Each spring Bob Morgan and Larry Volkening walk into their neighborhood garden center and ask the question every adventurous gardener wants to know: “What’s new?”
They usually go home with several dozen new perennials and somehow find room to plant them in their water- wise gardens in Denver.
“We’re always trying new plants,” Morgan says. “It keeps things from getting boring.”
The answer to what’s new helps drive the country’s multibillion-dollar ornamental horticulture industry. Every year gardeners scour mail-order catalogs and visit far-flung nurseries searching for exciting new plants.
“We’re catching up to the Europeans’ fervor for special plants,” says Kelly Grummons, owner and chief horticulturist at Timberline Gardens in Arvada. “Gardeners are less pragmatic now. It’s more about feeding the plant frenzy. They have to have what’s hot and new.”
Helping to fuel the frenzy is the growing number of slick gardening magazines, home and garden television programs, and creative marketing campaigns. Martha Stewart made gardening fashionable, Grummons says.
Gurus stoke sales
Local gardening gurus and authors, such as Lauren Springer Ogden and Rob Proctor, also are partly to blame. “People get excited after hearing them lecture, and they want to buy everything they’ve heard about,” says Grummons.
Hundreds of new seeds and plants are introduced into the green industry every year. With every catalog and garden center touting amazing new additions, a gardener has to wonder: Is any plant really new?
“All plants have some genetic relative to everything on earth,” says Al Gerace, chief executive of Welby Gardens, grower of Hardy Boy bedding plants. “So far we haven’t found any plant material on the moon.”
Many new products are hybrids of established lines that offer bolder colors, improved disease resistance, or greater hardiness. One new plant, the Calitunia, combines the best qualities of the calibrachoa and petunia.
“This cross is totally new to the marketplace,” Gerace says. “It’s beautiful and holds up to multiple climates.”
New plants might simply be a superior variety of a plant that has been available for years. Even old favorites like Majestic pansies and Big Boy tomatoes have undergone improvements.
Some new plants may be a species never seen before. Intrepid plant hunters continue to travel to remote areas of the globe seeking new plants to bring back for propagation.
The pressure for new items
“The pressure for new plants is intense, and it’s coming from everywhere,” says Brian Corr, product group director for new crops at Ball Horticultural Co. ” ‘What’s new?’ is the first question the consumer asks at the garden center, the garden center asks the supplier, the supplier asks the company owner, and the company owner asks the plant breeder.”
Like the latest fashion trend or ultra-high-tech gadget, the horticulture industry needs to continue to evolve and make meaningful changes. “We’re constantly improving plants, like the weird and wonderful Angelonia. We now have colors that didn’t exist in the past,” says Corr.
Although the basics of plant breeding are fairly clear-cut, getting a successful result can take years of experimenting and testing. Most seed and plant companies won’t introduce their new cultivars into the marketplace unless they perform well at multiple garden trial sites.
The trialing process helps prevent a potential plant disaster for the grower who thinks a new perennial will thrive in Zone 4 when in reality it grows best in Zone 8.
Ball conducts plant trials at sites around the country and the world, and in collaboration with universities including the the University of Minnesota and Colorado State University.
Every year Welby Gardens holds annual trials for a variety of seed and plant companies. All-America Selections, the oldest international testing organization in North America, uses the trial process to declare “winners” among new seed varieties.
Field trials for plants
During a field trial, plants are evaluated based on qualities like growing habit, time of bloom, disease resistance, and whether the color stays vibrant or fades in the intense Colorado sun.
“If it’s a variegated color, all of the flowers have to have the same white edge and have the same size of edge,” says Debi Borden-Miller, Welby’s marketing coordinator. “The plant has to be consistent in size, especially if it’s a plant we’ll sell to landscapers.”
For plants to be added to the garden center’s line the following year, they have to perform well in the trial and offer some significant difference from the tried-and-true variety, Borden-Miller explains. “There has to be something unique that the customer wants, like a more disease-resistant zinnia, one that doesn’t show much powdery mildew.”
Welby’s Gerace attends the spring pack trials in California each year to see what more than 30 flower breeders and propagators showcase.
“I come back from the pack trials with about 200 pounds of new catalogs and 1,500 photos,” Gerace says. The trials also give him an idea of the amount of promotional buzz companies plan for their new introductions and a feel for any supply issues.
“There are a lot of dollars behind research,” Gerace says. “A company that gets behind a breeder program may have 300 or 400 plants, but only four will see the light of day in the marketplace.”
One of the most successful new introductions was in 1995, when Ball introduced the Wave Purple petunias. Now there’s a Ride the Wave family petunia in just about every size, color and flower form.
Companies may introduce all kinds of new products each year, but that doesn’t mean gardeners will always go for the newest flower on the block.
“We’ll probably sell more white impatiens and white petunias than any new product this year,” says Corr of Ball Horticultural. “But new plants are what drives interest, and it’s what gets people in the store.”
New for 2006:
Viola “Skippy XL Red-Gold” (All-America Selections) – Cool season bedding plant winner; ruby red with violet red shading below the golden yellow face, larger flower, continuous bloomer. Good for annual or perennial border, window box or container planting.
Zinnia “Zowie! Yellow Flame” All-American Selections flower winner; a semi-tall zinnia with bold bicolor pattern. Easy to grow, long flowering season from early summer to frost. Heat and fairly drought tolerant. Good for cutting with a long vase life.
Angelonia “AngelMist” – Annual that likes full sun in containers or landscape. Adds height and comes in a variety of colors.
Echinacea “Sundown” – One of a number of new hybrids in the Big Sky Series. A vigorous, long-flowering perennial coneflower in new orange and yellow colors.
Supertunia “Vista Bubblegum” (Proven Winners) – Voted as a Best of Show at Colorado State University, bright pink petunia is a low maintenance, vigorous grower that blooms all season; good as a ground cover or to spill over sides of a container.
Shasta Daisy “Broadway Lights” (Proven Winners) – Large-flowered daisy that opens bright yellow and lightens to white when it matures. Sturdy plant with continuous blooms; plant alone or use in container plantings.
Salvia daghestanica “Platinum Sage” (2006 Plant Select) – Slow spreading perennial ground cover or for use in the rock garden. Dark blue flower spires on silvery white mats of foliage.
Dolichos lablab “Ruby Moon Hyacinth Bean” (2006 Plant Select) – A vigorous mounding annual vine with dark burgundy foliage, amethyst flowers and dark violet bean pods in late summer. Very attractive on trellis or free flowing to cover a slope. Edible.
Agapanthus sp. “Cold Hardy White” (High Country Gardens) – Vigorous White Flowered African Lily forms clumps of deciduous, straplike foliage on numerous heads of pur white flowers in midsummer. Mulch heavily the first winter. Note: This plant already is sold out this year, but keep it in mind for next.
Agave toumeyana v. bella (High Country Gardens) – Only recently has enough seed been collected from this rare, cold-hardy plant to make it available to the public. This Miniature Century Plant’s thin, stiff leaves are edged with white stripes and curling white threads. Perfect in a rock garden or as a companion with xeric plants.
Brugmansia “Inca Sun” (Logee’s) – New hybrid is a prolific bloomer that is 2 feet tall with fragrant, trumpet-shaped, yellowish-peach flowers. Perfect for outside container; bring inside during the winter.
Hydrangea “Angel Song” (Hines Horticulture) – It’s named for the halo of light color that surrounds the edge of each blossom, and there are seven bicolored combinations in the Halo Hydrangeas collection. Grow in part to full shade with plenty of water. They will grow in some Zone 5 areas, or plant in containers.
