Garden centres see stiff business this year pg. 8
NEW VARIETIES
EASY WAVE® ROSE FUSION F1
Petunia
Mid-rose blooms have deep rose veins. Short-day, 9-hour flowering requirement creates early-season sales opportunities. Perfect for solo and mixed planters, baskets, gardens and landscapes.
MARVEL II F1
African Marigold
SHOCK WAVE® PURPLE TIE DYE F1
Attractive purple-blue and white bicolour pattern changes based on temperature, light levels and PGRs used. Each plant is blanketed with masses of colourful, petite blooms.
SOL COLLECTION
New intermediate-type African marigold offers improved branching, earliness, flower size and a brighter flower colour. Uniform under short and long days. 3 colours, 1 mix.
COLORBLOOM F1
Gerbera
Stays compact, allowing the colourful blooms to show through in quarts/11-cm pots. Faster to flower by around 10 days. 2 new colours, 1 improved mix.
New rose variety joins the series that offers high resistance to currently known and widely prevalent populations of Plasmopara obducens, which cause Impatiens downy mildew.
Foliage Celosia SIAM F1 Edible
Unique new varieties expand the options for consumers looking for sun-loving foliage plants for patio planters. Available in colour-varying Gekko Green and Lizzard Leaf.
ARTISAN COLLECTION F1
First F1 hybrid Echinacea individual colour collection from seed! Consistent vigour/ uniformity in two beautiful colours: Soft Orange and Red Ombre. Hardy to Zone 4.
Potted vegetable plant collection consumers can grow inside on a sunny windowsill or counter without a garden! Siam produces cherry tomatoes with excellent flavour.
Strong, unique bicolours renew interest in Aquilegia! Includes Red Yellow, Purple White, Purple Blue and Purple Yellow – not available before. Hardy to Zone 3.
A unique plant for the border, with silvery-white felted leaves and rosy-lavender bracts, plus lavender flowers in July. Bred as a more manageable-sized Salvia canariensis.
Ripens to dark tan with a frosted overlay. Similar taste to butternut squash, with superior quality, rich flavour and up to a 4-month shelf life.
Summer-flowering, low-maintenance perennial is covered with masses of flowers for containers and the centre of the border. 3 new colours. Hardy to Zone 6.
Lobelia
Potted Tomato
Squash
echinacea
Introducing Artisan, the first F1 hybrid Echinacea single color collection from seed! Offering consistent vigour and uniformity in two beautiful, handcrafted colours: Soft Orange, with tangerine tones, and Red Ombre, a palette of red shades that customers will love! Maximum flower power at retail and superior performance in gardens and containers. Get the Zone 4-hardy seed Echinacea with handcrafted garden color. Order your Artisan Echinacea seed and plugs today. panamseed.com makes it easier for you to grow. 630 231-1400 800 231-7065 CELEBRATE THE CRAFTSMANSHIP OF
INDIVIDUAL BY DESIGN
NEW VARIETIES
Fastest to the Finish! FotoFinish sets new standards in programmability and uniformity for high-density growing. Extra early flowering, with masses of color in 9-10 weeks.
Apricot is the latest color addition to the Cora XDR vinca series. The vinca that fights back offers season-long flowering and survival in landscape planting.
Plays well alone and with others. Tidy plants with masses of extraearly, mini-sized flowers that hold longer at retail and in the garden.
Heat tolerant extra-dwarf series that has superior flower form and flower coverage. Happy performs beautifully in hot, harsh garden conditions.
A standout with striking color and bold foliage. Vibrant colors paired with upright grower-friendly habits make Florencio the go-to hybrid Begonia.
Tons of tiny magenta blooms form a blanket of color providing undeniable retail appeal, a great option for both landscape and containers.
Glacier is the newest series to the Aubrieta breeding program. Flowers on average 2-3 weeks later than Axcent™, making it an ideal season extender.
Days for happy gardens. Nearly black, dissected foliage makes the bright flowers really pop! Ideal for containers and landscape application.
A brand-new series of wellmatched Phlox subulata. GoldiPhlox adds series uniformity to core colors including the first ever GoldiPhlox Cherry!
A double flower that is irresistible! Rosalie is a truly unique zonal with soft pink
double flowers that standout at retail and in the garden.
A festive new series of Helenium with brightly colored blooms. HayDay is the perfect summer perennial for attracting pollinators and bringing excitement into this classic prairie wildflower.
Happy
rosebud-like
Five new mixes added to the Imara XDR series, offering unique color combinations. Imara XDR Rosy Mix includes Purple Imp., Pink, Rose, and White.
