Meet Your New Garden Friends

Every year around this time, we introduce you to the newest Proven Winners^® plants - the ones that will be brand new at garden centers in the spring.  The plants are new colors, new forms, or sometimes better performing versions of old stand-bys or in some cases they are something not yet seen by gardeners.  The chance is always there that you might discover your new BFF - the plant you can't imagine gardening without.  I know it's happened to me more than once.

This year, we are introducing five new or improved colors to our Superbells^® series, including two colors never before available in Calibrachoa.  You may already be familiar with the Superbells^® series, which now includes 27 different colors.  Calibrachoa are annuals that perform best when planted in sunny locations (more than six hours of direct sun a day).  They will also do reasonably well in partial sun locations (four to six hours of direct sun a day), although you will see some decrease in flower number and size.  Calibrachoa do not do well with wet conditions.  This means for most gardeners they will perform best when placed in containers, although they will also do fine in well-drained soils (very high quality soil and/or raised beds are the usual ways to get excellent drainage).  The plants are heat tolerant and in all, but the hottest environments, will bloom all-season.  They are easy-to-maintain with no deadheading necessary, however, regular fertilization will help maximize their potential.

If you are looking for a new plant to star in your container gardens, Superbells^® Cherry Star is a prime candidate.  The star pattern showcased in the flowers of this plant is unique for Calibrachoa. The difficult part of introducing a flower with this pattern is to make sure the pattern is stable in all environments.  It isn't uncommon for heat or fertilizer to affect the appearance of such patterns.  However, Superbells^® Cherry Star has proven to be very stable.  This plant should be a lot of fun to play with in combinations, based on the colors of the flower! 

The second truly unique color is Superbells^® Sweet Tart.   Superbells^® Cherry Star might be flashier, but  Superbells^® Sweet Tart is every bit as different.  The large, lemon yellow center and watermelon pink petal edges create a beautiful color combination.  This is another flower that will mix well with many other colors in combination planters.

Superbells^® Miss Lilac, Superbells^® Grape Punch and Superbells^® Tequila Sunrise (improved) may not be as unique as the previous two plants, but all three are excellent additions.  Superbells^® Miss Lilac adds a soft lilac color to the line.  She will be a wonderful addition for those who like light colors or for use creating more interesting mono-color combinations.  Imagine Superbells^® Miss Lilac with Superbells^® Grape Punch as a two shade mono-color combination. 

Superbells^® Grape Punch  joins our "punch" sub-group of Superbells^®.  These plants all have two-tone flowers with dark centers and lighter petal edges.  The colors for the whole group are really outstanding. 

Superbells^® Tequila Sunrise is an improvement on an existing variety in the series.  The new version is better branched, has a nicer plant habit and produces various shades of red and yellow splashed flowers.  It is unique in its own right.

Ipomoea, sweet potato vines, are really one of the quintessential combination container plants.  However, they are also excellent as annual groundcovers.  They like sunny locations, but will tolerate partial sun conditions.  They are usually quite vigorous and have a reputation for eventually overrunning the other plants in a combination.  However, newer versions are better behaved than old-standards.  Our Illusion^® series has more controlled growth, finely-cut foliage and is excellent as a component plant in combination.  With the addition of Illusion^® Garnet Lace, the series now contains the three major colors of Sweet Potato Vine (chartreuse, black and red or bronze).  Giving gardeners a nice color palette to work with.

Our Sweet Caroline series of Ipomoea gets two improved members for 2012.  Sweet Caroline Raven replaces Sweet Caroline Purple and features darker foliage and a slightly more compact habit than the original.  Sweet Caroline Bewitched takes the place of Sweet Caroline Bewitched Purple.  Bewitched is different from the other sweet potato vines you will find on the market.  Where the others are vigorously trailing plants, Bewitched is upright to mounding.  The new version has much improved foliage.  It now has deeply toothed leaves (it lends a delightfully wicked look to the plant), incredibly textured leaves (they are crinkled with deep venation, that increases as the foliage ages) and a deeper maroon/black foliage color.  I found the original Bewitched Purple a bit ho-hum, however, the new Sweet Caroline Bewitched is VERY cool!

Impatiens are excellent annual, shade to partial shade plants and will thrive in both containers and the landscape.  Both New Guinea impatiens and double impatiens have a wide range of color options.  This year, we are adding Rockapulco^® Coral Reef to our double Impatiens series.  While double Impatiens are generally considered to be shade plants, they are surprisingly sun tolerant (my container with them ended up on our full sun deck in Missouri from mid-summer on) and the flower color is gorgeous.  The flowers start out a bright coral, but slowly, from the center out, turn hot pink as the flower ages. 

