Kientzler Broadens Its North American Product Offerings

Calendula ‘Power Daisy’

New for 2016, Calendula ‘Power Daisy’ is a sterile line of calendula that is long-blooming and handles cold temperatures and early summer heat.

Kientzler North America continues to expand its role to deliver quality products into the North American supply chain. Over the past few months, it has added Sakata vegetative products, including SunPatiens and Petchoa SuperCal, and is positioning to have a full line of Suntory products, all grown at the Innovaplant production facility in Costa Rica.

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The company is currently focusing on a new variety called Calendula ‘Power Daisy.’ A small core of growers has already seen the variety, and Kientzler has placed ‘Power Daisy’ in a number of trial locations throughout the company

At 2016 California Spring Trials (CAST), Kientzler expanded its lines of product shown to include not only ‘Power Daisy,’ but also a broad line of erysimum and Saucy Salvia. It has also expanded its lines of brand name New Guinea Impatiens, Unique Calibrachoa, Veranda Petunia, and Vepita Verbena. The company also promoted its European combinations that are now available in the U.S. and featured new series and varieties from independent breeders, such as a new line of coleus introduced through Terra Nova Nurseries.

The company is seeing greater interest from independent breeders wanting to join the Kientzler North America supply chain. The launch of Bidens ‘Popstar’ in 2015, a new variety with large flowers and a compact habit, is a product of a partnership with an independent breeder.

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Kientzler’s staff is also concentrating on internal breeding. Steve Rinehart, Program Manager for Kientzler North America, says the company’s breeding team is tightly attached to production in Europe, where they like to breed with a focus on grower improvements and garden consumer traits. Nemesia ‘Babycakes,’ with its great production and garden performance, resulted from these collaborations.

Kientzler North America provides one of the industry’s best suppliers for sensitive crops like petunias, calibrachoas, and nemesia, and is seeking to expand its role in these crop areas. For instance, Rinehart says he has been running daylength-neutral trial testing of Kientzler’s petunia, calibrachoa, and fuchsia varieties for short-day flowering. Kientzler is making this data available during CAST 2016 to help growers gain confidence in using Kientzler varieties in early season, southern U.S. markets.

Rinehart says Kientzler North America is capable of expanding representation of its crops into perennials and is working on significant breakthroughs in core crop areas. The company believes in innovation to expand the company future, and growers can look forward to continued investment by Kientzler into new genetics.

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