Ornamentals News

A Testimonial of the Joys of Flower Gardening

2012-02-23T13:30:00.007-05:00

We recently received a wonderful email from one of our customers and I thought you’d enjoy hearing her story about growing flowers from seed; how she’s using them at their resort; and how the experience impacts her daily life.

Dear Harris Seeds,

All the photos on our website are of the flowers I raise from seed from you at Harris Seeds. The only plants not from you are the spikes in the center of some of my flower barrels. All other flowers are from your catalog. I love the flowers I get from the little seeds. It is a great pastime to plan and watch them grow. I do all of the landscaping at my resort and use only your seeds. I enjoy working with flowers and I have already started planting for this upcoming year. I plant about 2,200 annual flowers for my resort for our guests to enjoy while they are here. I use all the flowers here, as it saves me money to raise them and is a great stress reliever for me. Nothing is more precious to me than to see such beauty that I have created from working with a little seed. The real joy is seeing the smiles from all our guests and the many comments on the beautiful flowers at our resort.

Sincerely,
Jo-Ann
Glaciers' Mountain Resort, LLC, West Glacier, Montana

For more pictures, click here to go to their resort website.

Kudos to Container Gardening

2012-02-10T08:05:00.009-05:00

We’ve begun prepping for our summer trials by bringing in seed samples of 2013 season new introductions. Yes, that’s right! I’m already in 2013 mode, and we’ve barely begun 2012! I noticed that a number of the varieties are either cascading or trailing in habit, which means more baskets and containers for trials, and maybe a little less in the gardens. This trends towards containers seems to increase each year.

Personally, I don’t mind the shift towards container gardening because it definitely fits my lifestyle better. With a backyard full of garden beds, I am constantly challenged by weeds. Even when I could keep up with the weeds (not so much anymore), it was a constant activity because weed seeds would blow in from my neighbors yards. Solution? Move some of my flowers into containers. So about 5 years ago, I began to concentrate on creating more hanging baskets and containers that could be placed either on my back deck or in strategic areas of the yard. It turns out I have a better knack for growing flowers in containers than in garden beds. It’s also allowed me to be a bit more creative with different types of containers, so now when I’m at my local garden center, I inevitably swing by the pots and containers section each time to see if there is anything that I just ‘have to have’!

Like just about everything else, there’s the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to container gardening:

The good!

Fewer weeds – it’s truly what inspired me to move to containers.
Mobility – you can move them around whenever you feel the urge for something different!
Great decorations for patios and decks, but also can be used in gardens and yards as accents.
Potting soil can go into your compost at the end of the season. I find it really helps my underutilized compost pile, and ultimately ends up amending my garden beds!

The bad!

Requires more diligence in watering and fertilizing.
Probably a little more expensive because of soil potting mix and those inevitable new containers that you must have!
You’ve gotta wash the containers at the end of each season to get ready for next year. Ugh.

The ugly!

I tend to do a little more heave-hoing because of moving the baskets and pots all around. Oh well, it’s worth it.
Container storage in the winter – my garage gets fuller each year as I accumulate more containers. It’s not a pretty sight right now!

For every positive aspect of container gardening, I bet any dedicated home gardener will fire back an equally solid rationale for garden beds. I’m not advocating one over the other, especially since I still have gardens. But I honestly like the balance between both types of gardening – they seem to complement each other. And for some reason, container gardening seems to work better into my daily routine, yet gives me the same joy of blending color and texture using nature’s flora.

Correction about Vinca Jams ‘N Jellies Blackberry

2012-02-08T16:44:00.007-05:00

In my last post about the new AAS winner Vinca Jams N Jellies Blackberry, I’d stated that it is a F1 hybrid. Well, I’ve just learned that I was mistaken, JNJ Blackberry is an open pollinated variety. So I wanted to set the record straight to my readers. How will this variety perform under cooler growing environments? We trialed this variety for two years here in Rochester and it performed quite well throughout the summer up to the end of September when we removed the plants from our garden beds. So I have no doubt that it’ll thrive throughout the gardening season. The bottom line is I’m still sold on this garden vinca because of its novel color and performance.

