July 2016 California Spring Trials

Roll Out the Red Carpet By Jasmina Dolce

Artemisia ‘Quicksilver’
Proven Winners
This stylish, heat- and drought- tolerant plant is recommended for combinations. It presents cool silver, dissected foliage and a spreading habit. ‘Quicksilver’ is also strong in the landscape and is an excellent choice for low- maintenance mass plantings.

Bacopa ‘Secrets Bomba Blue Sky’
Cohen Propagation Nurseries
Suitable for larger pot and basket production, Bomba Blue Sky is the newest addition to the Secrets lineup and features large calibrachoa-sized flowers. It has good basal branching and is easy to root.

Begonia ‘Funky Pink’
Benary
This novel and fun new begonia features “shredded” semi-double flowers. Because it is not truly trailing, it is easy to ship. It has similar cultural requirements as Nonstop begonias and exhibits great performance in mixed containers.

Begonia Topspin series
Syngenta Flowers
New Topspin begonias allow growers to grow begonias along with early spring annuals. They are tolerant to cool growing temperatures and have great field performance. Four colors and a mix are available.

Calibrachoa ‘Cabaret Orange’
Ball FloraPlant
The newest addition to the Cabaret series, calibrachoa ‘Cabaret Orange’ is bred to be the strongest orange on the market. Its color is certainly striking, and its growth and habit match the uniformity of the series.

Calibrachoa ‘Superbells Tropical Sunrise’
Proven Winners
A replacement for Tequila Sunrise, this new Superbells variety
bears a stable color pattern with orange, pink and coral tones. It has increased flower coverage and larger blooms that will look great in hanging baskets or combinations.

Calla lily ‘Peach Pazazz’
Golden State Bulb Growers
An experimental variety at last year’s trials, ‘Peach Pazazz’ has more of a bouquet effect with its spreading foliage. This new calla is versatile and can be used in the landscape or in containers.

Carex ‘Feather Falls’
Pacific Plug & Liner
This new grass is a vigorous, variegated carex that will perform in almost any landscape condition. Consumers will be happy it doesn’t burn and that it also thrives in shady areas.

Celosia Kelos Atomic series
Beekenkamp
Last year, Beekenkamp introduced the Kelos Fire series; this year, they now have Kelos Atomic. These celosia can be grown year- round in natural days. They are versatile in use and gardeners will love that they can be indoor and outdoor plants.

Celosia ‘Twisted Orange’
Ball Ingenuity
This striking orange Celosia cristata screams fall with its bold color. The Twisted series is easy to care for and offers good all- season garden performance.

Coleus Sea Monkey series
Hort Couture
The new Sea Monkey micro collection of Under the Sea coleus features true dwarf varieties that perform best in containers rather than in the landscape. They have the same leaf shape as best-selling Lime Shrimp. Colors include Apricot (pictured), Purple and Rust.

Coreopsis UpTick series
Darwin Perennials
UpTick coreopsis boasts large flowers on tidy, mounded plants. Hardy to Zone 5, the series is day neutral and native to North America. Four colors are available: three bicolors and one cream (Gold & Bronze is pictured).

Craspedia ‘Golf Beauty’
Danziger
This new novelty variety features compact growth and good general resistance. The round, yellow flower heads will create an attractive presentation in mixed combinations.

Dahlia Painter series
Plant Haven
Painters are great impulse plants with a long season of interest. Their extremely large blooms are splashed in bold and vibrant colors; Berry Impressions is pictured.

Dianthus Flow series
HilverdaKooij/Flamingo Holland
This new series of pot carnations offers six eye-catching colors (Blinky Beach is pictured). Plants feature compact growth with large double blooms. Hardy to Zone 6, they are suitable for both indoor and outdoor use year-round.

Erysimum ‘Canaries Yellow’
Syngenta Flowers
‘Canaries Yellow’ brings new interest to an underutilized plant category with its showy display of vivid yellow blooms. It is very early to flower, and its compact habit makes growing at high- density spacing easy.

Gaillardia SpinTop series
Dümmen Orange
This new perennial series boasts large, dazzling blooms on first-year flowering plants. They are midsized in the landscape and bloom continuously. SpinTop varieties perform very well in mixes.

Geranium ‘Darko Soft Pink’
PAC
Darko is a dark-leafed geranium that is easy to ship and reliable. Four new colors were introduced this year; Soft Pink presents light blooms that really pop and contrast well against the darker foliage.

