Today’s Grow gardening section in the Denver Post features an article I wrote on some of the great new plants for 2012. I thought this would be a good time to reprint an article I wrote in 2006 that explains how new plants find their way into our flowerbeds each year. Here’s part 1 of New Plants for Gardening, originally published in the Denver Post. Please watch for part 2 next week.

Each spring gardeners walk into their neighborhood garden centers and ask the question every adventurous gardener wants to know: “What’s new?”

They usually go home with new annuals and perennials and somehow find room to plant them in already-full flowerbeds. New plant introductions are what keeps things interesting in the garden.

The answer to what’s new? helps drive the country’s multi-billion dollar ornamental horticulture industry. Every year gardeners scour mail order catalogs and visit far-flung nurseries searching for exciting new plants.

The earliest blooming shrub in my yard is this cold-hardy Nanking cherry.

Last week I wrote about the Cherry Blossom festival in Washington being two weeks ahead of schedule because the trees are already in full bloom.

The same thing is happening in my backyard with a mini-version of the annual event.

The lovely white flowers on the Nanking cherry shrub burst open late last week, two weeks ahead of schedule.

In one way this early blooming is a good thing. I noticed quite a few honeybees enjoying this early-season source of food.  I also appreciate being able to look out my office window and see something so beautiful where empty branches stood just a week ago.

But it’s a worry, too. Is this a warning signal about a warming climate?

Last April I was in Washington, D.C., and was fortunate to see one lone cherry tree in full bloom.

These famous trees that line the Tidal Basin typically bloom from March 26 to April 10.

I stopped by on April 11 and almost all the blossoms were off the trees because of a big windstorm the previous weekend.

I’m glad I had the chance to have my own mini cherry blossom festival.

This year the trees have already bloomed–a full two weeks ahead of schedule.

Let’s celebrate spring in style! One lucky gardener will win a Timber Press prize package just by entering.

The spring gardening prize package includes everything for your vegetable garden this season.

The winner will receive seeds, a fruit tree and five gardening books!

All you have to do is enter your email address at the Timber Press edibles contest site to be eligible to win this complete gardening prize package:

35 packets of organic heirloom vegetable seeds from Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply (worth $87!)
A bare-root fruit tree from Peaceful Valley
A vegetable gardening library from Timber Press, featuring…

The Beginner’s Guide to Growing Heirloom Vegetables
Fruit Trees in Small Spaces
The Edible Front Yard
The Kitchen Gardener’s Handbook
Sugar Snaps and Strawberries

Visit the Timber Press website and enter the drawing with your email address. The contest ends on Friday, March 23.

Here’s a fun way to turn a discarded carrot top into a spring centerpiece.

Growing old carrot tops into frilly new greens is simple and it’s a clever way to reuse the tops of carrots you’d probably toss onto the compost pile.

You won’t be able to grow carrots from the tops, but they can be used as a science project to show how a carrot top contains everything it needs for a new plant to grow.

Kids have fun watching these leftovers sprout new greens and then planting them in little containers. It’s a good indoor gardening experiment to learn about recycling, planting and how plants grow.

How to Grow a Carrot Top

1. Select fresh carrots (not baby carrots) that sport a little green on the top.
2. Cut off the top 2 inches from the crown of one or more carrots.
3. Place the tops in a shallow saucer, cut side down.

Even though these chives have been part of my patio container gardener for many years, it surprises me every spring. I guess I never expect it to make it though the winter after suffering through snowstorms and subzero temperatures. But year after year, these chives are the first edibles in my spring garden. All I have to do is gently pull away the old leaves…

…to reveal the tender greens hiding underneath. Soon I’ll start snipping these chives soon adding them to my spring recipes. With a little water and sunshine I’ll still be harvesting chives from this container in November to add fresh greens to the Thanksgiving mashed potatoes.

Post a comment for your chance to win a big gardening book for small-space gardeners.

In my review of this big book on gardening in small spaces, I shared some of the book’s secrets for growing vegetables, herbs, fruits, and flowers in small spaces.

The publisher sent an extra copy so I could share all the information Chris compiled on how to “reap a bounty of beauty and edibles in every square inch.”

There are 20 illustrated chapters filled with creative ideas for living with a little landscape, planting in petite plots, planting small-space theme gardens, using good gardening practices, and finding plants perfect for small spaces. If you have a container garden, balcony garden, patio garden or other small-space garden, you will love this book.

To enter the contest to win a copy, simply post a comment on why you like to garden in small spaces by Monday, March 12 at 5:00 p.m. Mountain time. One winner will be selected at random.

Thornton, Colo., is all a-buzz because the city council just passed an ordinance allowing backyard beekeeping in the city limits.

We heart our honeybees!

That’s the sentiment of Thornton residents interested in keeping backyard bee hives.

A group called Thornton Loves Bees worked hard to convince the city council to adopt a backyard beekeeping ordinance.

Dan Finerty sent an email in January asking for help in the effort to get a responsible beekeeping ordinance passed by contacting members of the city council.

I was happy to send messages to all the council members, thanking those who supported the ordinance and asking the other council members to reconsider their opposition.

Beth Humenik, council member for Ward 3, replied to my message. She had a list of questions about beekeeping that included how many hives are allowed in Denver, what kind of restrictions are in place, timing of bee swarms, amount of honey produced, concerns about super honeybees, and educating neighbors about sprays and pesticides that are harmful to bees.

I spent a few hours on Monday volunteering at the City Greenhouse fulfilling part of my master gardener commitment. The weather outside was cold and windy, but it was warm and humid inside the greenhouse and the low rumble of fans drowned out the blustery day. The smell of moist soil was a nice reminder that gardening season is already underway.

Rows and rows of a new variety of Tropical Canna, ‘Bronze Scarlet’ and ‘Tropical Punch’, were planted from seed only two months ago, but they are already a foot tall. When the weather warms, parks staff members will be planting these in city park gardens throughout Denver.

More than 20,000 geranium seedlings are already growing strong, too. The seeds for these ‘Orbit Red’ geraniums were planted 10 days ago. Soon, they’ll be ready to transplant into larger containers–another good master gardener volunteer activity. Cocktail forks are the perfect tool to lift these tiny plants up and out of their trays.

Now’s the time to start planning for ways to conserve water in your garden.

The little green sprouts in my front yard are whispering to me that spring is on its way. So I’ve started thinking about how I’m going to be more water-wise while gardening this year.

One of the most sobering facts I learned during my master gardener training is that there will always be a drought somewhere in Colorado.

In 2002 that hard fact struck home as gardeners coped with one of the most severe droughts on record.

The outdoor watering restrictions implemented that summer made me consider every drop of water I used on the lawn in the flowerbeds and vegetable garden, too.

Many of my favorite landscape plants didn’t make it through that summer. Others simply disappeared over the equally dry winter.

But those plants that remained, like Rocky Mountain penstemon, were the hardiest of the hardy. And I plant more like them every year.