The Value of Growing Petchoa SuperCal®

Last winter I wrote a blog post about this relatively new genus and series. Now that the growing season has begun for next spring, it’s definitely worth revisiting the SuperCal series as they continue to grow in demand and popularity.


SuperCal Terracotta

What makes SuperCal unique is that they’re a genetic cross between the Petunia and Calibrachoa genera. What makes them a value is that the cross brings the best characteristics of each genus to the series, and pretty much gets rid of the icky traits. Examples: Large showy flowers (petunia genetics), non-sticky leaves (Calibrachoa), flower power (both), tolerance to high soil pH (petunia), self-cleaning plants (both), excellent performance in both cool and warm environments (both).



SuperCal Neon Rose

We conducted a thorough container trial of the SuperCal’s this summer at our facility here in Rochester, NY. Our unusually hot and dry summer really put this series to the test, and I must say we were very pleased with the overall results. The advantage for growers is the SuperCal’s can be grown cool, so that’s a nice energy savings. For the end user, the good news is they performed exceptionally well in high heat and direct sun! The claim of self-cleaning was evident in our trials throughout the summer. We never had to deadhead the plants – EVER. Consider that a nice energy savings on the consumer side!
 

My favorite of the series is Neon Rose. The containers were packed with flowers and the color really popped – two great traits. Rest assured there are several other colors that round out the series, such as new Blushing Pink, Blue, Cherry, Terracotta, Violet, and more.



I could go on and on about the SuperCals… and I will, but not today! You’ll be seeing more details about the SuperCal series as we progress towards spring. As a professional grower, if you haven’t added the SuperCal’s to your product line, here is a strong ‘heads up’ to consider them. The liners are available through our Plug & Liner program. 



SuperCal Blue

For home gardeners, be sure to ask for the SuperCal’s by name at your local garden center next spring. We are also working on a home gardener mail order transplant program that will include the SuperCal’s. Details of the program should be available by late November.

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Posted by Harris Seeds Ornamentals at 11:27 AM

That’s right! Even MORE New Flower Introductions for 2013!

Can you tell that there’s a plethora of new intro’s for the 2013 gardening season? And I’m not even done yet! Today’s post wraps up the new variety highlights. And guess what - there are even more in addition to what I’ve covered in these last four blog posts! Stay tuned as I’ll be covering some of these in more detail throughout the year. In the meantime, take peek below. Clicking here will give you even more detail of the varieties below.

Vegetative Liners

• Super Bells® Lemon Slice Calibrachoa – This new Proven Winners® variety has looked bright and zesty in the trials I’ve visited this spring and summer. Plants are covered in lemon yellow and white flowers in a distinctive star pattern.

  

  Super Bells® Lemon Slice Calibrachoa

• SunPatiens® Compact Electric Orange New Guinea Impatiens – This new, high-impact color lights up SunPatiens’ 2013 line. You’ll be hearing more from me about the entire SunPatiens series during the course of the season!

  

  SunPatiens® Compact Electric Orange New Guinea Impatiens

• Calliope® Hot Pink Geranium – The award-winning interspecific Calliope series welcomes three new colors, including bold Hot Pink. Superior branching fills containers quickly for a premium finish.

  

  Calliope® Hot Pink Geranium

• Clio Magenta Cleome – This upright bushy newcomer provides inspiration in both gardens and large containers.

  

  Clio Magenta Cleome

• SuperCal® Artist Rose Petchoa – The SuperCal’s are gaining in recognition, and deservedly so. New Artist Rose provides a nice color addition to this fantastic series. You’ll be hearing more from me about the entire SuperCal series during the course of the season!

  

  SuperCal® Artist Rose Petchoa

• New multi-liners galore! There are a number of new multi-liner combinations from various breeders. Consider multi-liners of Proven Winners, and Celebrations, of Trixi’s and Mixi’s, of Kwik Combo’s™ and more! Click here for just a snapshot of multi-liner combo’s. More detail to follow as we go through the season. Stay tuned!

