.  A small, inexpensive, plant soon bulked up into the one shown below, and flowered continuously from June to November.  A real star.
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​But the accolade for the best new introduction into my garden goes to the maple shown above.  It’s the Acer palmatum ‘Sango-Kaku’.  I bought two examples in May from Larch Cottages Nursery in Melkinthorpe, (see here) and it looked so spectacular once in the ground that I went back a couple of weeks later and bought two more.  

It looks good in leaf, with lime-green palmate foliage, but really comes into its own in winter when its coral-red bark is spectacular.  Larch Cottage has one of the best collections of maples in the country.  I have lots of their trees in my garden and these are among the best.
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The picture below shows the Acer palmatum ‘Sango-Kaku’ on the right of the salvias in summer, and the one above shows its bark as seen on Christmas Day 2013.