A Black Vinca – No Way!

2012-02-03T08:30:00.003-05:00

All-America Selections just announced a new AAS winner last week at its Annual Open Meeting in Tampa, Florida. Vinca Jams N Jellies Blackberry is a very cool, novel garden Vinca that will attract both garden groupies and novices alike. Alright, it’s not black, but it’s such a dark purple it’s pretty darn close! The unique velvety deep purple flower color drew a number of positive comments from both judges and visitors to the various AAS trials across the country. As an AAS flower judge myself, I’m always drawn to high performing and unique varieties, so I was very happy to see it win an award.

It was a little difficult to see its true potential when we looked at it in the field trials because the dark flowers blended so closely with the soil. To create the most impact I recommend growing it with other annuals that have nice contrasting flower colors. Try pairing it with white vinca, or perhaps other heat loving varieties that are bright pink or lavender.

Plant height is 14-16” and figure on 10-12” garden spacing. Blooms are about 2” wide with overlapping petals. Most Vinca thrive in hot sunny areas, but because JNJ Blackberry is a F1 hybrid its tolerance towards a cooler growing environment is greater than open pollinated varieties. That’s a real plus for those of us who live in the north.

If you like fun and funky flowers, definitely give this new variety a whirl and let me know what you think. We’ve just put it up on our website so seed is available for sale!

Image courtesy of All-America Selections

What Makes SuperCal’s so Super

2012-01-30T11:07:00.002-05:00

There’s a fairly new flower genus that’s making waves in the industry called Petchoa. It’s a cross between Petunia and Calibrachoa (commonly referred to as Million Bells). In our January newsletter I’d written in some detail about the benefits of growing the SuperCal series of Petchoa, regardless if you’re a commercial grower or a home gardener. I’m pretty high on the SuperCal’s because the varieties combine the best traits of its two parents: Large, showy flowers, tolerance to high soil pH, excellent performance in both cool and warm environments, no sticky leaves, self-cleaning plants, and more.

What I didn’t go into detail in the newsletter article is the fact that the SuperCal’s make such great baskets and containers. For combo’s planters try growing them with SunPatiens and white Alyssum (more on SunPatiens in a future blog!). They also make fabulous baskets when paired with other SuperCal varieties. Some tested and true combo’s are Vanilla Blush paired with either Blue or Purple, Neon Rose grown with Purple, or Terracotta with Blue and Neon Rose. Frankly, they are such prolific bloomers I think they also look great just as a single variety on its own. Figure about 3-4 plants per 10” basket, adding a plant for every 2” you increase in basket size.

The SuperCal’s are not available from seed, only from vegetative liners for commercial growers. There are currently 9 different SuperCal varieties available right now: Cherry, Terracotta, Neon Rose, Pink Ice (New!), Blue, Velvet, Purple and Vanilla Blush. Terracotta is a pretty fun color, and the new Pink Ice is eye-popping. And there are more on the way – can’t wait to see them! In the meantime, try out the current SuperCal’s – they’re gaining ground with good reason. Home gardeners - be sure to ask for SuperCal by name at your local garden center.

Fun Foliage

2012-01-12T13:01:00.001-05:00

When my interest in horticulture was developing a number of years ago, one of the projects I undertook was growing a coleus plant into an herbaceous ‘tree’. At that time, coleus was often used as a houseplant. The instructions were to take a single plant, pinch the young leaves off the top part of the plant and strip the leaves from the bottom part of the plant. Over time the base of the plant developed a slight woody stem and the upper part became the crown of the ‘tree’. It was great fun!

Of course now you see coleus used most often in gardens, landscapes and containers. It’s one of the few shade annuals around which provide a solution to many shady garden situations. More recently we’ve come to enjoy a number of new coleus varieties that’ll also tolerate partial to fun sun. That’s a great advancement in the horticultural world!

