Each year the Great Plant Picks organization taps a list of winning and exceptional plants for our Pacific Northwest gardens.

This year’s selections were unveiled at the 2004 Northwest Flower and Garden Show, held Feb. 4-8 in Seattle. If you want to learn more about any of the plants, you can go to the Great Plant Picks Web site and download fact sheets using the Adobe Acrobat Reader. The Web site address is www.greatplantpicks.org

A committee of Pacific Northwest horticulturists led by Carolyn Jones, director of the Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden, identifies which plants should receive the Great Plant Picks awards. All of the plants should be hardy in USDA Zones 7 and 8 (we’re an 8) and long lived. They should be vigorous and easy to grow by a gardener of average means and experience. Plants requiring specialist knowledge should not be considered.

The selections are reasonably disease and pest resistant, have a long season of interest and preferably multiple seasons of interest, and are available from at least two retail plant sources in Canada and the United States.

In addition, the selections are adaptable to a variety of soil and fertility conditions and do not require excessive moisture, unless they are aquatic. They will not be invasive, nor will the perennials require staking, continuous deadheading or frequent division. Trees and shrubs should require little pruning and nominal training to achieve their best form (excluding plants used for hedges). Bulbs should persist in the garden, without being lifted, for at least three years. Variegated plants should be stable and not revert.

And the winners are …

Trees and Conifers

Abies pinsapo ‘Glauca’ (blue Spanish fir)

Acer circinatum ‘Monroe’ (cutleaf vine maple)

Acer palmatum ‘Shindesho-jo’ (Japanese maple)

Acer triflorum (roughbark maple, threeflower maple)

Cornus alternifolia (pagoda dogwood)

Cornus alternifolia ‘Argentea’ (variegated pagoda dogwood)

Eucryphia glutinosa

Fagus sylvatica var. heterophylla ‘Aspleniifolia’ (fernleaf beech)

Fagus sylvatica ‘Purple Fountain’ (columnar weeping copper beech)

Magnolia ‘Galaxy’

Nyssa sinensis (chinese tupelo)

Prunus ‘Berry’ Cascade Snow (Japanese flowering cherry)

Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’ (Irish yew)

Taxus baccata ‘Repandens’ (spreading English yew)

Tsuga diversifolia (northern Japanese hemlock)

Shrubs and Vines

Arbutus unedo (strawberry tree)

Buxus sempervirens ‘Suffruticosa’ (dwarf boxwood, edging boxwood)

Cistus x hybridus (synonym Cistus x corbariensis) (white rockrose)

Disanthus cercidifolius (redbud hazel)

Erica x darleyensis ‘Kramer’s Rote’ (darley heath)

Euonymus alatus ‘Compactus’ (compact burningbush)

Fothergilla ‘Mount Airy’ (witch alder)

Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris (climbing hydrangea)

Hydrangea serrata ‘Beni-gaku’ (mountain hydrangea)

Laurus nobilis (bay laurel)

Nandina domestica ‘Gulf Stream’ (heavenly bamboo)

Osmanthus heterophyllus ‘Goshiki’ (variegated false holly)

Parthenocissus henryana (silvervein creeper)

Pieris japonica ‘Cavatine’ (dwarf lily-of-the-valley shrub)

Syringa pubescens subsp. patula ‘Miss Kim’ (dwarf Korean lilac)

Perennials and Bulbs

Actaea pachypoda (white baneberry, doll’s eyes)

Adiantum aleuticum (western maidenhair fern)

Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’ (hybrid hyssop)

Asarum europaeum (european wild ginger)

Athyrium niponicum var. pictum (Japanese painted fern)

Blechnum spicant (deer fern)

Crambe maritima (sea kale)

Dryopteris erythrosora (autumn fern)

Eupatorium rugosum ‘Chocolate’ (white snakeroot, white sanicle)

Parahebe catarractae

Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Rosea’ (bistort, mountain fleece)

Persicaria polymorpha (formerly Polygonum polymorphum) (giant fleeceflower, white dragon)

Phlomis russeliana (sticky Jerusalem sage)

Polystichum setiferum Divisilobum Group (soft shield fern, hedge fern)

Sanguinaria canadensis f. multiplex (double-flowered bloodroot)

Cathy Peterson belongs to the Clatsop County Master Gardener Association. Send comments and gardening news to “In the Garden,” P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103 or online to peterson@pacifier.com