Suntory

Suntory is the third and final breeder at the Plug Connection stop.... Guess what... Another new Begonia!!! Not trying to be sarcastic because each one has had its own unique quality to make it cool. But where are the new petunias?
Crackling Fire Begonias
This new series is very compact and has a place in 10" mixed combo pots. I don't think i would recommend this in large monoculture pots, but we will see how it looks this summer. The picture below doesn't do justice as the pink was a hot rose/pink color. Very stricking.




They also have a pure white in the series.



Million Bells Wine Calibrachoa
Very nice soft lavender/purple color, and it seems to have good mounded trailing habit too.

Benary

The Benary stop was located up the hill at the Plug Connection facility. At first glance walking in to their event nothing really stood out, but when their speakers started presenting their products... it got interesting.
I have a strong feeling that 2013 is the year of the 'Begonia'. Every stop today has had a prominent new trailing basket begonia they are promoting. We probably will see a lot more beginias on this trip too. Bonfires and Million Kisses type trailing angel wing begonia have skyrocketed in sales in the last few years and you can see that all breeding programs are focused on developing new intros for that class.
Santa Cruz Begonia bolivinesus(sp?)
Very exciting.. First from seed! Very self branching and no risk of blind (non-branching) plants. I did feel the plant vigor was good but the flower size and stem caliper seemed bit smaller than the traditional vegetative types . I don't think that it is a big issue, but something to point out.
This 10" hanging basket is 3ppp 8 weeks planted from a 288 plug.... No pinching needed either.



A new blue ageratum for flats! No name yet, but that should come soon. Benary is the breeder/producer of Hawaii Blue, but they didn't exactly say what the fate of would be of that variety would be. Jim Nau said he will be watching his summer trials at Ball trials and report how this compares. I have to think they are introducing this due to the yearly seed production issues with Hawaii. No extra colors yet, but hopefully in the future. I would love to get the old assortment back from the Hawaii series of past.
Food: Tort au Choux (French pork & cabbage puff pastry), cheese quiche, fresh strawberry shortcake.

Plug Connection

This is always a nice stop because Plug Connection is always taking chances to bring new and interesting products from the fringe to the mainstream. They told me we will be getting a full catalog for this next year, which will be great as they carry a full product line plus many unique items to fill the box with.
Oxalis Allure
Saw these at the MSU garden in Lansing this past summer and they looked really nice, but I didn't know where we could source them from. They look and perform exactly the same if not a bit better than the PW Charmed series, plus it is a less expensive input too.







Mighty-Mato
Grafted Heirloom Tomato. We were told that this program was in today's issue of the Wall Street Journal... Not to shabby. I am starting to buy the hype. This is a really expensive input at $2+ for a 102 liner. But this gives you all the heirloom varieties with unmatched size, vigor and yield.




PC promised me that they are not using Umpa-Lumpa labor to do these tiny grafts, but I have no clue how anybody could be this delicate. I struggle buttoning the cuffs on my shirts.




Make sure you plant the graft above the soil line!!! Or the scion will send out stem roots and the benefit of the special root stock will be eliminated.
These gallon pots are 5 weeks planted from a 102 liner. With a good marketing message this should be a $12 retail gallon.



Landscape Gerbera Everglades
Not a huge market, but caught my eye.



That's my hand. These flowers are huge!



Food: Blueberry Nutrigrain Bar

Ecke

Our first stop on our first day. Ecke met us with a great assortment of of breakfast treats and big smiles. They changed the layout of their event and focused on lifestyle settings of plantings and it worked very nicely.
In the past two years I haven't got too excited at this stop, but their new Arcadia begonia series was quite impressive. This vegetative series is bred by Benary and looks to be a different take on their Illumination begonia series from seed. The new Arcadia has much larger and more doubled blooms and they seem to be more evenly dispersed throughout the plant as well. The other change is that while it still has a trailing habit, it seems to be better branched and at least at this age of plant growth, not as trailing. This is a good feature as Illuminations are almost impossible to ship on racks, and a bugger for customers to bring home in their car without breaking them either.











The other interesting new item was a coleus with a compact habit called Tempest.



Food: Strawberry Yogurt Parfait, Banana Nut Muffin

Pack Trials 2012

It is that time of year again. I can't believe how quick time flies.

Please check back each day for the next 4 days as I will update that day's visits with pictures and notes.

On this blog I will be focusing on top new products that catch my eye, but by the end of the trip I will have accumulated many hundred of photos. When we meet this summer for booking spring 2013, we can look over all the new intros together then.

Please trust that I will be sharing my honest opinion of the new varieties and not just regurgitating a line of marketing speak. I am well aware that I am held accountable for the recommendations and evaluations that I make.

I will hold final judgment on all these new products until I see them at multiple trials this summer... Anything can look good in California, but if it can hold up to a muggy Midwest summer, that is a completely different achievement.

Enjoy and get excited for 2013!!
Nathan