The Impatient Gardener

But lo and behold, I happened upon Great Star again last week at the display garden at Bailey Nurseries in Minnesota (home of the First Editions, Endless Summer and Easy Elegance plant brands), where I was visiting to learn more about their plants and production facilities. I spotted it from several feet away, and again it drew a crowd, until the bad news was once again delivered, this time from the horse’s mouth. It’s out of production, said Ryan McEnaney, marketing and communications manager for Bailey, which had produced the hydrangea under the First Editions brand.

Apparently this beautiful plant just didn’t sell well and growers had unspecified issues producing it. It’s not hard to believe that in a world full of so many hydrangea varieties that some just won’t make the cut.

The same is true for many other plants. Sometimes a plant just isn’t good enough to warrant space in a growing field or in a plant brand’s active catalog. Plants also come into and fall out of fashion with gardeners. It’s strange to think of plants being “on trend,” but it dictates a lot of what is seen at garden centers. Big flowers — hydrangea flowers that approach beach ball size, hardy hibiscus flowers bigger than the plates at the Cheesecake Factory and other oddly large blooms — seem to be the rage at the moment.

Small niche growers often fill the gaps where big producers can’t, but it can be hard for gardeners to find such growers.

It’s unlikely that I’ll ever have Great Star hydrangea, and I’m certain I’ll get over it. Ironically, one of the ways I plan to make myself feel better about it is by trying out a brand new hydrangea called FlowerFull, which is said to have more flowers, stiffer stems and better disease resistance than ‘Annabelle,’ with similar sized flowers.

Surely the people at Bailey Nurseries will be happy, because they didn’t invite me there to tell people about a hydrangea they can’t have when they are introducing one that is likely to take the gardening world by storm next year.

But I still wish I could talk them into bringing Great Star back. I told them I’d make it worth their while and buy at least three of them.

I think I better channel that energy into hoping that FlowerFull is all it’s been bred to be.

Erin Schanen gardens in the Town of Belgium. She is the author of the blog The Impatient Gardener.