LOG HOUSE PLANTS
	One of the more charming and unique plants new to the scene this year is Echinacea purpurea 'Doppelganger,' which features a double of its flower sprouting from the orange/brown cone of its main bloom.

Remember that percolating feeling of excitement the first spring after you've moved to a new house and garden, while you wait and watch as mystery plants poke out of the ground, unfurl leaves and open flowers? I always try to add enough fresh, untried plants each year to get a taste of that wonderful ride. While hundreds are out this spring to lure and intrigue, long lists of plant names always strike me as near useless. So instead, here are a few that sound irresistible, with as much description as I can dig up about plants mostly yet unviewed:

Alice Doyle of Log House Plants in Oregon couldn't believe her eyes when, on a scouting trip to Germany last summer, she came across fields of a most curious coneflower. She brought it home to breed and introduce, bestowing upon it the cleverly descriptive name of Echinacea purpurea 'Doppelganger.' The name refers to the shadow self clearly emerging from the orange/brown cone in the center of the flower, a perfect double bloom perched to create a layered effect. It appears as if this hardy, drought-tolerant prairie perennial is topped with a tutu. In the first year, 'Doppelganger' looks like a regular purple-rose coneflower, but once established in the second year, it sprouts its double. And watch next year for the Chicago Botanic Garden to introduce the first-ever truly orange echinacea, with a rainbow of colors to follow from their plant-breeding project.
 

Now In Bloom Bleeding hearts are dependable, old-fashioned perennials. But there is nothing retro about the vivid coloration of Dicentra spectabilis 'Gold Heart,' which earned it a place among this year's Great Plant Picks. The ferny foliage grows 3 feet high and is bright golden yellow, a startling contrast to the dangling hot-pink hearts tipped in white. Plant with vivid yellow or pink tulips for a shock of spring. It will grow best, and bloom longest, in rich, somewhat-moist soil, and at least partial shade, for the foliage of 'Gold Heart' will burn in full sun.

Also new from Log House this year is a velvety-black nasturtium, ideal for containers or as an edible garnish. Can you picture the inky flowers of Tropaeolum minus 'Tom Thumb Black Velvet' sprinkled atop pale lettuce leaves in your salad bowl? Plus, look for an unusual new snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus 'Bizarre Hybrids') that grows 2 feet tall in an exotic mix of striped and mottled bicolors. All Log House introductions are widely available at nurseries throughout the Northwest.

One of the most glamorous plants I saw in any garden last summer is the purple-tinted South African honey bush, which is now available from Heronswood nursery in Kingston (there's a drawing of one of its unfolding leaves on the cover of the 2003 catalog). If you aren't already acquainted with this foliage-plant-supreme you should be, for it has huge, silvery-blue-green leaves that smell of peanut butter. The new Melianthus major 'Purple Haze' introduces a sheen of lavender to the already lovely plant, which may die down to the roots in winter but will re-emerge in early spring and grow tall and luscious in a single season.

Nothing heats up a garden and draws the eye like paddle-leafed canna lilies, and 'Tropicanna Gold' is a new 5-footer with orange-yellow flowers and green-and-gold-striped leaves. It likes sun and a moist spot, but will take some shade. Canna's flamboyant looks work especially well corralled in pots, and they're such moisture lovers that you can submerge the pot into a pond during the summer. If the idea of gold-striped foliage strikes you as a theme, look for the small (to 12-inch) golden zebra daylily (Hemerocallis hybrid 'Malja'). The yellow-gold flowers, shown off by the golden stripes on the narrow foliage, bloom throughout the summer.