7/15/2009
2009 Pack Trials Part II
Ellen C. Wells and Chris Beytes
Photography by Ellen C. Wells and Chris Beytes
Anyone who’s attended the California Pack Trials over the last 15 or more years has seen the event evolve from a full-fledged grower trial to a Detroit Auto Show-style unveiling of new varieties AND the marketing and promotional materials meant to stir the hearts and pocketbooks of our end consumers. This year’s trials were no exception. Here’s a look at some of the latest POP, pots and marketing campaigns we saw along our route.
Proven Winners
Proven Winners is offering many ways to support its Proven Winners Certified garden centers. Their color block signage has been around several years, as has their bench tape. They now have available brightly colored Proven Winners Certified Garden Center banners (point to banner) and fun “ask me how” buttons for staff (point to buttons). To further assist retailers, their Bloom Box kit is a tool that helps staff put together their own container gardening workshop (point to box).
Proven Winners has found that full-color container sales are 40% greater than sales of plain containers. So, they’re taking the branded pot one step further by incorporating full-color images of the variety and others. (point to King Tut pot)
Ecke Ranch
In an effort to promote container gardening and the “outdoor decorating” trend, the Ecke Ranch and John Henry developed the DECK-orate campaign. It includes banners, hang tags and bench tape that promotes the benefits and joys of “deck”-orating.
Selecta
Selecta is now offering support materials for its most popular products—MiniFamous calibrachoa and Bonfire begonias. Materials include tags, bench cards and tape, hang tags and posters.
The John Henry Company
John Henry was loaded with packaging ideas and sales solutions at their Greenheart exhibit space. They have several new shimmery materials—FoilKote, HoloKote, TextureKote and 3DXKote—for tags, packaging and POP. You’ve seen these shiny foils, holograms and 3-D images on other mainstream consumer packaging, and now John Henry is applying it to pot plant carry totes and tags to upgrade the consumer experience. They even have a lenticular material that changes photos as the material is moved up and down or side to side. This could be applied to a shrub tag, changing the photo from spring flower to fall foliage.
John Henry is also offering six materials in their Eco Recycle line of biodegradable and recyclable products, and more are in the pipeline.
Goldsmith
Goldsmith is resurrecting a furry prehistoric behemoth to promote its larger-than-life pansies. The Mammoth pansies POP includes bright blue pots, bench tape, signage, tags and a cuddly cut-out that would make for a fun photo op at your garden center.
MasterTag
MasterTag exhibited a range of promotional materials at the Speedling stop. They’re providing the POP materials for the Urban Gardener program, which includes the Tomato Cage, Autumn Planter (including lots of Halloween pots) and the new Pocket Planter. And they showed a veggie program called “The Kitchen Garden” that would allow any grower to dress up their generic seedlings.
Changes in Store for 2010
Big news decided upon during the OFA Short Course regarding the 2010 Trials: The event’s dates for 2010 have been changed to April 10-17. This was determined by a group of more than 40 companies with a vested interest in 40-plus year-old springtime event.
And while they were at it, this group also changed the name of the event to Spring Trials to more accurately reflect the event’s current nature. Originally serving as a comparison of pack performance for seed varieties, the event has evolved into a showcase of new and current varieties displayed in retail-ready pots and baskets and with accompanying POP.
Purple Craze
According to an online survey of its fan club, Proven Winners found that purple is by far its end consumers’ favorite color (37%). Maybe it’s a good thing that purple was laying claim to dominance in new varieties unveiled during the 2009 Pack Trials. Here’s a look at just a few (in a wide range of purplish shades):
Calibrachoa Superbells Lavender (Proven Winners). Keeps a tight shape at 6 to 10 in. high and a 14 to 20 in. spread. Small flowers have delicate dark lavender venation. One of two new colors in Superbells series (the other is Yellow).
Salvia Cathedral Lavender (Green Fuse Botanicals). Lavender joins the three other colors in the Cathedral series and is a good match for early flowering. Lavender flowers have touches of silver tones.
Petunia grandiflora Sophistica Blue Morn (Ball). Blue Morn joins three other colors in the introduction of Ball’s new grandiflora series. Bluish purple margins have a silver throat, which is less noticeable in cool production, becoming more noticeable in warm, high-light conditions.
Nierembergia Augusta Blue Skies (Proven Winners). It may be called Blue, but this is definitely purple. A prolific bloomer that loves heat in production. Plus it’s super heat and drought tolerant in the garden.
Petunia Easy Wave Plum Vein (Ball). Plum Vein is the first veined flower in the Easy Wave series. It’s slightly more upright than others in the series, which now has 12 varieties and eight mixes.
Calibrachoa MiniFamous Electric Purple (Selecta). Part of Selecta’s iGeneration, a uniform series with large flowers, early flowering, semi-trailing habit medium vigor and superior performance. Twelve varieties within the iGeneration series.
Gomphrena Las Vegas Purple (Benary). Named for its bright colors and heat tolerance, Las Vegas grows to 16 to 20 in. in the landscape and is suited for 4-in. pots. Available in Pink and Purple, as well.
Pansy Colossus White with Purple Wing (Syngenta). White with Purple Wing joins the extra-large Colossus series, bringing the total to 17 varieties (including mixes). Colossus resists stretch during warm conditions, so is ideal for summer and early fall sowings.
Bacopa JB Party Purple (Cohen). Exclusive to Cohen, the JB (Jamesbritannia-type) Party series of bacopa has medium to large flowers with a trailing habit. Easy to root and flowers in hot conditions. Nine colors in all.