A new variety this year is a novel concept that’s combined two coleus varieties into a one pellet so that when you sow, the pellet dissolves and the seeds germinate and grow together, creating a lovely combination of color. Coleus Under the Sun is a blend of Versa Crimson Gold and Versa Lime. Fortunately the Versa varieties grow very well in both sun and shade. We grew it in a container that by summer’s end was fully filled out and gorgeous.

Winter Chill Brings Warm Thoughts of Spring Flowers

2012-01-09T11:44:00.000-05:00

Even in January, thoughts of spring planting come to mind. Truthfully, it hasn’t been much of a winter here in Rochester so far. A few minor freezes and some snow flurries here and there. But nothing of the magnitude that we’ve come to expect from living near one of our Great Lakes. Even so, my thoughts turn to garden color with ideas of what to plant outdoors in just a few months.

We trialed a number of new varieties this summer in our Harris Seeds and home gardens, many with great success. One in particular is a new Angelonia named Serena Blue. There are a number of Angelonia varieties available, but only one series is available from seed, and it stands apart from the rest by virtue of a shorter height (10 - 14") and more flower spikes on a squatty plant habit (12 - 14" wide). I planted Serena Blue last summer in a container by itself and also in a basket paired with Begonia Dragonwing Red. Both looked great and flowered all summer long.

I believe Angelonia is a genus that is underutilized. It loves full sun, is heat and drought tolerate and tolerate a slight frost. Who wouldn’t want to grow these beauties? Give Angelonia a try this summer – Serena Blue and Serena White are my two favorites.

Growing Flowers of Hope

2011-05-25T15:42:00.004-04:00

I woke up on Tuesday to the news of Joplin, Missouri, and the devastation they’ve recently endured. Joplin is just the latest in a string of debilitating weather this spring that has impacted vast portions of the mid-west, deep-south and south eastern parts of the U.S.

We’ve had record rainfall here in Rochester, NY, and I confess, we’ve been sighing and bemoaning the fact we can’t get our trial beds worked up or our plants put into the ground yet. Well the hand wringing stops now – because the poor spring weather we’ve experienced is inconsequential compared to the magnitude that people have endured in other parts of our country.

Recently I’ve been struggling with how to write about pretty flowers on this blog when all this devastation is going on around us. Then it occurred to me: Some of you are re-building your lives so you can’t even begin to think about flower gardening right now. But those of us who’ve been less impacted might be able to send a little cheer your way with flowers. If you know of someone who has been hurt by any of the debilitating weather this year, please consider growing them some flowers of hope this summer. It may be something as simple as growing them a few bouquets of zinnias or sunflowers. Or perhaps we can help them replant some of their gardens and include some flowers as a counter-offensive frontline of cheer.

Providing flowers for encouragement is only one of many opportunities to help. For those of us who are also vegetable gardeners, maybe we can grow a few extra vegetables to share with those who will be recouping their losses this summer. These are just a few thoughts that come to mind, I’m sure there’s lots more.

For any of my readers who’ve been hurt by this seasons destructive weather, please know my thoughts and prayers are with you. My hope is that having flowers in our lives helps to remind us all of nature’s beauty instead of its destructive power, and that life is a circle. Seeds germinate, plants grow, flowers bloom, and then new seeds are born. From every ending arises a new beginning, and with it - hope.