We are also adding four new plants to our Infinity^® series of New Guinea impatiens. Infinity^® Electric Cherry, Infinity^® Electric Coral, Infinity^® Lavender (improved) and Infinity^® Salmon Bisque all showcase large flowers, sturdy plants and dark green foliage.

If you like unique flower colors, our newest Petunia - Supertunia^® White Russian - is the plant for you.  I've mentioned before that certain plants will be fun to play with in combinations, I think this might be the best of the bunch for combination container fun.  The antique white base color and dark veins are quite adaptable.  When paired with black foliage, like Sweet Caroline Raven, you will pull purple tones out of Supertunia^® White Russian.  Pairing her with chartreuse foliage will pull out green to yellow tones in the flower throat. Using bronze or red colors will lend a burgundy cast to her dark veins.  Think of the fun you can have changing the look of this plant by choosing what to pair her with.  She will perform best in full sun, but will tolerate partial sun with reduced flowering.  Deadheading isn't necessary, but regular fertilization will maximize her potential.  She will do well in both containers and landscapes and I believe her best use will be in combination planters.

If you are looking for bronze-toned foliage to pair with Supertunia^® White Russian, look no further than our newest coleus (Solenostemon) ColorBlaze^® Velvet Mocha^®.  The newest coleus are well-adapted to both sun and shade locations and work equally well in containers and landscapes.

In the past couple of decades, Verbena has exploded with a myriad of forms, colors and levels of performance. Verbenas are annuals that prefer full sun locations and will do well in both containers and landscapes.  Our Superbena^® series is chosen to have good mildew tolerance, excellent summer garden performance and large colorful flowers.  The two newest additions to the series uphold that tradition. 

The challenge for peach colored Verbena has always been mildew tolerance (they tend to be the least mildew tolerant) and good flower color (they tend to have wimpy, pastel colors).  Superbena^® Royale Peachy Keen has flowers that start out a deep, peachy-coral tone and age to vanilla cream.  The flowers have great impact because they start out such a deep color and hold that color longer than any other variety on the market.  The plant also has the best mildew tolerance of any peach toned Verbena that we have seen. 

The second new color is Superbena^® Royale Iced Cherry.  This is one of the most vibrant colors I've ever seen.  It is hard to capture the intensity of the jewel-toned flower color in photos, it really has to be experienced to be understood.  The vibrant cherry-red is accented with frosty white and deep in the throat of the flower is rich purple.  The range of colors in the flower mean it will lend itself well to mixing with many different colors.

Remember, when it comes to brand new plants you can feel a bit like you are on a treasure hunt.  It takes time for growers and garden centers to try the new things and for them to become widely available.  If you know you want to try one of these new plants, it wouldn't hurt to stop by your favorite local garden center.  Show them the plant you want and ask if they are going to have it.  If it isn't already in their plans, there is still time to add it!

Patent Information:

Superbells^® Cherry Star Calibrachoa hybrid 'USCAL91001' PPAF, Can. PBRAF; Superbells^® Sweet Tart Calibrachoa hybrid 'CBRZ0003' PPAF, Can. PBRAF; Superbells^® Grape Punch Calibrachoa hybrid 'USCAL84704' PPAF, Can. PBRAF; Superbells^® Miss Lilac Calibrachoa hybrid 'USCAL87502' PPAF, Can. PBRAF; Superbells^® Tequila Sunrise Calibrachoa hybrid 'USCAL88203' PPAF, Can. PBRAF; Illusion^® Garnet Lace Ipomoea batatas 'NCORNSP013GNLC' PPAF, Can. PBRAF; Sweet Caroline Raven Ipomoea batatas 'NCORNSP015SCPI' PPAF, Can. PBRAF; Sweet Caroline Bewitched Ipomoea batatas 'NCORNSP014BWPI' PPAF, Can. PBRAF; Rockapulco^® Coral Reef Impatiens walleriana 'Balcoree' PPAF, Can. PBRAF; Infinity^® Salmon Bisque Impatiens hawkeri 'VINFSALBIS' PPAF, Can. PBRAF;  Infinity^® Lavender Imp Impatiens hawkeri 'VINFLAVIMP' PPAF, Can. PBRAF;  Infinity^® Electric Coral Impatiens hawkeri 'VINFELECOR' PPAF, Can. PBRAF; Infinity^® Electric Cherry Impatiens hawkeri 'VINFELECHE' PPAF, Can. PBRAF; Supertunia^® White Russian Petunia hybrid 'Kerivoryvein' PPAF, Can. PBRAF; Superbena^® Royale Peachy Keen Verbena hybrid 'VEAZ0003' PPAF, Can.: 2173; Superbena^® Royale Iced Cherry Verbena hybrid 'INVEBROICH' PPAF Can. PBRAF