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

Exciting New Flower Introductions for 2013

After a full spring and summer of viewing and trialing new flower varieties, it’s exciting to bring you some highlights as our commercial grower customers start preparing for the 2013 spring selling season. Clicking on the links below will give you even more detail!

Flower Seeds and Plugs

• Serenita Angelonia – Bred to be shorter than the Serena’s, the series will be particularly useful in the South. Serenita Raspberry a unique color with a great habit and long lasting flower power.

  

  Serenita Angelonia

  
• Chocolate Covered Cherry Coleuses – I really like the color combination of this new sun coleus from seed, and was pleased to see that the color didn’t fade during our unusually hot and dry summer in our container trials. I recommend growing and selling it in large containers on its own, and not mixed with other annuals. 

  

  Chocolate Covered Cherry Coleuses

  
• Spring Matrix Pansies – This new pansy series was bred to flower up to 2 weeks earlier than Matrix. It will be a nice addition for the spring market primarily in the northeast and mid-west where the pansy selling season is short and sweet.
   
• Shock Wave Deep Purple Petunias – This is a great addition to the Shock Wave series, with a fantastic deep purple flower color. Use this better performing variety to replace the discontinued Shock Wave Purple. (Note: this variety is also available in Harris Seeds home garden packets.) 

  

  Shock Wave Deep Purple Petunias

  
• Happy Trails Portulacas – This is a nice new trailing Portulaca. I saw little difference in habit or performance outdoors compared to Sundial, but they are earlier in packs and pots for retail. Happy Trails also has a deep red color which you’ll not find in Sundial.

  

  Happy Trails Portulacas

  
• Cora Red Vincas – This is long awaited new color for the Cora Series vincas. It really was outstanding in the outdoor trials I visited this summer, with bright snappy color on a nice uniform plant habit. 

  

  Cora Red Vincas

  

If you’re a home gardener, you may want to bookmark any flower varieties in this list that interests you so you can ask for the varieties by name next spring at your local garden center. Stay tuned for my next blog post that will highlight some intriguing new 2013 vegetative annuals!

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Posted by Harris Seeds Ornamentals at 3:37 PM

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 – Wednesday

On Wednesday, Dick and I spent time at the Ecke Ranch, where we viewed their 2013 introductions and got reacquainted with a number of their excellent annual varieties.

Ecke is known for the Oglevee brand of geraniums that are known worldwide. New this year in their Elegance series of Regal Geraniums is Elegance Burgundy Frost. The dark maroon flowers with white margins are simply stunning. We were also drawn to their new Nordic Tuberous Begonia series. I especially liked Nordic Dawn. Both Nordic Dawn and Fire completely fill out baskets and are loaded with gorgeous pendulous blooms. Also be on the lookout for another new Tuberous Begonia series – Arcada. Seven colors are being introduced, all with large lush full double blooms that will knock your socks off. I didn’t have a favorite because I liked them all!

  

Another new annual that captured my attention at Ecke’s was Bacopa Atlas Lavender - a wonderful complement to last year’s new Atlas White. Both have beautiful extra-large flowers - a real plus with Bacopa. Also keep an eye out for Coleus Stained Glassworks Luminesce. I thought the strappy leaves of this variety just popped with color.

  

For more pictures be sure to visit us on Facebook!

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Posted by Harris Seeds Ornamentals at 1:42 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

Fun Foliage

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.

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Posted by Harris Seeds Ornamentals at 1:01 PM