California Spring Trials – A Peek into the Future

2011-04-11T11:24:00.016-04:00

Each spring members of the Harris Seeds staff venture out to California for a week’s worth of flower trials. This event has been in place in some shape or form since the late 1970’s, allowing the breeding companies of ornamentals to showcase their plant material. During the last week in March, Plug & Liner Mgr., Mark Greene and I traveled over 600 miles from Gilroy down to San Diego, visiting 12 different sites that represented about 25 different breeders. Although it’s somewhat intense in scope, it’s always a fun trip because we get a firsthand look at new variety introductions that will show up in garden centers the following year. While most consumers are eagerly sowing, buying or planting flowers or ornamentals for their current spring and summer gardens, this trip really kicks off our entry into the new growing season (2011-2012), and it’s the event where I make final decisions on what new products to add to our product line up for both professional greenhouse growers and for our home garden mail order business. Here are a few highlights below from our trip:

Dahlia Fireworks: I’m not normally a big fan of seed dahlias, but this mixture can’t help but catch your eye. Available in our home garden catalog and website now. May be available in some garden centers this spring and summer.

Dahlia Fireworks

Dianthus Diana Lavender Picotee: Unique color for this type of Dianthus. Outstanding color! Available in our catalog and website July, 2011. Available in garden centers spring 2012.

Dianthus Diana Lavender Picotee

Flowering Kale Glamour Red: Check out the very dark outer foliage on this new 2011 All-America Selections Winner! That’s very unusual for an ornamental kale and makes the contrast of the rose-red centers even more outstanding. Available on our website now. May be available in some garden centers this spring and summer.

Flowering Kale Glamour Red

Coleus Under the Sun: This combination is unique because seeds of two varieties in the Versa series (Lime and Crimson Gold) are combined into 1 pellet. This allows you to sow and grow it on as a combo right from the start. The color combination is great, and this particular series of seed coleus tolerates sun as much as it does shade! Available in our catalog and website July, 2011. Available in garden centers spring 2012.

Coleus Under the Sun

Cantigny– A Jewel in the Midwest

2011-01-19T12:07:00.001-05:00

During the course of this blog, you’ll find me writing about various public gardens that I’ve visited over the years. I usually come away from these visits more inspired than ever because they are chock full of beautiful and creative flower bed designs, along with very imaginative ideas for both ground and container plantings.

This past summer I visited Cantigny, located in the Chicagoland area. I’d been there some years before, but had forgotten how truly beautiful it is. To give you a little bit of background about Cantigny, it is a sprawling, 500-acre park that is composed of vast formal gardens, two history-rich museums, and more. It had started off in the early 1930’s as an experimental agricultural farm owned by Chicago Tribune’s owner Colonel Robert R. McCormick. In 1955, landscape architect Franz Lipp was hired to design and build a world class horticultural garden. Today it is one of the largest display gardens in the Midwest with more than 160,000 annuals, perennials, ground covers and flowering shrubs and trees.

It was hard to know where to start because your eye is drawn in every direction with plant color and texture. They offer a number of different types of gardens including formal gardens, a rose garden, an idea garden, a prairie/savannah garden and a reflection point. One garden in particular took my breath away. It was a long, curving bed that consisted of drifts of 3 different salvia varieties (S. farinacea ‘Victoria Blue’, S. farinacea’ Fairy Queen’, and S. splendens ‘Flare’). The way in which it was planted, and the combination of colors rather gave the entire large bed a ‘Monet-esque’ quality. Some visitors were so enamored with the effect they wanted their pictures taken right in the middle of the bed. Apparently the bees and butterflies felt the same way because they too were in high attendance!

I also really enjoyed their Idea Garden that had a number of different creative designs for flowers, foliage and vegetables, all in an abundance of different settings.

I highly recommend making Cantigny a stopping point if you’re traveling near Chicago. Plan to spend at least half a day there, longer if you want to include the museums. We had lunch at their restaurant (quite yummy!), and their coffee bar was most enjoyable. Oh! They had ice cream too - can’t forget that! Click here to go to their website.

A Very Nifty Begonia

2011-01-06T14:36:00.009-05:00

Gryphon Begonia

We grew a new begonia introduction this summer that is pretty wild. Usually garden (wax) or tuberous begonias are more commonly known and appreciated for their flowers in gardens and baskets. This new Begonia will be best known for its amazing foliage. It is named ‘Gryphon’ because according to the breeding company that produces it, “The Gryphon is a mythical creature with the head and wings of an eagle, and the body of a lion. This superb foliage begonia combines the same majestic beauty with strength and durability.”

