New Varieties at Spring Trials Have Huge Landscape Potential
You’ve likely seen quite a bit of coverage from California Spring Trials, which took place the first week of April. We’ve been talking about new varieties, merchandising ideas, notable improvements and much more.
Today Jasmina Dolce, green goods editor, and I, want to highlight some varieties introduced during the week that we think are particularly noteworthy for their strong landscape performance.
Breeders continue to focus on the landscape market, with season-long performance, improved flower size, unique foliage, and heat and drought tolerance being just some of the characteristics we’re hearing over and over.
Take a look at if any of the following would make good additions to your lineup:
Calendula ‘Lady Godiva Orange’
Proven Winners
This new calendula is bred for improved summer performance and boasts bright double flowers that hold their color all season. It loves the sun, and is both disease resistant and heat tolerant.
Cosmos Apollo Series
Floranova
Apollo cosmos has excellent garden performance with lots of overlapping flowers and good branching. They have improved flower size and quality. Three solid colors and this eye-catching bicolor pictured are available.
Canna ‘Cannova Bronze Orange’
Ball Ingenuity
Bronze Orange is only the second color in the series with a bronze foliage. The dark foliage offers a striking contrast to the flowers. Finished height is 30 to 48 inches with a spread of 14 to 20 inches.
Verbena Empress Sun Series
Dümmen Orange
The new Empress Sun verbena was developed to fill the landscape verbena niche. These vigorous growers come in five colors; White Blush is pictured. Featuring impressive heat tolerance and a reduced cyclic blooming pattern, this verbena has serious flower power.
Geranium Calliope Medium series
Syngenta Flowers
From the greenhouse to the garden, Calliope Medium is bred to deliver intense color and enjoyment that lasts all season long. Well-branched plants produce an abundance of blooms at the time of ship. With outstanding heat tolerance and drought tolerance, the series demonstrates exceptional landscape performance.
Cleyera ‘Juliet’
Southern Living Plant Collection
A bright landscape plant, ‘Juliet’ displays a very strong, stable variegation. It takes full sun to part shade and is hardy to Zones 7 through 10. Finished size is 8 to 10 feet tall and 5 to 6 feet wide.
Which varieties meant to shine in the landscape do you think will be a hit with customers? Are you planning to sell any? Let me know at [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you.
Cheers,
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