Thursday, November 5, 2009

Welcome to the Club


 Nandina domestica 'Kaydee'
Atomic FireballTM Nandina


We are please to introduce Nandina domestica 'Kaydee'.  This fall we are releasing a limited amount of this new Nandina that we have been fiddling with for several years now.  We are going to call this one Atomic FireballTM Nandina, because it looks like a little ball of fire!  This is a sport of Nandina 'Firepower' that was found by Kay Herring, also known as the "Mother of Nandinas" since she has managed the lab for nearly 20 years now!  While walking in the 1 gallon crop of Nandina 'Firepower' in 2004, Kay noticed a smaller, different looking plant.  She took it to the greenhouse and the process of propagation was started.  This Nandina is now in production in a limited supply, numbers will be increased if the demand is high.  The pictures seen here are of a 3 year old plant, this is a slow grower and you will not have to worry about it getting out of hand, topping out at around 18" tall.  Also like 'Firepower' no flowers or berries have been seen to date so issues with invasiveness is a non-issue.   Why do we call it Atomic FireballTM , well it has the same fantastic bright red winter color as it's Momma, but the growth habit is very compact, almost ball-like.  I guess you could call it a dwarf, dwarf, since 'Firepower' is already a dwarf.  We also like to kid around the nursery and call it "Kay's Grandbaby" since her 4 kids have yet to produce her a real one, haha!  We think this would be a great addition for small landcapes and for gardeners that don't want to trim.  Also we like using this lil' one for a foundation plant in mixed containers, also works well as a stand alone in a container as you can see from the picture.  Hope you all enjoy this one!  If you want to try it out, jump now, we only have a few liners available for 2009!
Firepower vs. FireballTM Nandina

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