More of What We Saw

Chris Beytes, Ellen C. Wells, Paul Pilon & Jennifer Zurko

Please Pass the Perennials


Perovskia Blue Steel (Kieft Seed)
This Russian sage is more compact that others on the market and is way less rangy, getting to only about 30 in. max in the landscape. Plus, it’s great overall—no flopping of foliage, it’s drought resistant, very durable and fast to flower.

RhythMix Combos (Darwin Perennials)
For years, Darwin has been creating perennial combos, but haven’t done a thing to produce them. Well, now they have. They’re introducing the RhythMix collection. It’s a collection of five different mixed perennial combos based on combos they’ve been suggesting for years. You can grow as individual plugs and then combine or grow plugs together for a more natural-looking growth habit. Pictured: Boogie Blues.

Gaillardia Mesa Red (Kieft Seed)
This seed perennial has a deep, non-fading red color and uniform habit.



Penstemon Cherry Sparks (Darwin Perennials)
One of two penstemons they were showing, but this was the one we liked the best. It flowers all summer long and is hardy to Zone 5.

Heuchera Dolce Silver Gumdrop, Appletini (Proven Winners)
In the medium-sized Dolce series, there’s Appletini, with its lime-green leaf and ruby-red flowers, and Silver Gumdrop, with silvery leaves and coral flowers. That’s Karin Walters of Walters Gardens showing them off.

Penstemon Pep Talk (Dümmen Orange)
This new series features five different colors that all flower at the same time and have the same habit.



Tiarella Sylvan Lace (Terra Nova)
Extremely heat and humidity tolerant.

Gaillardia Spin Top (Dümmen Orange)
The plants are well branched, have compact growth and are loaded with large, richly colored blooms. There are three cultivars in the series. Hardy to Zone 4.

Gaillardia Sunset Series (PlantHaven)
Bred in the UK, the plants in this series have larger flowers and habit. There are three colors: Snappy, Cutie and Flash.



Heucherella Plum Cascade (Terra Nova)
A color breakthrough for Terra Nova, this variety has purple-silver, deeply lobed leaves. With its trailing habit, it would make a great component in mixed containers, as a standalone basket or as a groundcover. Hardy to Zone 4.

Heuchera Primo Pretty Pistachio, Black Pearl (Proven Winners)
Primo is a new large-sized heuchera series with two varieties: Pretty Pistachio with green-yellow leaves and pink flowers (unusual for heucheras) and the large-leaved Black Pearl, one of the blackest heucheras the Walters people have seen, keeping its color even in full sun.

Heucherella
Fun and Games Red Rover, Hopscotch (Proven Winners)
Two new additions to the Fun and Games series: Red Rover has finger-like red leaves and Hopscotch has maple tree-shaped orange leaves.



Hibiscus Summerific Ballet Slippers (Proven Winners)
Like Cranberry Crush, it has a nice ball-shape habit, and stays a moderate 4 ft. tall. Flowers are cream with a red eye and blush tips. It’s great for August color in the perennial garden.

Schizachrium Prairie Winds (Proven Winners)
If you can’t pronounce the genus name, just call it by its common name: Little Blue Stem. Great as a thriller in combinations, the foliage is blue in the summer and turns a wine purple in the fall.

Syngenta’s Perennial Line Relaunch
It’s now available to all comers, after being exclusive to their own sister broker. With both seed and vegetative varieties, Syngenta’s perennial varieties number way over 200, from both commonly available varieties and their own breeding. One series they showed us was Alpino Saxifraga, a real cutie of a perennial with an honest habit.



Veronica Magic Show Pink Potion (Proven Winners)
This new variety is the same height as the other two in the series, which is 14- to 16-in. tall.

Coreopsis Sun Swirl (Dümmen Orange)
We were assured that Coreopsis Sun Swirl is the solution to any grower’s brown thumb. Plant it, grow it by leaving it alone and then sell it—three easy steps! Plus, Sun Swirl Deep Gold is a great color, which means it’ll be a great seller.

Coreopsis UpTick (Darwin Perennials)
An interspecific hybrid native and a welcome coreopsis to the scene. It’s day neutral, so you can bring it to market whenever, which is a great thing. The Gold&Bronze variety is the standout of the four, with some gorgeous yellow and dark reddish highlights reminiscent of gaillardia. The series is a channel exclusive to Lowe’s, but IGCs are welcome to it!

Coreopsis SunKiss (Kieft Seed)
A new early-flowering grandiflora cultivar, it has the brightest yellow flower petals in this category and also has attractive large, deep red blotches. SunKiss is compact (12 to 14 in.), well branched, floriferous and incredibly early. Hardy to Zone 4.


Hot  Pots


Cyclamen from Morel
Along with some interesting retail display ideas, the French breeder had lots to show this year. Metis Deep Magenta Silverleaf is a mini that’s good for Valentine’s Day programs and can be used in mixed containers. Premium Albanico (which is Spanish for “fan”) is a new series of three midi types with ruffled petals and it includes POP. Halios HD White is their largest cyclamen by far, but with a compact habit. And Halios Falbala Rose (pictured) is a new standalone with ruffled pink-purple, fragrant blooms. They also showed different ways you can mix and match colors in the same pot.

Gerbera Revolution (Kieft Seed)
This series offers several new bicolors, including Rose White, Red Lemon and Red White. They join Yellow Orange, introduced last year.

