Invigorating autumn weather and gorgeous plant displays greeted visitors to the third annual Fashion in Bloom, staged in September by Garden Centers of
America at two locations: Conard-Pyle Co. in
Jennersville,
Pa., and
HomesteadGardens in
Davidsonville,
Md.
Most attendees agreed that consolidating Fashion in Bloom from six far-flung locations to two sites worked well.
This year’s event is scheduled for Sept. 17-20.
Here are some of the new plants that made an impression this year.
American Beauties gain stature
Prides Corner Farms’ Tim Kane said that the natives-based American Beauties program is adding new varieties and new growers.
The program allows independent retailers to establish a store within a store with outstanding point-of-purchase materials, benching and merchandise support. Prides Corner in turn donates 25, 50 or 75 cents, depending on container size, to the National Wildlife Federation for each plant sold, to fund the group’s habitat work and outreach programs.
Kane said Midwest Groundcovers in the
Chicago area has signed on as a participating grower, and as all growers tend to do, is tweaking the mix to reflect regional preferences. “They’re growing 25 to 30 percent of what Prides Corner is growing,” he said. “It’s more focused on
Chicago and the
Upper Midwest gardeners’ preferences.”
Roses carry 2-year guarantee
The marketing folks at Bailey Nurseries know that roses can be a tough sell to younger buyers who consider gardening to be too much work and too time-consuming. So they’re stepping out on a limb and introducing a 2-year guarantee on the Easy Elegance Rose Collection beginning this spring.
“We did a consumer focus group of generation X and Y, and roses are off their radar,” Bailey marketing manager Jonathan Pedersen said. “They call them Grandma’s plant and say they don’t have the time to spray and care for roses.
“As an industry, we need to change that,” Pedersen said. “Knock Out roses are helping to change that to a degree. But we’re going a step further with this 2-year guarantee. We’re saying that we as a company believe in roses.”
The three newest members of the collection -- All the Rage, My Girl and Super Hero -- were displayed for the first time at Fashion in Bloom.
Knock Out’s next hit
Conard-Pyle unveiled Sunny Knock Out. It opens to a medium yellow, and over time it becomes more pastel and eventually gets a pink tinge to some petals.
Conard-Pyle’s Steve Hutton was quick to point out that this is not Yellow Knock Out that many in the industry have been anticipating. That’s still in the works at Bill Radler’s breeding grounds.
“Yellow is the most difficult color to get disease resistance in a rose,” Hutton said. “This one has the disease resistance and garden performance we want, but not the true yellow color. That’s coming, though.”
Speaking of roses …
Conard-Pyle was showing another new series of groundcover roses for small gardens and containers, called Drift Roses.
“They’re disease resistant, hardy and free-flowering,” Hutton said. “These days, that’s the price of admission for a shrub rose. If it can’t meet those qualities, don’t bring it on the market.”
Hutton said test plots of Drift roses had been maintained in a no-spray zone with zero supplemental irrigation and no winter protection for three years. “They met all the tests,” he said.
There are six members: Coral, Ivory, Peach, Pink, Red and White.
Novalis moves into annuals
Novalis, the grower network behind the Plants that Work brand, will launch a nationwide annuals program this spring. More than 200 varieties will be part of the new Plants that Work by Color program for beds, borders and containers.
The quart-sized plants will be grown in Plants that Work branded pots and sold in 6-packs. Signage and point-of-purchase materials will be available to retailers.
Shade garden makeover
For years, shade gardening has posed a real challenge for those who want wow-color. The tide is starting to turn. Salsa Asian jasmine (Trachelospermum asiaticum ‘Ougon-Nishiki’) is a shade-loving groundcover that provides year-round color in Southern climates.
The plant, from Hines Horticulture, has variegated leaves that cycle from orange, green, yellow and white over the year. Salsa has a cascading habit, which makes it ideal as a component of containers or hanging baskets.
GCA offers exclusives
Garden Centers of
America has worked with a pair of breeders on exclusive plant arrangements for GCA members:
* Rosa Carefree Celebration, from Conard-Pyle, is a large shrub from Bill Radler, the breeder of the Knock Out series. It shares the same superior disease resistance and flower power. It’s hardy to USDA Hardiness Zone 5.
