Sep 22, 2020

AAS Awards Breeder’s Cup Award to Ping Ren

All-America Selections presented the 2020 AAS Breeder’s Cup award to Jianping (Ping) Ren, Ph.D., senior plant breeder at PanAmerican Seed Co. With 2020 being the 25th anniversary of Wave petunias, the timing of this award is quite significant and memorable.

The first-ever virtual Judge’s Meeting and Awards Ceremony took place with dozens of AAS Judges and peers of the recipient virtually present to show their support and send their congratulations.

Ping Ren earned her Ph.D. from the Plant Breeding Department at Cornell University, where she worked on vegetable breeding two years before joining the flower industry.

Ping joined PanAmerican Seed in 2001 as a flower plant breeder. For the past 20 years, she has worked on Petunia, Calibrachoa, Gaillardia and Echinacea. There is a long list of about 150 vegetative and seed propagated varieties coming from Ping’s breeding, a number of which are the recipients of horticultural industry awards including All-America Selections.

The six varieties that have won AAS awards are:

• The first F1 Gaillardia Mesa Yellow (2010),
• Echinacea PowWow Wild Berry (2011),
• Cheyenne Spirit (2013),
• Sombrero Baja Burgundy (2019),
• Petunia Tidal Wave Red Velour (2015) and
• Wave Carmine Velour (2018).

Many of these varieties have also earned multiple other industry awards.

“We feel very fortunate to have Ping Ren as a breeder at PanAmerican Seed. She has bred so many amazing products and has inspired and motivated everyone around her with her hard work, drive and creativity. She sets the bar for flower breeding very high indeed!” said PanAmerican Seed’s President Anne Leventry.

In addition, Ping’s co-invention of the petunia green corolla (gc) allele gene has been broadly used in petunia breeding across the industry, resulting in the introduction of numerous unique colors of petunia associated with the gc allele. Ping’s outstanding work has significantly benefited and influenced our flower industry.

In recent years, Ping’s breeding has focused on Wave Petunia, Sombrero/Double Scoop and Artisan Echinacea.