Colorful flowers that are simply beautiful.

• Position: WHAT'S NEW? - Brief article

It is with much anticipation that we await the summer growing season each year, more so the last few since we discovered the Simply Beautiful brand of flowers from Ball Horticultural Company, West Chicago, Ill. Since we have a hankering for white flowers, we started with BabyWing White (although they also come in pink) Begonias, maintenance-free plants that feature early flowering, continuous color, small angel wing-type leaves, and season-long performance in landscapes and containers. They stand 12 to 15 inches high and spread 10 to 12 inches. Like its DragonWing counterparts, the BabyWing is exceptionally heat tolerant and handles stressful conditions well. The more upright, mounded plants put on a flower-filled show in part shade.

Meanwhile, a couple of new kids on the block are the Maracas Brazilian Fireworks (six to eight inch height, eight to 10 inch spread) and Fiesta Salmon Double Impatiens (10 to 16 inch height and 10 to 12 inch spread). The Maracas show off attractive variegated foliage plus bicolor purple-pink flowers. This heat-loving tropical shade plant performs well outdoors in summer mixed containers and can be used as a bedding plant or groundcover, too. It's great for hard-to-plant areas...