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

In my previous 2 posts a few of the many new flower seed and vegetative introductions were highlighted that will be available for the 2013 gardening season. Today highlights even more new flower seed and plug varieties that are available to grow this season. All are available through our seed or plug programs. Clicking on the links below will give you even more detail.

Flower Seeds and Plugs

• Santa Cruz Sunset Begonia – The first B. boliviensis type begonia from seed, Santa Cruz Sunset has already won gardening awards this spring and summer. It’s an excellent item for hanging baskets and containers. Can be grown in full sun.

  

  Santa Cruz Sunset Begonia

• Sophistica Blackberry and Sophistica Lime Petunias – Both of these new Sophistica varieties held up well in our hot summer. I was pleased to see that Blackberry did not fade out at all, but rather became richer and deeper in color as summer progressed. Sophistica Lime held its lively yellow lime color all summer long.

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  Sophistica Blackberry and
  Sophistica Lime Petunias

• Picobella Cascade Petunia – This brand new series demonstrated very nice performance this summer. I would place it in the same class as the Shock Wave series. Both have tighter internodes resulting in a bushier spreading habit and smaller blooms than typical spreading seed petunias.

  

  Picobella Cascade Petunia

• Cheyenne Spirit Echinacea – This brand new AAS winner for 2013 is already the talk of the market. It possesses an excellent color range for Echinacea Mix from seed.

  

  Cheyenne Spirit Echinacea

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Posted by Harris Seeds Ornamentals at 9:33 AM

Spring Has Sprung…. Has It?

Back in early March we were experiencing record high temperatures across the country, giving everyone a premature taste of spring fever. This week it’s been a little colder than normal (at least here in Rochester), and although I’m itching to start planting my garden, the near freezing nighttime temps, tell me to wait, wait, wait.

Okay, if we have to wait, let’s whet our appetite a bit for some of that summer color we can look forward to in the very near future! I enjoy sharing our customers’ ornamentals growing experiences when possible, be they a home gardener or a professional grower, and thought you’d all enjoy the following commentary and pictures from one of our grower customers:

"I have owned a landscape business for 20 years. I built my first greenhouse on our property 7 years ago and started doing plant sales, the second greenhouse 2 seasons ago. My business is modest, but sales have increased every year about 50%. In that time I would say 90% of the seeds I have grown have come from Harris Seeds. Looking forward to next season."

Steve Schwab
Triple Diamond Yard & Garden

Holy Moly, look at the size of those containers!

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Posted by Harris Seeds Ornamentals at 1:31 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

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

Kudos to Container Gardening

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.

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Posted by Harris Seeds Ornamentals at 8:05 AM