NEW VARIETIES
With nestled branching, a fuller habit and season-long flowering, this brick red selection represents an advancement in heat tolerant Osteospermum breeding.
Capitalize on the tropical trend with this distinctive Colocasia. Cupped, olive green foliage and mocha accents. 36-60” height; 36-60” spread
For polished container presentation, choose this tightly branched, compact selection with radiant golden yellow leaves and razor-thin red edge.
Look forward to an enhanced spring habit and presentation, seasonlong performance, and royal purple flowers that are colorfast.
This tropical coral and sunny yellow bicolor is easy to mix with other sun-loving plants. Expect a mounded habit blanketed in color!
This novel bicolor fan flower features blue and white striped flowers on densely branched plants with short internodes for a concentrated show of color.
Cascading, soft pink blossoms offer a pleasant, citrus-like fragrance. Increased vigor, branching, flower count and sun tolerance too.
A first to market, exclusive new foliage form. Palm-shaped, leaves form a compact, mounded to slightly trailing plant.
A color expansion for our vegetative Lobularia line. Soft yellow blossoms blanket wellbranched plants all season, powering through the heat of summer.
Produced vegetatively to ensure excellent vigor, uniformity and durability-- an outstanding 4” crop. They bloom early, are self-cleaning and easy to hold at retail.
Cascading, elegantly formed, soft yellow blossoms exude a citruslike fragrance. Excellent vigor, branching, flower count and sun tolerance too.
Hit current trends with ornamental and edible, everbearing, patio strawberry plants. Semi-double flowers join the sweet fruits all season.
2020: The year of the garden
Garden centres – and their suppliers – are doing stiff business this year.
BY TREENA HEIN
COVID-19 has affected, and continues to affect, many aspects of life this year, but one of the positives is an enormous interest in home gardening. The need to stay at home during this pandemic, along with the corresponding boredom, isolation and anxiety, has resulted in “outstanding and fast-paced changes” in the Canadian gardening market this spring, according to Mark Cullen, head of Home Hardware’s gardening division and owner of brand ‘Mark’s Choice’ with son Ben Cullen.
And what could be better than planting and growing fresh vegetables, herbs and berry bushes, especially with children at home and particularly when in March and April, there were fears over possible food shortages? Indeed, Ben says the incredible interest in vegetable gardening this year is being compared to the Victory Garden movement of World War II, where everyone was encouraged to grow as much food for themselves as possible.
“2020 will go down as ‘The Year of Fruits and Vegetables,’” says Sue Baker, vice president of merchandising and marketing at Georgetown, Ont.based Sheridan Nurseries. She reported in late May that “whether it’s seeds, bulbs or potted, we can’t
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keep the product in stock. Potted product is selling as fast as we can receive it from our growers.”
Selling exceptionally well at Sheridan Nurseries is their line of ‘Trellis Bowl’ vegetable planters – beans, peas, cucumbers and more – due to their ease of care. “Just bring it home,” says Baker, “water, fertilize and enjoy your vegetables.” This situation is exactly what Alberta Horticultural Association president Robert Spencer expects this year, that ready-made vegetable plant containers will be very popular “as some people just don’t have space for a traditional garden but want something edible.”
“Edible plants can be beautiful too,” adds Jon Peter, curator and manager of plant records at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ont. Peter says homeowners are beginning to incorporate tomatoes, blueberries, leeks and parsley and more into their yards, and in terms of trees, choosing plum, pear, apple and sweet cherry instead of ornamental cherries or flowering crabapples, which not only give beautiful spring flowers but also edible fruits. By May of this year, Sheridan Nurseries had sold more of its blackberry, raspberry and blueberry bushes than in all of 2019. Fruit trees
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Tropical houseplants, edible ornamentals (C. Canadensis pictured) and container-friendly berry bushes are all going strong.
are also selling very well, with demand for cherry trees and dwarf trees the strongest.
SHADE-LOVING NATIVE SPECIES
As the years go by and trees age, demand will increase for plants that do well in the shade they cast, notes Mark Cullen. Gardeners who have shady areas may reach for more ferns this year, says Ben, as many ferns on the market are native species and come, “like hostas, in a wide range of colours, textures and sizes.”
Planting native species has never been more popular. Peter reports that today’s gardeners are increasingly using the ‘Doug Tallamy approach’ to replace lawn with a diversity of native plants. He also says gardeners are discovering the many durable and adaptable native sedges now available for shady areas and more. “If you have dry shade, plant Carex rosea,” he suggests. “If you want something evergreen, plant Carex plantaginea and if you have a wet ditch, plant Carex squarrosa.”
