New Plants and Cut Flowers Highlight Raker-Roberta’s Summer Plant Trials
December 14, 2023 Note: Information for this trials report was provided by Emily Wildt, Regional Sales and Trial Garden Director at Raker-Roberta’s Young Plants, and Kristi Challender, Trial Garden Operations Manager at Raker-Roberta’s.
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This season’s weather started off warmer than usual. The week we started planting ended up being the hottest week in June. There were 18 days above 80°F. The average temperatures May-August was a high of 78°F and a low of 54°F. Rainfall total for the four months was 12.43 inches.
Raker-Roberta’s has held outdoor trials since 1991. Since then, we have grown to more than 7 acres of sponsored and comparison areas. We feature more than 3,500 varieties and have participated in the Michigan Garden Plant Tour since 2003. This year was a great success. Top performers were:
- Bracteantha ‘Granvia Pink’ (Suntory Flowers)
- Echinacea ‘Double Scoop Watermelon Deluxe’ (Darwin Perennials)
- Zinnia ‘Zesty Mixture’ (PanAmerican Seed)
- Begonia ‘Limitless Sunset’ (Syngenta Flowers)
- Verbena ‘Buenos Aires’ (Kieft Seed)
This is the first year that the trials were under new management. Kristi Challender took over as Trial Garden Operations Manager, while Emily Wildt was named Trial Garden Director (sales and marketing). The expansion of our cut flower bed was a noteworthy accomplishment to our trials this year. Our partnership with Inflora Cut Flowers/Express Seed allowed us to double the size of our cut flower trials and showcase new additions to our Specialty Cut Flower Program here at Raker-Roberta’s.
The biggest challenge this year was the deer pressure. The day after we started planting, the deer came through and pulled out a bunch of varieties. We kept the gardens on a spray rotation of three different kinds of deer blocker and set up high-frequency motion detectors, but they still came through and ate whatever they wanted. It was extremely frustrating.
Our own personal favorites this year were:
- Echinacea ‘SunMagic Vintage Pink’ (Bull Plant Genetics): We enjoyed this entire series this summer, but our favorite was the Vintage Pink. This was a well-branched plant with abundant blooms, and uniform habit. The bees and butterflies loved these plants. The flower color and habit would enhance any sunny flower bed.
- Polemonium ‘Golden Feathers’ (Darwin Perennials): This plant has golden variegated leaves that looked good all summer. Even though this is a shade-part shade plant, it was outstanding in full sun as well. Golden Feathers would be a great accent plant in the garden or a colorful component in combo pots, which is an attribute we always look for because we put together a lot of combos. The early spring flowers and deer resistance are additional pluses.
- Dahlia ‘Café Au Lait’ (Syngenta Flowers): This cut dahlia displayed 8-inch blossoms consisting of a creamy mixture of peach and light pink overtones. It blooms from midsummer until frost and its long-lasting vase life makes it ideal for bouquets. Café Au Lait comes from a vegetative cutting which makes it a reliable alternative to tuber production.
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