Streptocarpus Ladyslippers Grape Ice, Yellow Blue Eye (Green Fuse)
There are two new colors in this line of Lifestyle Plants. Yellow Blue Eye has ruffled petals and slightly smaller flowers than the rest of the plants in the series.



Trailing Mums Skyfall Series (Royal Van Zanten)
It’s a cascading garden mum designed for hanging baskets. Sure, you can put any garden mum in a basket, but these actually mound out of the baskets in a nice ball shape. The series starts with five colors.

Cyclamen from Schoneveld
Their main focus wasn’t a specific plant, but the “Fuji” genes in their cyclamen. Fuji is the name given to the Japanese genetics that brings a light, white tinge to the edge of cyclamen petals. Schoneveld is bringing these genes into a whole bunch of their different lines: Allure Red and Neon Pink, Macro Wine Red and Red, Verano Violet, Carino Violet and Mini Winter Violet. More are in the works.

Aster Showmakers, Showstoppers (Royal Van Zanten)
Two new series. Showmakers are the double types and Showstoppers are the singles.



Anthuriums from Anthura
Their new 4-in. anthuriums varieties are Vanilla (the first kinda-sorta yellow anthurium variety), Solara (orange) and Sweet Dream (dark pink).

Calla Lilies from Golden State Bulb Growers
This year, we saw four new callas: Peppermint Twist starts out light pink, then ages to salmon with a rusty pink edge. The leaves are maculated (spotted). Lip Gloss is a clean pink, with no maculation. It’s a very early and fast (9 to 10 weeks) variety, suited for Valentine’s Day sales. Strawberry Blush is probably better as a cut, as it’s got a very upright, rather than bouquet, habit. Peach Pazazz (pictured, with Ashley Nally) has light cream to peach flowers, aging to rose.

Cyclamen from Varinova
Owner Bart Kuijer showed us two changes among his offerings. First, the maxi-sized Maxora series will be replaced by two series: Contiga, suited for 4-in. pots, and Magnia, for 6-in. pots. Contiga has 10 colors, Magnia six. And over in his medium-sized offerings, Intermezzo will be replaced with Merita, a big series with at least 10 colors, including Shine types, with white edges on the flowers.



Gerbera Flori Line (Florist)
They’ve been doing a lot of work for this seed gerbera collection, as they showed with some experimental giant types. They also had six new colors: Pink, Coral, Coral With Center, Red, Yellow and White.

Gerbera Patio (Florist)
Named after national parks around the world, three new varieties have been introduced to this series: Glacier (cream), Kruger (yellow) and Fundy (pink). These are quicker to grow by a few weeks than some of the older varieties and they have bigger flowers, too.

Calla Lilies from Kapiteyn
The name sorta sounds like “captain” and that’s what it means in Dutch. And it’s the last name the fourth generation family owners, the Kapitejns. We met Jan and his son, Len. The Kapitejns have been breeding Dutch bulbs for 90 years; they got into the calla business about 25 years ago. Their breeding goals: long postharvest, fade-free flowers, flowers above the foliage, and strong plants and flower stems. They seem to be achieving their goals with their “Captain Calla” calla lilies.

Etc.


Bougainvillea Topaz Gold (Vista Farms)
A sport of Juanita Hatten, a venerable old variety, this plant features true gold flowers. They predict it’ll be very popular in the south.

Hydrangea Let’s Dance Rhythmic Blue (Proven Winners)
A macrophylla type that responds well to aluminum sulfate treatment, for ensuring that rich blue color.

Belgian Mum No. 1 Beer (Gediflora)
Here’s the story: A year ago, somebody at Gediflora had the idea of seeing if you could brew a beer infused with chrysanthemum flower oil. Why? Why not! It would be a great little marketing gimmick. So they contacted a Belgian microbrewer, who instructed them to get an extract from the flowers, which he’d incorporate into the brewing process. After much trial and error, they found a tasty extract, the brewer made some beer, which they named Belgian Mum No. 1 … and it took off. Demand went through the roof and they’ve sold twice as much as they originally contracted for. The next step? Find brewers in the U.S. and Canada.



HGTV HOME Partnering with EuroAmerican Propagators
Offering plants is fine, but HGTV needs to distribute them to growers, and they’ve had a few challenges with that, simply because of grower confusion about where to source them—especially smaller growers looking for small quantities. EuroAmerican has signed on as a distributor of HGTV genetics, to give growers a one-stop shop. Plus, you can combine your Euro and HGTV orders. To help keep things organized, your HGTV stuff will come in an HGTV-branded box. Oh, Euro will offer pre-finished and retail-ready HGTV varieties, too.

MasterTag/Summit
The “Starter Garden,” a carry-away tri-pack that has three of Summit’s 10 cm-T black pots with a clever MasterTag “rope” handle and carrier, holds multiple messages. It’s perfect for beginners looking to create a short and successful home gardening project.

Zombie POP from Takii
How could you pick a petunia over zombie armor? That’s how Takii positioned their Celosia Armor series, a cristata type with big orange, red, purple and yellow brains (it’s not a new variety, but the POP made us think it was). The secret for zombie protection? If a zombie wants to eat your brain, you give him one of these and he eats the brain-shaped plant instead! It was clever and funny and it got our attention. Alas, it’s not a real program … but you can steal it for this Halloween! GT