They certainly weren’t far off base with their description! The leaves are huge, lush and glossy and are held on long, super strong and sturdy stems. You’ll want a large planter to grow it in as a final product. I grew it at home in a big planter with New Guinea Impatiens, and by the end of August you could barely find the Impatiens. Not that I minded, because Gryphon on its own was just spectacular. It is hard to imagine that one large plant originally came out of a teeny weeny little seed pellet!

Gryphon Begonia Leaf

They take a bit of time to germinate (10-12 days) and note that a saturated media and high relative humidity is critical for seed to germinate successfully. Plan on 13-20 weeks from sowing to point of sale, depending on what size container you’re growing it in. For home gardeners who want to grow their own from seed, figure 8-9 weeks from sow to transplant into a 4-5 inch pot. Grow it on for another 5-6 weeks, and then you’ll want to move it into your large container. (We used whiskey barrels here at the company.) Once the plants are established you’ll find that Gryphon’s water needs are not too demanding and you’ll still get a very vigorous and showy plant. The breeder claims the plants can also be brought indoors, so I’ve already brought my planter at home inside to see how it fares over the winter months.

Based on what I’ve seen so far, I’m really sold on this new, novel foliage plant. I’ll be curious to know your thoughts as well. More neat plant varieties coming up - Check back again soon!

The Regal Poinsettia – A Holiday Tradition

2010-12-23T14:18:00.014-05:00

Ice Punch

My boss gave me a Poinsettia plant yesterday as a Christmas gift, and it is truly lovely. There are a few of my friends that fall into the ‘anti-Poinsettia’ crowd, but you can count me in with the rest of us who not only love Poinsettias, but feel that the holiday season wouldn’t be the same without them!

Check out a few fun Poinsettia factoids:

They are native to Mexico
They are a member of the Eurphorbia genus (E. pulcherrima)
Their colorful ‘flowers’ are not true flowers, but rather are bracts or modified leaves. The actual flowers are those little round clusters in the center of the bract
Poinsettias were first introduced in the United States in the early 1800’s
Serious poinsettia breeding began in the 1950’s through both public and private breeding programs
The traditional red Poinsettia represents over 70% of the total market, followed by white, pink and marble types
There are over 100 varieties of Poinsettias available in the marketplace
Poinsettias are grown commercially using plant cuttings, not from seed
The production cycle for Poinsettias is generally about 7 months - from producing and rooting cuttings to the final flowering plant at retail

I have a huge traditional red poinsettia at home that graces my entryway and is reflected in a hallway mirror, so I get double bang for the buck in terms of brilliant Christmas color. The lovely plant (pictured) Dick gave me represents some of the newer Poinsettia breeding that gives this traditional holiday plant additional appeal.

Best wishes to all of you for a joyful and safe holiday season!
Vicky

More Ornamentals Trials Chit Chat – All-America Selections Trials at Harris Seeds

2010-12-06T11:35:00.003-05:00

I thought you might be interested to read about the All-America Selections trials that are part of the Harris Seeds trial grounds. First of all, it might be helpful to know what AAS is all about:

The mission of All-America Selections is “To promote new garden seed varieties with superior garden performance judged in impartial trials in North America.” AAS oversees a collaborative testing program involving horticultural professionals all across the United States and Canada. It is a non-profit organization that is governed by a Board consisting of four officers and six directors.

Plant breeders and developers submit new, unreleased flower and vegetable seed varieties to AAS for evaluation. The plants are then grown and tested at more than 50 independent sites located in North America. A test site is a trial garden or trial ground, and is usually part of a seed company trial ground, university, professional grower site, or other horticultural institution such as a botanical garden. Each trial ground has at least one official AAS judge, a horticultural professional that has been approved by the AAS Board of Directors. The judge supervises the trial and evaluates entries for AAS at no charge. The objective is to have well managed sites in different parts of North America.

