The Battle Of The ‘Diamond Frost’ Look-alikes
September 1, 2009 
I have often been asked about plants that have “made a difference.” That is, plants that burst onto the scene as must-haves and soon became the standard in their class. Not only were they great plants, but their success accelerated the breeding of that class to grab a small part of the newly enlarged market.I mention ‘Homestead Purple’ verbena, ‘Margarita’ sweet potato and ‘Purple Wave’ petunia as a few examples of cultivars whose popularity spurred additional breeding, to the benefit of the grower and consumer.
I also do not hesitate in including ‘Diamond Frost’ euphorbia in the same category. When ‘Diamond Frost’ broke onto the scene a couple years ago, it was a new class of annual. It was different but its exceptional performance and its ability to complement other plants in containers resulted in designers, gardeners and landscapers energetically embracing it. Add to that its ease of production and ability to look good at retail, and there was no doubt other breeders would soon follow suit and develop similar lines.
The ‘Diamond Frost’ Market
This season, we had 75 impatiens and nearly 125 geranium cultivars in the trial gardens at UGA. This was not unexpected, as those have been well-established classes for many years. But I did not anticipate how fast the breeding of euphorbia would progress. This year, we had six cultivars, all vying for some of that ‘Diamond Frost’ market.
We placed the six in various mixed containers around the garden, but we also compared them side by side, in the same bed. The entries were ‘Breathless Blush,’ ‘Breathless White,’ ‘Diamond Frost,’ ‘Silver Fog,’ ‘White Hip Hop’ and ‘White Manaus.’ Here is some of our data and my opinion of each cultivar’s performance:
Significant Differences
– ‘Silver Fog’ was the most compact in the greenhouse and in the field.
– ‘White Manaus’ was the most vigorous and consistently the tallest.
–’White Manaus’ produced the cleanest white flowers, more obvious as time went on.
–’Breathless Blush’ was unique, more so with cool weather, but it still carried that blush even into August.
–’Breathless White’ was the slowest to flower in the greenhouse and the field but caught up with the others by late July.
Similarities
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George Strimpel, director of marketing at Four Star Greenhouse, has some thoughts on ‘Snow Princess’ and ‘Diamond Frost.’ Listen to him as he explains the differences in plant habit between the newer ‘Snow Princess’ and classic ‘Diamond Frost’ from Proven Winners.
– Very few people, even seasoned veterans, could identify which was which without a label. When asked to point out ‘Diamond Frost,’ most could only guess. The exception was ‘Breathless Blush.’
–’Diamond Frost’ and ‘White Hip-Hop’ were very similar to each other, and most people confused the two.
–All worked well in containers and the field. Based on our data (www.uga.edu/ugatrial) as of August 1, all but ‘Breathless White’ earned between 4.5 and 4.7 out of 5.0, excellent grades indeed.
–Based on our trials, and ours alone, I recommend ‘Breathless Blush’ as the most remarkable cultivar. Other than height, ‘Silver Fog’ was similar in flower color and performance to ‘Diamond Frost’ and ‘White Hip Hop.’ For best clean white color and best vigor, I recommend ‘White Manaus.’
–So we had six new cultivars this year. Will we have 16 newbies next year? It’s hard to say at this point, but I do know many new cultivars will be bred in the future. As for today, the six I mentioned are all good choices.
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