One of the real joys of gardening is that there is always a new plant to discover. I will never have enough land, enough money, enough time or enough energy to grow everything that catches my fancy, so the discovery of something new to grow is a perennial pleasure.

Every year, I eagerly look over all the new award winners written about in the various gardening magazines I read. And I make a list of those I want to study and purchase –IF the real live plants look as good as they appeared in my magazines.

This quest for certain cultivars sends me out to nurseries & garden centers early and often until I find what I’m seeking. Inevitably, I will read about something one year that doesn’t appear locally in my area and it gets put on my list the following year.

This year, I was captivated by the newer ‘black’ leaf crape myrtles…especially those with very pale flowers. I wanted Moonlight Magic or Black Diamond Pure White – both offer nearly black foliage with clear white flowers. But I settled on Black Diamond Blush, which should look more like apple blossoms when it blooms. I bought this plant early this season and hope that it will bloom later this year or next year. I’m crossing my fingers that the label was correct and that this will have a near white bloom.

Normally I buy crape myrtles and other blooming plants in full flower so I know what I’m getting. I have many lovely plants over the years that were mislabeled and bloomed in a different color than desired. But the only (near) white flowered/black leaved crape myrtles I found were early in the season at a large home improvement store and there were very few of the Blush variety as it seems most gardeners prefer the reds and pinks. So I broke my cardinal rule and purchased a plant not even in bud.

Along with the new cultivars, I often come across a plant or two in a nursery or botanical garden that I’ve never noticed that catches my fancy. This year, Vitex (commonly called Texas Lilac or Chaste Tree) and Valerian are two plants I am growing for the first time.

Valerian is in a pot on my deck and I’m loving its spicy clove scent. But I doubt I’ll be buying more of this plant as it is taking a LOT of water to grow well. It will be hard to find place it can thrive here.

The vitex proved difficult to find. But I just kept my eyes open and looked for one wherever I happened to be. I finally found one on sale this week. I’m not going to try to transplant it in the burning July heat. So, it will summer underneath the huge old maple in its pot until Fall. Then we will plant it. I keep a ‘nursery bed’ in the maple’s shade against the fence for latecomers and pots of trees/shrubs I am growing from cuttings.

Every once in a while, I hear of a brand new hybrid I can’t wait to grow…and can’t find — despite my best efforts! This year echibeckia is that elusive plant I could not find. It will be on next year’s list. I read about this cross between Echinacea and Rudbeckia this year, but have found it nowhere. Since I grow scads of echinacea and rudbeckia in my garden now, this hybrid cross which sounds amazing, really intrigues me. I will grow it as soon as I can find it.

Sometimes new plant adventures come when least expected. Last January, on a vacation to the Keys, I saw a Tahitian Gardenia for the first time and loved it on sight. I finally found a reasonably priced 3-gallon pot up near Delray & brought it home with us in the car. Wow! I kept it in our unheated sunroom until I could put it outside on the deck in April. It did great inside and never got bugs or dropped a leaf. (I did use some systemic pesticide on it.)

That gardenia is a gem! It has NEVER stopped blooming since January. I’ve had hundreds of huge creamy blossoms since I purchased it. They perfume the air and hold their fragrance when cut. And it keeps putting out more buds. I’ll need to pot it up to a much larger pot at the end of the season.

This Tahitian Gardenia plant is a keeper and is worth the time and effort it will take to drag into the house for winter and out to the deck for the rest of the year. It cannot take weather below about 45 degrees and it drinks water constantly. But it’s not fussy about over watering, so anyone should be able to grow it if they can supply light, warmth, water and a little food.