  

  Multi-Liners

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Posted by Harris Seeds Ornamentals at 3:08 PM

More Enticing New Flower Introductions for 2013

In my last post a few of the many new flower seed introductions were highlighted that will be available for the 2013 gardening season. This post spotlights a sampling of the many new vegetative introductions that are available to grow this season. All are available through our plug & liner program. Clicking here will give you even more detail of the varieties below.

Vegetative Liners

• Calipetite Calibrachoas – Wow, did these turn our heads in trials this spring! Calipetite offers neat bursts of color in pots, containers, and window boxes.    

  

  Calipetite Calibrachoas

  
 
• SunPatiens® Compact Electric Orange New Guinea Impatiens – This new, high-impact color lights up SunPatiens’ 2013 line. You’ll be hearing more from me about the entire SunPatiens series during the course of the season!

  

  SunPatiens® Compact Electric Orange New Guinea Impatiens

  
• Calliope® Hot Pink Geraniums – The award-winning interspecific Calliope series welcomes three new colors, including bold Hot Pink. Superior branching fills containers quickly for a premium finish. 



Calliope® Hot Pink Geraniums


• Colorblaze® Keystone Kopper Coleuses – This new Proven Winners® sun coleus will catch your eye with its rich, deep copper foliage. It makes a great landscape coleus. Also be sure to check out its new companion Colorblaze Marooned!

  

  Colorblaze® Keystone Kopper Coleuses

  
• Petunia Ray Sunflower – It’s unique alright. Check out the dark maroon and yellow starred pattern of this conversation-starter!

  

  Petunia Ray Sunflower

  
• SuperCal® Artist Rose Petchoas – The SuperCal’s are gaining in recognition, and deservedly so. New Artist Rose provides a nice color addition to this fantastic series. You’ll be hearing more from me about the entire SuperCal series during the course of the season!

  

  SuperCal® Artist Rose Petchoas

  
• Lanai® Candy Cane Verbenas – I’ve really enjoyed the color pattern of this addition to the Lanai series. It’s performed beautifully all summer long in a hanging basket at home and put a twinkle in my eye.

  

  Lanai® Candy Cane Verbenas

  
• Pardon My Purple Monardas – This new Proven Winners® Monarda caught my attention with its nice short plant stature. It can be grown for the fronts of perennial gardens and used in mixed containers.

If you’re a home gardener, be sure to bookmark this page so you can ask for the varieties by name next spring at your local garden center!

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Posted by Harris Seeds Ornamentals at 5:12 PM

Last Day of California Spring Trials – Thursday – Part 2

My previous blog post covered our visit to the Proven Winners group on the last day of our California Spring Trial tour last week. We also visited Benary, Suntory, and The Plug Connection that same day. All are located down in the San Diego area.

Without a doubt, the standout introduction at Benary’s trial was their new Begonia boliviensis Santa Cruz Sunset. The flower form is different from what we’re accustomed to, and has recently become more popular. The vigorous plants fill out hanging baskets and large planters for a stunning display of color. Note that Santa Cruz Sunset is the first boliviensis type Begonia available from seed!

Suntory had a few new additions to their renowned Calibrachoa Million Bells series that are worth noting. Million Bells Tropical Delight made a great presentation with its contrasting red eye and veins against the yellow background. Also new is the very attractive Million Bells Bouquet Amethyst.

