New Varieties 2022 Digital Guide - 41

'Marvel Blue'
'Marvel Rose'
Red is another color description often used to
describe flower color, but in reality the blooms
are more of a red tone not actually red. Few
flowers are a true red, 'Royal Bumble' being
one of them. It was a true standout, we think
the dark stems and calyx made the flowers
really stand out against the competition.
Let's talk bicolors! More specifically the 'Hot
Lips' types. We trialed the original, 'Hot Lips',
along with 'Amethyst Lips' and 'Cherry Lips' -
the latter two are newer varieties in the bicolor
range. Many in the industry already know this,
but the flowers on these types are not always
bicolor; these are the chameleons of the salvia
world. 'Hot Lips', for instance, can be all red or
all white flowers, and sometimes both types on
the same plant. This color-changing effect is
thought to be a reaction to temperature, so if
you think you have the wrong variety because it
is solid in color, give it some time and it will go
back to bicolor eventually.
On the newer varieties, these did not show
their bicolor flowers during the trial while
'Hot Lips' did. We have seen them before, so it
appears the triggers to produce bicolor flowers
are a bit different for Amethyst and Cherry.
HARDY PERENNIAL SALVIA
Our last category is hardy perennial types.
These are generally hardy throughout most
of the U.S.; they have a rosette, clumping
growth habit and die back in the winter in most
places or can be cut back. Species included
in this category are: nemorosa, pratensis and
nemorosa crosses including x sylvestris.
What surprised us the most about this
category was all of the varieties bloomed on
time, and they had loads of flowers. Of course,
we did plant three liners per pot so that helped
with bulking! The Fashionista series is one that
we strongly suggest planting in the fall for a
bulkier habit and better bloom response. While
we did get blooms, they were more sparse than
other series and later to bloom, most likely
because of their pratensis blood.
In the nemorosa world there are so
many varieties, we were going a bit crosseyed,
many looking very similar with a few
standouts. First, we noticed there were several
larger varieties that looked very similar to
the old standby, 'May Night', albeit easier to
propagate with a better bloom count. These
included 'April Night', 'Blue By You' and
'Spring King'.
On the compact side of things, there are
several varieties 10 inches or shorter; our
personal preference is to stay around 10 inches
and not much shorter, as the very compact
varieties were not as showy. Right at 10 inches
tall, our favorite was 'Sensation Compact Deep
Blue', which was compact yet very full in habit
bringing us the best of both worlds.
As far as series go, there are so many! The
most uniform in our trial was the new Apex
series from Danziger and Midnight series from
Dümmen Orange. The Midnight series has
nice dark stems for some added richness. The
Marvel series from Darwin is still a top pick as
the flowers are the largest, and by large we
don't mean tall; the individual flowers are very
large, and attention grabbing for sure.
TOP PICKS
We really enjoyed this trial and hope you find
the highlights both interesting and useful. It
was truly remarkable seeing so many different
flower colors as well as all the hummingbirds
and bees that made regular visits. One question
that keeps being asked: What was your top
pick? So hard to pick just one!
So, we picked two. The first was 'Dark
Matter', a nemorosa hybrid from Danziger.
Every time we looked at the trial, this one
really stood out with its dark and rich
'Hummingbird Falls'
'Dark Matter'
coloring in a sea of purple. The second was
'Hummingbird Falls' by PlantHaven. We chose
this one because of the unique trailing habit,
intended to be used in hanging baskets. What
we also liked was the marketing campaign
for this one: " Nature's hummingbird feeder! "
What is interesting is how many homeowners
really do not use plants to attract
hummingbirds but instead use colored sugar
water - let's hope this new variety starts the
next trend!
April Herring-Murray is marketing director and
Sofia Arana is production trials assistant for Pacific
Plug & Liner. For questions on the trial, April can be
reached at aprilh@ppandl.net.
GREENHOUSE PRODUCT NEWS
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New Varieties 2022 Digital Guide

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