Petunia and Echinacea Innovator Wins Breeding Award

Ping Ren AAS Breeders CupAll-America Selections (AAS) has presented its 2020 Breeder’s Cup Award to Dr. Jianping (Ping) Ren, Senior Plant Breeder at PanAmerican Seed.

AAS honored Ren last month at the first-ever virtual Judge’s Meeting and Awards Ceremony. With the AAS 2020 Summer Summit in Vancouver postponed until September of 2021, this year’s award presentation was held virtually, with dozens of AAS Judges and peers of the recipient virtually present to show their support and send their congratulations.

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The AAS Breeders Cup Award was established in 2004 to recognize a plant breeder who dramatically influenced horticulture by breeding new cultivars that brought significant improvements to those classes.

“It is a great honor to receive this AAS Breeder Cup. Thank you to the All-America Selections staff, Board of Directors, all the AAS Judges, my peers at PanAmerican and Ball, and to the person who nominated me. Thank you very much for an incredible and memorable award ceremony! It is humbling to join the rest of the recipients of this noteworthy award,” said Ren.

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. She joined PanAmerican Seed in 2001 as a flower plant breeder. For the past 20 years, Ping 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.

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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 the flower industry.

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

“We feel very fortunate to have Ping Ren as a breeder at PanAmerican Seed,” said PanAmerican President Anne Leventry. “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.”

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