This is the first of four Q&A features honoring winners of Greenhouse Grower’s Medal of Excellence Awards. This installment features Jim Devereux, VP of Green Fuse Botanicals. Special thanks to Title Sponsor WestRock for its support of this program.
What advantages do day length neutral perennials that don’t require cooling offer to growers looking to hit critical sales windows?
Devereux: For many years, growers have been accustomed to annuals that will flower regardless of day length hours, known as day length neutral. This has been a standard for most annuals as the selling season begins in various weeks throughout North America. For example, commercial growers may use the same vegetative petunia in week 14 that they would week 20 and simply base the finish date on time from unrooted cutting without needing to worry about hours of light. This methodology has only recently been introduced within zone hardy perennial selections.
We at Green Fuse Botanicals were the first to develop day length neutrality in a complete collection of true perennial offerings known as our First Light program. This attribute, in conjunction with zero vernalization requirements, provides a grower solution for crop timing and on-time deliveries. Let us look at an example of one of the most popular perennial genera, Leucanthemum (Shasta Daisy). Traditional varieties would require unrooted cuttings to be stuck or seed sowing in the summer months. They would then be grown to maturity and allowed to go dormant in the fall to obtain the number of cooling hours required (vernalization). After this period, they must either be forced in early spring with heating as well as lit to 16-hour days to initiate flowers, or they may be held until the days become long enough to naturally initiate blooms, usually in the first part of June for much of North America.