Perennial Plant of 2016: Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’

Anemone "Honoring Jobert" is the 2016 Perennial Plant Association's Perennial Plant of the Year. Credit: Missouri Botanical Garden
2016 Perennial Plant of the Year
You heard it here first: The Perennial Plant Association has named Anemone "Honorine Jobert" as Perennial Plant of 2016.
This year’s honoree is a 3- to 4-foot-tall, woody, white-bloomed perennial that prefers rich, evenly moist but well-drained soil and thrives in full sun to part shade. The plant blooms from August through October and spreads via underground rhizomes, with no serious insect or disease problems. Its carefree habit makes it best suited for cottage and woodland gardens.
Ylang-ylang
Why grow a ficus when you can have a ylang-ylang blooming in your home? OK, so you’ll need a cathedral ceiling and lots of room, but being unique is worth the sacrifice. You do want to be unique, don’t you?
You’re probably familiar with the name ylang-ylang from the ingredient list on shampoo bottles, skin care products and perfumes, including most notably Chanel No. 5. Its essential oil is used in aromatherapy and even as an aphrodisiac.
Cananga odorata is a tree native to tropical rain forests but can be grown outdoors in our most southern regions, such as Florida, southern California and southern Texas. Its twisted yellow flowers are highly fragrant (hence the name “odorata”), and in the wild it can grow upwards of 50 feet tall. Suited for growing outdoors only in zones 10 and 11, it prefers acidic soil and will thrive in sun to part shade. The plant attracts bees, butterflies and birds.
If you like the idea of growing Chanel No. 5-reminiscent flowers and being the only one on your block to do so — but you don’t live in a palatial mansion — you might consider Cananga’s cousin, Desmo chinensis.
Desmo only grows 3 to 4 feet tall, so it’s doable even in apartments. This way, you can keep it outdoors during summer and bring it in relatively easily before the cold sets in.
Indoors, allow it plenty of filtered sunlight and protect it from drafts.
Call me Fish Meal
Time is drawing near to repot houseplants. Move up to a pot that’s 2 inches larger — never more — than the one it’s living in now. And while you’re at it, it’s important to free up any roots that might be girdling (growing in a spiral, circular pattern around the root ball) or sticking out of the drain hole. Gently tease them apart with a fork or your fingers before replanting in fresh potting mix (half sphagnum peat moss-half perlite or vermiculite) in the next-size pot. Then, just to make sure they’re nice and happy, give them a dose of fish meal. In fact, give all houseplants a dose in March, whether you repot them or not.
Fish meal is made from whole fish, including the bones (for calcium) and organs. The oils are removed, and it’s pressed into a powder. The potion has been used for centuries as an organic fertilizer and gives houseplants a nice boost at the end of winter.
The Great Backyard Bird Count
Looking for something fun to do over Presidents Day weekend in February? Take part in the annual four-day Great Backyard Bird Count. Dress for the weather and meet a park volunteer at either the Fire Island Lighthouse (east of Robert Moses Start Park, at parking field 5) or at the Wilderness Visitor Center at the end of William Floyd Parkway, and embark on a two-hour stroll from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. to count and identify birds in the area. Bring a light snack; binoculars are optional.
If you’d rather not venture out, you still could participate simply by looking out your window and counting the birds you see in your backyard, office parking lot or wherever you might be lurking from Feb. 12-15.
You don’t need to be a bird expert to participate, and you can count birds for as little as 15 minutes or tirelessly for the entire four-day period. When you’re done, log in to birdcount.org and record your findings on a checklist provided by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society and Bird Studies Canada. The website will display real-time maps and charts that will reflect what others are reporting during the count. And if you’re not an expert, the site also provides tips to help identify birds.
After submitting your checklist, you’ll get to call yourself a “citizen scientist.” The findings, culled from all submitted checklists, will help scientists learn more about how the birds are doing, how they’re migrating and how to protect them.