The judges evaluate AAS trials all season, reporting their scores each fall. AAS uses an independent accounting firm to tabulate the scores and calculate the average score of each entry. Only the entry with the highest average score is considered for a possible AAS Award. The AAS judges determine which, if any, new unsold entries have proven superior qualities to be introduced as AAS Winners.

AAS relies upon a public relations program to inform gardeners about AAS Winners as they are released. About to celebrate its 80^th anniversary, AAS continues as the oldest, most established international testing plant organization in North America.

Harris Seeds is an official AAS Vegetable and Flower trial ground. Mark Willis, our vegetable product manager, is the AAS vegetable judge, and I am the AAS flower judge. Each year we sow, plant and grow the entries along with the recommended comparisons that come from AAS. In addition, the AAS office also sends each trial site the most recent AAS winners, as well as any ‘holdover’ winners. A ‘holdover’ is an entry that has achieved a high enough score to merit an award, but it has not yet been released because the breeding company is working on producing enough seed for a release.

It’s really enjoyable to evaluate these trials for a few reasons. It’s fun to see what new varieties are coming down the pipeline, and to observe why a breeder may think it has superior qualities to what is already in the marketplace. When an entry is scored high enough to merit an award, it tells me that it is has proven performance across the U.S. and Canada because it had to score high across a number of different climatic areas of North America. That gives me confidence that growers and gardeners will be successful in growing an AAS winner. I also like being able to see the more recent winners and holdovers again because our summers can vary enough that it gives us an opportunity to observe consistency of performance over a few seasons.

Marigold Moonsong Deep Orange

Recent AAS flower winners are Echinacea PowWow Wild Berry, Marigold Moonsong Orange, Zinnia Zahara Double Cherry, and Zinnia Zahara Double Fire. Plus AAS has just announced the first batch of 2011 winners. I’ll be sharing more with you about all of these winners very soon.

If you think I’m dangling the proverbial carrot, you’re right! So stay tuned.

What Worked and What Didn’t? – Part II

2010-11-30T13:22:00.001-05:00

In my previous post I talked about the parts of our flower trials this summer that were pretty successful, and what we liked.

What didn’t work:

One of the reasons we trial varieties is to make sure they grow and perform well. Inevitably, we’re bound to run into a couple of boo boo’s. For years we’ve been offering a couple of ornamental millets, Purple Majesty and Jester. You either love ‘em or hate ‘em, as the saying goes. But they ARE pretty intriguing, and very popular. So this year we decided to trial some ornamental corn that is being promoted not so much for the cob, but for the colorful or variegated foliage. You may have heard of Stars and Stripes as one of these varieties. I can tell you with absolute certainty that these types did not look good in our trials at all! The plants grew with green foliage and didn’t produce any other color (they were supposed to be white, pink, purple and green stripes and streaks!) until they were about 6 feet tall and ¾ of the way through the summer. Needless to say, we will not be picking this type up - sorry.

We trialed a new variety called Rumex Bloody Dock. It’s in the sorrel family, looks a lot like beet leaves, but leafier, and has a really striking network of blood red veins running through the leaves. We grew it as a border in one of our large circular beds, and that was clearly a poor decision. We had high heat and humidity this summer and they just didn’t care for that too much. The color contrast faded, leaving us with plants that looked rather washed out. I think a better use for something like this is as a foliage component in a combination planter. The young plants form a really pretty rosette of leaves where the veining will stand out more, and will complement other flowering annuals.

There is still more to tell you about what we came away with from our flower trials this summer. Stay tuned!

What Worked and What Didn’t? – Part I

2010-11-23T09:45:00.009-05:00

Our company is surrounded by garden beds where we do our best to plant as many of the new flower introductions as possible. This spring additional beds were created so we can trial even more material than in the past. We planted a few bedding varieties, but concentrated more on direct sown cut flower varieties due to some logistical issues.

