Acer palmatum 'Shishigashira'
	Above: Anemone nemorosa Left: Mahonia x media 'Charity'

The ambitious program, begun in 2000 and funded by the Miller Botanical Garden Trust, has made great progress toward its goal of creating a comprehensive list of the finest plants available for Northwest gardens. British gardeners, courtesy of the Royal Horticultural Society, have been aided by such an authoritative and useful list for nearly 200 years. Now, with more than 160 Great Plant Picks and more to come, we're well on the way toward a version tailored to our own climate.

By this time next year, Fulcrum Books and the plant-picks team will have published a book certain to become a standard gardening reference, with color photos and cultural information for all of the picks. For now, the complete list of winners, plus photos and fact sheets, are on the Web at www.greatplantpicks.org. You can also see a fine selection of this year's chosen plants up close and personal at the Flower & Garden Show Feb. 19-23, displayed in the south lobby of the Washington State Convention & Trade Center.

All plants nominated have to be hardy in USDA Zones 7 and 8. Judges select for plants that are long-lived, interesting in more than one season, reasonably disease- and pest-resistant, and that refrain from spreading too aggressively.
 

Malus 'Red Jewel'
Clematis 'Duchess of Albany'
Elaeagnus pungens 'Maculata'

Perhaps the most meaningful criterion for most of us is the one that reads "plants must be vigorous and easy to grow by a gardener of average means and experience." Plant-picks judges appreciate that gardens are made with familiar and dependable plants such as crabapples, clematis and Japanese maples.

The problem is that gardeners face a bewildering number of choices with these more common plants. This is where Great Plant Picks can make such a difference. If you select by appearance alone, you may be sorely disappointed, for good lookers aren't always good performers.

If only we all had the experience and energy to thoroughly consider the habits of every single plant before its roots ever touch the soil of our gardens. Now we don't need to; experienced plant-picks horticulturists are busy doing the screening for us. Their 2003 list includes three types of clematis and six superlative cultivars and species of crabapples and Japanese maples.

Committee members rely not just on their own considerable knowledge, but on numerous site visits to evaluate specialized plant collections at nurseries and public gardens. Richie Steffen, coordinator of horticulture at the Miller Botanical Garden and a member of the plant-picks shrub committee, explains the advantages of evaluations that have extended over the three-year life of the program: "We've been watching these plants long enough to distinguish between them and really determine which ones are best." Here are a few of this year's best plants for Northwest gardens:

• Clematis 'Duchess of Albany': A charming, small clematis, the Duchess has rosy pink, bell-shaped flowers for most of the summer.

• Anemone nemorosa: Judges selected all cultivars of this little daisy-like wood anemone, which blooms with the bulbs, then dies back to allow space for perennials.

• Lathyrus vernus: A shrubby, lavender, sweet-pea-like flower, notable for its early February bloom time.

• Mahonia x media 'Charity': An 8-foot-tall evergreen winter-bloomer with distinctively toothed leaves and fragrant yellow flowers followed by dark purple berries.

• Elaeagnus pungens 'Maculata': A fall-blooming, small evergreen, with problem-free toughness and glossy variegated foliage.

• Malus 'Red Jewel': A small tree with remarkable disease resistance, white flowers and a profusion of little red fruits in autumn.

• Vitis vinifera 'Purpurea': A medium-size grape vine with richly colored leaves that start out green and darken to deeply purple as the season progresses.

• Acer palmatum 'Shishigashira': A slow-growing, small tree known as the lion's mane maple for its small, fluffy leaves, which turn bright yellow and orange in autumn.