Variety Shorts
June 16, 2008 
Functional Beauty
Athens Select recently announced several new varieties to its heat- and humidity-tolerant collection of plants for 2006-2007, including setcreasea ‘Blue Sue’ and hibiscus ‘Panama Red’ and ‘Panama Bronze.’
‘Blue Sue’ offers functionality and beauty in one plant. Its leaves have a distinctive blue tinge throughout and a handsome purple margin. Plants are topped with pink flowers held in the leaf margins. This drought-tolerant plant is equally comfortable in full sun or dappled afternoon shade.
Hibiscus ‘Panama Red’ PPAF and ‘Panama Bronze’ grow to a hardy 4 feet tall and are equally wide. Foliage for both varieties is deeply cut and beautiful, with the color remaining stable through even the hottest days. The pair love full sun and thrive in hot and humid conditions. A bright-red flower may even spring forth now and again. Use these ornamental hibiscus as accent plants in the garden or in containers. For more information, visit www.athensselect.com.
Popular Plants
Several new varieties from Fischer USA’s GoldFisch line (bred by Goldsmith) have created quite a bit of buzz, including ‘Lanai Red ’07,’ ‘Calypso White Bacopa,’ ‘Gypsy White Achillea’ and ‘Callie Deep Yellow.’
‘Lanai Red ’07’ features darker red blooms and large flowers. It offers excellent mildew resistance and has an evenly round, mounding habit.
A clean, white flower contrasts with dark foliage on ‘Calypso White Bacopa.’ It also offers excellent branching, early flower time, a trailing habit and vigorous growth.
Nicknamed “The Summer Bacopa,” ‘Gypsy White Achillea’s’ pure color, great heat tolerance and vigorous growth make it great for mixed summer containers. It also flowers early and features a semi-trailing habit.
‘Callie Deep Yellow’ is a tough plant under all conditions. Its highly floriferous, and its true, deep yellow color places it in high demand. For more information, visit www.fischerusa.com
Keeping Quality
Yoder Brothers has introduced two new Keepsake azaleas. Known and loved for their four- to six-week bloom life and year-round availability, Yoder Keepsake azaleas are a favorite with retailers and consumers alike. The two newest Keepsake azalea seedlings, ‘Bittersweet’ and ‘Honesty,’ bring the number of Keepsake azalea varieties available from Yoder to 23.
‘Bittersweet,’ with a rich, dark coral color and lush 3- to 3.5-inch semi-double hose-in-hose flowers, is a striking beauty. It’s a full, very uniform and spreading plant with excellent flower production and a cookie cutter habit. It also sports dense, glossy foliage, is a medium forcer and has excellent overall keeping quality.
‘Honesty’ offers a pristine white, semi-double 3.5- to 4-inch flower, a somewhat pointed petal and glossy medium green foliage with superior keeping quality and foliage retention, ‘Honesty’ has a dense spreading habit and is a medium forcer. For more information, visit Yoder’s Web site at www.yoder.com.
PanAmerican Beauties
PanAmerican Seed’s Easy Wave petunias welcome three new members: ‘Easy Wave Coral Reef,’ ‘Beachcomber Mixture’ and ‘Tropicana Mixture.’
‘Coral Reef’ is a deep coral color with a small white throat. These large flowers are complemented by healthy leaves that stay green all season long. It stands 8 to 10 inches tall and displays good plant vigor through the season.
‘Coral Reef’ is combined with ‘Easy Wave Blue’ and ‘Easy Wave Shell Pink’ to create the new ‘Beachcomber Mixture.’ ‘Easy Wave Tropicana Mixture’ will impress, with White, Shell Pink, and Rosy Dawn showing off in true Ride The Wave fashion.
Also new from PanAmerican Seed are several additions to the Cool Season Thrivers collection. Cool Season Thrivers can be grown cool and retailed during the Fall or early Spring. The new ‘Frosty Rain’ pansy is white with a light blue/purple picotee edge and a purple blotch. The color pattern depends on the environment, appearing ocean with purple picotee when cooler, and more white with ocean/purple picotee when warmer.
‘Bouquet Rose Magic’ dianthus boasts open, lacy flowers with a slight fragrance. Blooms start white, mature to a light pink, and turn to a deep rose color. An exciting addition to the Sorbet series is ‘Blue Babyface,’ a first of its kind viola. The dark blue with blotch variety is well matched to ‘Yellow Babyface’ and adds a key pansy color to violas. Early and uniform, ‘Sorbet Blue Babyface’ is very free-flowering and performs across a wide range of climatic conditions. For more information, call PanAmerican Seed at 800-231-4868 or visit PanAmSeed.com.
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