California Summer Trials 2021: New Options for Sizzling Summer Garden Color
California Summer Trials (CAST) 2021 looks to be jam-packed with several new varieties for achieving summer color that sizzles in the garden. New plant introductions cover every hue in the rainbow, offering plenty of variety for your customers to choose from for a high-impact, color-filled garden that holds up in the heat and sun.
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Cheerful and Devotion in the Echinacea MOOODZ Series (HilverdaFlorist)
Cheerful and Devotion are the new blooming introductions in the fastest Echinacea Series from tissue culture in the market. Devotion is the red addition to the assortment. This variety is fast flowering and creates an impressive floral display. Cheerful is a happy yellow with large flowers. It has an overwhelming first flush and is compact with a rich flourish. -
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Cleome Sparkler 2.0 Series (Syngenta Flowers)
New colors: Blush, Lavender, Purple, Rose, White, and a MixF1 hybrid vigor and uniformity offer easy production and superior landscape performance for the Sparkler series. This heat-loving annual holds up to summer stress and provides reliable height and structure to landscape beds. Its more compact habit allows for larger-scale production in smaller formats. The series has improved with richer, eye-catching colors and better branching for quick repeat flowering. No priming is required, improving seed quality and uniformity of young plant stands. -
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Dahlia ‘Labella Medio Fun Yellow Blush’ (Beekenkamp)
‘LaBella Medio Fun Yellow Blush’ is a vivid yellow and white bicolor bloom. It has a very stable pattern and a bright contrast of the blooms to foliage. Plants are ideal for 5- to 6-inch pot production. -
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Dahlia ‘Labella Gigante Fun Pink’ (Beekenkamp)
Gigante Fun Pink has great garden performance, a vigorous habit, sturdy stems, and large bicolored flowers. The name says it all; Gigante Fun Pink is ideal for a 10-inch pot or larger sizes. -
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Delphinium Delgenius Series (Pacific Plug & Liner)
Delgenius is a new series with three colors from hellebore and echibeckia breeder Bart Noordhuis. This Delphinium is genius because it takes a crop that has traditionally given growers a hard time with many problems and makes it easy. With no more small plants, Delgenius fills large pots with only one-liner and produces a multi-branching habit in a short amount of time. -
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Delphinium ‘Delgenius Breezin’ (Pacific Plug & Liner)
Breezin has highly ruffled flowers that are purple with white edging and a green bee. This variety is the earliest to bloom in the Delgenius series.
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Delphinium ‘Delgenius Glitzy’ (Pacific Plug & Liner)
Glitzy is the newest member of the Delgenius family with deep-blue flowers and a white bee. Glitzy is a 2022 introduction. -
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Geranium ‘Big EEZE Sakura’ (Dümmen Orange)
Big EEZE Geraniums are aptly named for their big blooms and easy production performance. This interspecific series appears as a traditional zonal type at retail that more consumers are confident in purchasing, but with oversized blooms for a dramatic presentation. The interspecific ivy breeding gives these plants a resilient dose of performance through the hottest summer months. The new ‘Big EEZE Sakura’ has a cherry-blossom-like color and oversized blooms.
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Gerbera ‘Garvinea Sweet Sparkle’ (HilverdaFlorist)
For the coming season, there are two new varieties in the Sweet Series: Sweet Vibe and Sweet Sparkle. Sweet Sparkle is a hot pink that brings a bright sparkle to every garden. This color is new in the assortment. Garvinea is the only true Garden Gerbera. With great weather tolerance, Garvinea provides lots of happy colors from early spring until the first frost. -
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Hydrangea ‘Heart Throb’ (Southern Living and Sunset Western Plant Collections)
‘Heart Throb’ Hydrangea produces true jewel-red blooms that slowly darken over time to a rich, antiqued red. Mature plants flower on both new and old wood, adding to the number of flowers and extending the blooming season. Naturally compact plants have strong stems that hold upright during shipping and do not require growth regulators.
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Portulaca 24/7 Series (Green Fuse Botanicals)
All new breeding in portulaca brings this revolutionary new series to the market. Like your neighborhood quick shop, the 24/7 flowers never close. The 24/7 series not only boasts large, 2- to 3-inch fully double flowers but is also day length neutral. The five colors of Fuchsia, Orange, Red, White, and Yellow are perfect in quarts through basket production. -
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Rudbeckia hirta ‘Arania’ and ‘Kokardia’ (Hem Genetics)
For 2022, Hem Genetics is introducing two new rudbeckias. Both are Rudbeckia hirta varieties, most often grown as annuals but also used as perennials in Zone 7a to 9b. ‘Arania’ is a compact (12 to 14 inches) yellow with a brown center, and ‘Kokardia’ is a little taller (14 to 16 inches) bicolor golden yellow with a bread mahogany ring. -
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Rudbeckia Sunbeckia Series (Flamingo Holland)
Rudbeckia Sunbeckia series is a hirta hybrid bred in Germany by Hartwig Bull. It is known for its large flower size and long-lasting blooms. This new series has 13 colors and is only available from Flamingo Holland. It is well-branching with strong, sturdy stems and is great in the garden or on the patio. Plants require no pinching and flower spring thru fall. Sunbeckia is hardy in Zones 7 to 10. It is available as tissue culture or as a liner from Flamingo Holland and has a fast crop time of eight to ten weeks after transplant.
View all
Cheerful and Devotion in the Echinacea MOOODZ Series (HilverdaFlorist)
Cleome Sparkler 2.0 Series (Syngenta Flowers)
Dahlia ‘Labella Medio Fun Yellow Blush’ (Beekenkamp)
Dahlia ‘Labella Gigante Fun Pink’ (Beekenkamp)
Delphinium Delgenius Series (Pacific Plug & Liner)
Delphinium ‘Delgenius Breezin’ (Pacific Plug & Liner)
Delphinium ‘Delgenius Glitzy’ (Pacific Plug & Liner)
Geranium ‘Big EEZE Sakura’ (Dümmen Orange)
Gerbera ‘Garvinea Sweet Sparkle’ (HilverdaFlorist)
Hydrangea ‘Heart Throb’ (Southern Living and Sunset Western Plant Collections)
Portulaca 24/7 Series (Green Fuse Botanicals)
Rudbeckia hirta ‘Arania’ and ‘Kokardia’ (Hem Genetics)
Rudbeckia Sunbeckia Series (Flamingo Holland)
Check out this sneak peek of colorful new plants you’ll see on display at the CAST 2021. There might be something here your customers will love to see in your product mix for next year.
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Johnny Eppich is a former Digital Content Editor for GreenhouseGrower.com and GrowingProduce.com. See all author stories here.