Gerbera ‘Garvinea Sweet Caroline’
Florist Holland
This bee-friendly garden plant boasts generous non-stop flowering from early spring until first frost. It is highly resistant to pests and diseases and is an ideal choice for beds and borders, decorative pots and cut flower gardens.

Gerbera Majorette series
Sakata
Majorette is a brand new series bred to be the most uniform on the market. Eight colors are currently available. Two that got our attention were Bright White Dark Eye, which is a true pure white, and Pink Halo, which was just added the week of Spring Trials, so you may not see it in catalogs.

Gerbera ‘Revolution Bicolor Red Lemon’
Kieft Seed
This new gerbera in the Revolution series presents a very unique bicolor. It would be an ideal gift item at retail with its novel appearance and long bloom time.

Heucherella ‘Plum Cascade’
Terra Nova Nurseries
This trailing heucherella is great as a groundcover or in a hanging basket. It features deeply lobed, purple-silver leaves and free- flowering light pink flowers. It is hardy to Zones 4 through 9 and prefers shade to part shade.

Lupine Staircase series
Green Fuse Botanicals
This new perennial series features attractive solid and bicolor hues and numerous flower stalks per plant. Propagated from tissue culture, Staircase lupine is very uniform across all colors.

Nemesia ‘Babycakes Little Orange’
Cultivaris
Great for quarts, baskets and mixed combinations, this new nemesia boasts an excellent compact, bushy habit. It is a prolific bloomer all season long and exhibits superb heat tolerance.

New Guinea impatiens ‘SunStanding Orange Aurora’
Dümmen Orange
A soft launch last year, SunStanding is now a full series available in 14 colors. One color that seemed to be a popular favorite was Orange Aurora. It has orange blooms with deep orange to red edging. Very eye catching!

Pentas Falling Star series
Syngenta Flowers
Falling Star is a brand new type of pentas with a trailing habit. It will look great in hanging baskets and mixed combinations. Three colors are currently available: Pink Bicolor, Rose (pictured) and White.

Petunia Amore series
Danziger
The new Amore series, headlined by Queen of Hearts, features petunias bearing unique patterns. All varieties have similar semi-trailing habits, and they are bred specifically for stability in their flowers.

Petunia Big Deal series
Westhoff
The new Big Deal series is like Crazytunia but with landscape performance. This durable new collection is bred to flower earlier, grow taller and spread wider. Five colors are currently available; Pinkadilly Circus is pictured.

Petunia ‘Success! Pink Vein’
Benary
The Success! series, introduced two years ago, continues to be a top seller. It is easy for the grower, and gardeners love the more mounded habit in the landscape. Three new colors have been added; Pink Vein was definitely a fan favorite.

Petunia ‘Surfinia Sumo Glacial Pink’
Suntory
New to the Sumo subseries, Glacial Pink is a vigorous landscape petunia. It presents large mounds of gorgeous color, with delicate pink blooms paired with a very dark eye.

Petunia ‘Sweetunia Miss Marvel’
Dümmen Orange
Miss Marvel joins Johnny Flame and Suzy Storm as the third generation of a highly popular collection. It features deep burgundy-black blooms with a white border, and its pattern is stable.

Portulaca ColorBlast series
Westhoff
ColorBlast portulaca presents a new standard for drought- tolerant, low-maintenance color. Watermelon Punch brings a lot of excitement to the garden with its pink and yellow striped blooms.

Purslane ‘Hot Shot Flambeau Rose’
Green Fuse Botanicals
The Hot Shot series has been upgraded for brighter color and larger flowers. A new color for 2017 is Flambeau Rose, which features a vivid pink flower above interesting variegated foliage.

Salvia ‘Farina Blue’
Volmary
This early and continuous bloomer boasts striking blue flowers spikes. Growers and gardeners will appreciate how the flowers are set very close to the foliage.

Salvia ‘Summer Jewel Lavender’
American Takii
Lavender is the newest introduction in the popular Summer Jewel line. Just like its predecessors, ‘Summer Jewel Lavender’ is also an All-America Selections winner. The series is extremely uniform and compact with a good garden height.

Vinca Mega Bloom series
Ameriseed
The Mega Bloom series, bred in Thailand, boasts enormous flowers on nice, compact plants. These vinca require zero plant growth regulation.