  

Visiting The Plug Connection’s trial was a great way to for us to recap the trip because they are a grower who brings in the new introductions from the breeding companies and compares them against commercially available varieties. It affords us an opportunity to see how they truly size up to what is already on the market. Also, each year they take one vegetative genus and grow a complete trial of it. For the seed part of the trial, I was especially interested to see how the new genetically dwarf petunia Duvet and EZRider series performed against the already established Limbo series. Based on pack and pot performance, my observations were that the Limbo’s still appeared to be as dwarf or more compact than either of the two new series. But I’m also waiting to see how all 3 series perform against each other in our garden trials this summer. The Plug Connection grew the compact versions of Calibrachoa for their specialty trial this year. It was an excellent comparison to see the Callie, Noa, Million Bells Bouquet, Lindura, Minifamous, and Calipetite series all grown together. I have to say I was most taken with the Calipetite series. This series is bred by Sakata, and although I hadn’t mentioned it in last week’s blog when we visited Sakata, we did notice it at their trial. What stands out about this series is how truly compact it is. While everyone assumes Calibrachoa is trailing and vigorous, Calipetite appears to be sweet, neat and petite! They are perfect candidates for using on their own in pots or as a component in combo planters for a touch of bright color.

    

The Plug Connection (one of our plug and liner suppliers) also introduced their Mighty ‘Mato grafted tomato program last year. It’s been very well received and their plan is to expand the program to include a few more tomato varieties and also bring in Eggplants and Peppers.

This wraps up our annual California Spring Trial tour. As much as I enjoy this trip to observe each season’s new products and catch up with industry colleagues, it’s always nice to return home to terra firma! For more pictures of our last day of trials, be sure to visit us on Facebook!

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Posted by Harris Seeds Ornamentals at 8:04 AM

Last Day of California Spring Trials – Thursday

Last Thursday was our last day visiting the CA Spring Trials. I apologize for not blogging sooner- after all, it’s been almost a week! We returned on Friday and I’ve been in ‘catch up’ mode since then.

Anyway, Thursday was a great way to wrap up our intensive Spring Trials trip. We visited the Proven Winners group, Benary, Suntory, and The Plug Connection. All are located down in the San Diego area.

Having written a blog post about Proven Winners® just prior to our trip, I was eager to visit them to see what we could look forward to for next season, and I wasn’t disappointed. By far the most impressive 2013 intro is Calibrachoa Superbells Lemon Slice. Developed from a sport off of SB Yellow, this new addition presents a totally unique color pattern of creamy white with a bright yellow broad star. The pattern appeared, and has been confirmed, to be extremely consistent. It looked spectacular in a hanging basket. If you’re a plant junkie, then no doubt you’re familiar with Supertunia Pretty Much Picasso. Now this popular variety has a new sibling named Supertunia Picasso in Pink. Both have the very distinctive lime green margin, but while SPMP offers a lilac-rose center, SPIP’s center is more in the dark pink part of the color wheel. Perhaps more distinctive is the habit of this new intro. Everything about it is a tad tighter and more compact, creating a nice full basket or container.

  

Other highlights in the PW annuals section were a striking Lantana called Luscious Berry Blend, Lobularia (Alyssum) Blushing Princess, - a companion to the popular Snow Princess, and a very eye-catching Coleus Colorblaze Keystone Kopper.

    

PW perennials have gained diversity since Walters Gardens joined the group last year. Perennial highlights that caught my eye were a new Dianthus series – Fruit Punch, and two great looking dwarf Monarda varieties: Pardon My Pink and Pardon My Purple. I was really taken with these because of their 12” bushy, clumpy plant habit that is atypical of Monarda. Note both these varieties will need vernalization.

For more pictures of Proven Winners, be sure to visit us on Facebook. And stay tuned this Friday when I’ll finish up the Spring Trial tour with our visits to Benary, Suntory and The Plug Connection!

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Posted by Harris Seeds Ornamentals at 4:43 PM

California Spring Trials – Tuesday

It was a full flower trial day on Tuesday with visits to Gro Link, Westhoff, Plant Haven, and PanAmerican Seed, all located in the Ventura area.

Gro-Link is a leading breeder of Chrysanthemums, so we spent a fair amount of time reviewing the new introductions as well as learning which series or families are bred for early, mid and late season flowering. Although yellow and red are the 2 top selling ‘mum’ colors, I have to admit my favorite new variety for 2013 from their trial is Magnus Violet, which was really more in the rose-pink color range. A close second is Staviski Yellow.