*Monrovia will offer Cordyline australis ‘Torbay Dazzler,’ a plant featured at the 2007 Chelsea Flower Show in
Great Britain. A clump of bright strap leaves rises out of a striking pinkish stem. It’s a versatile foliage plant for containers and in the ground.
Endless Summer marches on
Endless Summer hydrangea is in its fifth year on the market, and sales show no signs of abating, Pedersen said. So what’s next?
Bailey Nurseries plans a $1.3 million consumer ad buy to support the line in 2008, and the Endless Summer Web site will be revamped to be more interactive with video clips, tutorials and lists of companion plants.
Endless Summer will be marketed this year as the Official Plant of Mother’s Day, backed by point-of-purchase materials, Web site downloads, templates for postcards, buttons and more.
In 2009, another lacecap rebloomer, still unnamed, will be added to the line. It will be exclusive to independent garden centers for its first year.
Petersen said Bailey expects to add to the Endless Summer collection every three years.
Plants worth waiting for
The Garden Splendor brand by Overdevest Nurseries rolled out its 2008 Showcase Plants: Clematis ‘Daniel Deronda,’ Coreopsis ‘Pinwheel,’ Echinacea ‘Pink Double Delight,’ Geum ‘Mango Lassi,’ Hakonechloa ‘All Gold,’ Heuchera ‘Peach Flambe,’ Mukdenia ‘Crimson Fans,’ Silene ‘Rolley’s Favourite’ and Veronica ‘Goldwell.’
David Wilson, director of marketing, described the Showcase Plants as “the best of the tried and true, and the most promising of the exciting and new.”
“They could be plants that have been around for 100 years or so, but maybe they’re not discovered yet,” he said. “Or maybe they’ve stood the test of time, like Clematis ‘Daniel Deronda,’ but they’ve not been given prominence yet.”
More collections
Prides Corner Farms is building quite a reputation with its plant brands.
The White Flower Farm collection continues to gain momentum, Kane said. There are 115 partners in the program this year, up 135 percent from last year. The branded collection allows retailers to create a White Flower Farm store within a store, borrowing prestige from the well-respected
New England mail-order house.
Prides’ herb program, Sarah’s Superb Herbs, is adding a handle basket with six herbs in a tray. A South of the Border Collection and an Aromatherapy Collection are new additions.
The herb program has resulted in donations of more than $30,000 to Easter Seals, Kane said.
Long-bloom daylily
Centerton Nursery was showing Hemerocallis ‘Mean Mr. Mustard.’ Nursery owner Denny Blew says we can expect 75 days of flowers from this mustard-burgundy daylily that grows to 26 inches tall.
Trivia: “Mean Mr. Mustard” is a song written by John Lennon and performed by the Beatles on their Abbey road album. Lennon said that the song, written in
India, was inspired by a newspaper story about a miser who concealed his cash wherever he could to prevent people from forcing him to spend it.
Low-water plants
EuroAmerican Propagators’ new RetroSucculents series includes 16 varieties of echeverias, aloes and agaves. These structural, architectural succulents add dominant features in the garden and in the home. They’re forgiving of neglect, so even time-starved professionals can enjoy these plants.
Euro’s Doug Parkinson said the RetroSucculents are often used in warmer climates as landscape plants, “and they’re receiving a fair amount of press as green-roof plants.”
On the Rocks -- plants that are useful for planting among stepping stones -- is another EuroAmerican collection.
What a fashion plate!
Hort Couture is a sassy new brand that’s making waves as an upscale offering for independents.
Marketing high-end plants as couture quality identifies with our industry’s leading demographic: fashion-conscious women. Upscale packaging, marketing assistance and gorgeous plants are what make this program so appealing.
We especially liked the Fashion Plate: a grab-and-go planter that includes seven 4-inch plants surrounding a 6-inch plant on a plastic “plate.” The center 6-inch pot locks in the smaller surrounding ones, allowing on-the-go shoppers to pick up a quick hostess gift or patio decoration.
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