With October now fully behind us and a few frosts under our belt, we’ve finished pulling up the flowers and have finalized our notes on what worked and what didn’t.

What worked:

We ran a full sunflower trial for both dwarf potted plant types and tall cutting types. I was very impressed with some of the newer pollenless sunflower varieties that have been coming out of Israel. Most breeding these days is focused on sunflowers that are single stemmed (one flower per stem vs. multi-branched) and that do not produce pollen. Polleness flowers keep the flower disks very clean making for a neater, sharper looking flower. One in particular, Helios Flame, really caught our attention. In the dwarf pot and garden types, we really liked Micro Sun (pictured). It had darker leaves than most, was really well branched, and was chock full of flowers. I’ll keep you posted as to when we pick them up and have them available.

An interesting cosmos also caught our eye in these trials. While most cosmos are tall (4-5 feet) and bushy, this one is shorter (only 3 ft. tall) but still has a nice bushy plant habit. The color made us really take notice, as I haven’t seen this particular shade in cosmos before. I’m not sure if the color will translate well in this blog, but it was a nice deep carmine-red, almost bordering on maroon. Very striking. Stay tuned on this one tool!

For some reason I’ve steered away from Amaranthus in the past - can’t say exactly why. So this year we grew a few in our trials and now I’m an Amaranthus groupie! Although none of these are new, I really loved the drooping types (Love-Lies-Bleeding) in both a dark red (A. caudatus red) and a chartreuse green (A. viridus green). You’ll find both of these newly listed in our catalogs and website. I’ll also be picking up the very popular ‘Dreadlocks’ variety (pictured) in the near future. All will create an intriguing, funky look to gardens, and also make great cut flowers to use in arrangements and wreaths. Give them a try and let me know what you think!

Not every trial is successful. My next post will address some of those ‘less than successful’ plantings. Stay tuned!

2010-11-11T20:19:00.004-05:00

Welcome to Harris Seeds’ Ornamentals Blog!

My name is Vicky Rupley and I am the Ornamentals Manager and Vice-President of Harris Seeds. For those of you who have visited the Harris Seeds company blog (launched in February, 2010), you may be asking, “What’s the difference between the two blogs?” The Harris Seeds company blog covers a range of topics that pertain to agriculture, our industry, and the Harris Seeds product categories such as vegetables, ornamentals, live plant material, growing supplies, etc. This new ornamentals blog focuses almost entirely on ornamentals. For simplicity’s sake we view ornamentals as flowering and or foliage plants that are used for ornamentation in the garden or landscape.

With so much to talk about, where does one start! You’ll find that most of the topics discussed in this blog will reflect our customers’ interest in ornamentals, and at times may be tailored towards professional growers, sometimes to the home gardener, or often to both. Regardless of your preference, I’m assuming that if you’re interested in this blog, it means that you love growing, working with, and being around plants.

Like many of you, I love working and playing with plants! At Harris Seeds we get involved in both the technical aspects of producing plants from seed or transplants, as well as how different varieties will perform and interact with each other and in the landscape. Personally, I’m drawn most to plant color, shape and texture, and how they look and interact with each other. So you’ll probably find a lot of discussion centered on those themes.

The business side of working in the seed and plant industry is also pretty intriguing and is really enjoyable. To see how varieties are bred and produced, and then moved along the market chain right up to the end user, is really interesting. On the personal side, our industry is composed of down to earth people who have the best interests of the customer in mind. They are knowledgeable, passionate about their product, often very humorous, and awfully fun to work with.

I’m so glad Harris Seeds sells both flowers and vegetables – there is a lot of truth to that old adage that while vegetables feed the body, flowers feed the soul. What a great combination! Take a look at the picture attached – don’t you think it illustrates that feeling of true joy that flowers can bring to us?

So once more, welcome to our new blog for ornamentals. There is much more to come. Stay tuned!