Westhoff is always fun to visit because of their wonderful selection of annuals. I was most taken with their Verbena Estrella series, especially the new Estrella Voodoo Pink Star, and an as yet unnamed lilac-hued variety. Awesome color! Their new Calibrachoa Celebration Peach Mango also caught my eye with its consistent orange eye on a creamy yellow background.

  

We stopped by Florist Holland, the breeders of the magnificent large outdoor Gerbera Patio series. Nothing new here, but they are well worth considering with their huge, semi-double blooms. Look for names like Bryce Canyon or Everglades, all are named after National Parks, etc. The Flori Line series of Gerbera are also worth considering. They are more of typical Gerbera flower size, but have a vast array of flower types and colors. New this year is a nice pastel, FloriLine Midi Monet.

Our last visit for the day was PanAmerican Seed where we had a thorough tour of their new seed introductions. We also had a chance to look at the new vegetative material from Selecta. Highlights at PanAm included a new dark purple to almost black Petunia Sophistica Blackberry. Its plant habit is more open with a few less flowers than most of the other Sophistica grandifloras, but it’ll look great when it’s interplanted with other petunia colors like the new Sophistica Lime Green. Other PanAmerican highlights include trailing Pansy Cool Wave, Coleus Chocolate Covered Cherry and Petunia Shock Wave Deep Purple.

  

Selecta is well known for the great combinations in their Trixi Liner program, and they’ve added 5 new blends to their lineup. My favorite of the new group is ‘Out of the Blue’ featuring Bidens Namid Yellow, Lobelia Magadi Dark Blue, and Verbena Lascar White. Their new double Osteo 3D Berry White is also not to be missed, combining creamy outer petals with a violet center.

  

For more pictures be sure to visit us on Facebook!

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Posted by Harris Seeds Ornamentals at 10:59 AM

California Spring Trials – Monday

Yesterday we visited Sakata Seeds in Salinas and Floranova in Lompoc. At Sakata, I was very pleased to see that they’ve added more varieties to their Petchoa SuperCal® series. The varieties in this nice series are crosses between Calibrachoa and Petunia. If you haven’t tried them growing them yet, you’ll want to in the future, because they exhibit all the best traits of both genera. The SuperCals have the flower power and non-sticky leaves of Calibrachoa, and the better pH adaptablilty and larger flowers of Petunias. New for 2013 are 3 varieties: SuperCal Artist Rose, Blushing Pink and Violet. SuperCal’s make great baskets and containers, but also have proven performance in garden beds.

We also spent time discussing the attributes of the sun-loving New Guinea Impatiens series called SunPatiens®. They’ve been on the market for a few years now and are increasing in sales momentum as growers, landscapers and home gardeners gain experience growing them. SunPatiens come in 3 different types: compact, vigorous and upright, so there is a place for them in just about every setting. We learned that the SunPatiens varieties are not only unique because they thrive in full sun, but also their root system differs from other New Guinea Impatiens. They form more of a columnar root that can grow down to almost 2 feet, helping them to become more firmly established. New in SunPatiens this upcoming year are Compact Electric Orange, Vigorous Blush Pink and an improved Compact White.

Floranova’s trial this year featured their recent foray into home garden vegetables with their Vegetalis patio vegetable product line. Be sure to check out Cayennetta Pepper, a 2012 All-American Selections winning cayenne chili pepper, a nice patio pepper that is loaded with colorful fruit. I was intrigued with the newest addition to their Ikon begonias called Ikon Bronze. The plants are vigorous and produce pendulous pink blossoms that nicely offset the dark bronze foliage. It’ll be a great item for large patio planters and hanging baskets.

Today we’ll be visiting Gro Link, Westhoff, Plant Haven, and PanAmerican Seed, all located in the Ventura area, so stay tuned!

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Posted by Harris Seeds Ornamentals at 11:37 AM

What Makes SuperCal’s so Super

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.

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Posted by Harris Seeds Ornamentals at 11:07 AM