Day 5 (Continued) & Day 6 at the Trials — Ball Hort & Green Fuse Botanicals
The second half of Day 5 was spent in Santa Paula making our way through the massive displays at Ball. It was great to walk through and check out all the new varieties and branding ideas from Ball FloraPlant, PanAmerican Seed, Darwin Perennials, Kieft Seed, Ball Ingenuity, Burpee, Selecta and Wave.
There were many new varieties, and it seemed like many of them were expansions and improvements on existing lines. They’re adding more color to the mix, such as the new varieties in Cannova canna, Cabaret calibrachoa and EnduraScape verbena. And Selecta officially brought back last year’s experimental ‘Night Sky’ as an official introduction this year.
As always, the various merchandising displays were eye catching and impressive. Burpee had great consumer messages, attracting “foodies” and urban gardeners with small spaces.
On the perennial side, we were introduced to some really breakthrough genetics. From coreopsis to lavender to salvia, the colors and shapes were outstanding. Darwin also showcased Rhythmix, a new program for perennial combos.
Our final day, we visited with Green Fuse Botanicals, also in Santa Paula. They continue to expand their successful petunia lines, adding new colors to the Good and Plenty, Blanket and QT series.
Green Fuse has also focused a great deal on its First Light Perennials program. The first-year flowering Vernique veronica is really becoming a standard, with upgrades to the current colors and newly added Pink and Shining Seas.
Team GPN is back home in Chicago now, but our Spring Trials coverage has just begun! Stay tuned for more newsletters and extended coverage in our June and July issues.
We’ll also continue updating our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages, so be sure to follow us for more color and inspiration!
In the meantime, here are some of our favorites from the Ball and Green Fuse stops.
Begonia MegaWatt series (PanAmerican Seed)
The new MegaWatt series has tremendous growing power and is a stunner in the landscape. Four colors are available, and they are very uniform and programmable.
Coreopsis UpTick series (Darwin Perennials)
UpTick boasts large flowers on tidy, mounded plants. Hardy to Zone 5, it is day neutral and native to North America. Four colors are available: three bicolors and one cream.
Tomato Take 2 combos (Burpee)
The new Take 2 combinationss are perfect for small-space gardeners. Three combos are available, and they each produce one slicing and one cherry variety.
Coleus ‘French Quarter’ (Ball FloraPlant)
Part of Ball FloraPlant’s “Season Extender” program, ‘French Quarter’ features a pattern similar to seed coleus but is more vigorous and much later flowering. And its pink color doesn’t fade in the heat.
Purslane ‘Hot Shot Flambeau Rose’ (Green Fuse Botanicals)
The Hot Shot series has been upgraded for brighter color and larger flowers. A new color for 2017 is Flambeau Rose, which presents a vivid rose flower above interesting variegated foliage.
Lupine Staircase series (Green Fuse Botanicals)
This new series, propagated from tissue culture, has a lot of flower power and is very uniform across all colors. The plants display large flower stalks and put on a brilliant display of solid and bicolor hues.
Do you have any favorite new introductions? Any that you think might fit into your production? Shoot me an email, and let me know!
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