TROPICALS
Strong demand for tropical plants also continues into 2020, with some consumers bringing them in during the winter and others buying them new each year. In Ben Cullen’s view, tropical indoor plants have been the ‘gateway to gardening’ for a generation of young people who live in condos and are inspired by images they see online. “As these people graduate into their first homes and gardens, they will no doubt keep their tropicals with them,” he says.
In addition, Peter says succulents,
both winter-hardy and interior, are still highly-desirable this year for small spaces such as patios, balconies, containers and windowsills. By May, Sheridan Nurseries had sold more than four times their usual amount of succulents. “They require less time and effort than many plants and come in a variety of colours, textures, shapes and flowering types,” Peter explains. Furthermore, many succulents remain small in size, which people like, and they are also generally easy to propagate, making them easy for gardeners to share.
ORNAMENTAL GRASSES… AND ONIONS
Ornamental grasses also continue to be popular in 2020. They “tick a lot of boxes,” says Mark Cullen, in the way they provide great value through their tolerance to insects, diseases and more. “With climate change, we see more rain, less often,” adds Ben. “Ornamental grasses are a secret weapon for dealing with wild weather – they absorb a lot of water during storms, preventing erosion and flooding, and hold up well during droughts.”
Peter adds that gardeners are trying out ornamental onions for their late spring/early summer blooms from bulbs planted in the fall. Some are taller with flower heads the size of softballs, such as the Allium ‘Gladiator’ while others have shorter stature, such as Allium ‘Ostara’. He recommends them not only because they look great, but they also release compounds into the soil which can help deter pests.
There are also edible ornamentals,
says Peter, that can be incorporated into a meal. For example, the fresh flowers of redbud (Cercis canadensis) can go into a salad, the fruit of Kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) or Cornelian-cherry (Cornus mas) in a dessert, or the fresh growth of Hosta or the fiddleheads of ferns in a stir-fry. “These plants,” he says, “can provide beauty at one time of year and provide fresh food at another.”
THE OLD STANDBYS: ANNUALS AND PERENNIALS
It’s not surprising that in this year filled with public anxiety and boredom due to the pandemic, consumers are looking for bright and cheery colours.
Baker reports that blooms in ‘Hot Pink’ and ‘Living Coral’ are selling out first, and that colourful standbys like Mandevilla, Bougainvillea and lavender are all selling above expectations. On the traditional perennial front, Peter notes that there are now many new perennial geraniums that bloom longer and come in new colours. He recommends that gardeners check out cultivars ‘Jolly Jewel,’ ‘New Hampshire Purple’ and ‘Tiny Monster.’
In reflecting on this extraordinary year in gardening and otherwise, Tony DiGiovanni no doubt echoes the sentiments of all greenhouse garden plant suppliers and retailers across Canada: hopeful but cautious. The executive director at Landscape Ontario notes that while COVID-19 has stimulated great interest in gardening in 2020, “let’s hope the interest remains. It is up to us as professionals to help the public be successful.”
PHOTO CREDIT: SHERIDAN NURSERIES
PHOTO CREDIT: J. PETER
PHOTO CREDIT: BUSHEL AND BERRY
NEW VARIETIES
The truest yellow petunia on the market! Bright, lush blooms flower all-season long with dark green foliage and superior branching. Outstanding in landscapes and containers.
Features bold orange edges that fade into a yellow centre. New blooms emerge in brighter hues that lead to three shades of blooms at once.
The first sky-type variety to join the series! Huge blooms with a deep blue hue and a white picotee edge are speckled with white stars.
Unique, colour-shifting calibrachoa is part of a new vigorous series with exceptional uniformity in habit and timing. Ideal for large containers, baskets and mixes.
Huge pink double blooms with white edges are impressive in hanging baskets. New blooms cover old flowers for a freshlooking plant all season long.
This new sky-type variety is a perfect match in timing, habit and vigour for the mediumvigour, mounded series for baskets and large pots.
Two new varieties expand this compact-to-medium series. Cajun Spice features vibrant orange leaves with green edges. Sriracha has dark red leaves with lime green edging.
Features a vibrant, unique bicolour pattern with large flowers and excellent heat performance. Strong vigour makes for fullbodied mixed containers. Stands up to harsh conditions.
DALAYA® RASPBERRY
Vibrant double blooms are rose-raspberry with a blue undertone – perfect for Mother’s Day! Series is ideal for 2.5-qt. and larger pots.
Magenta sky-type variety is earlier to flower than sister Night Sky®, with a vigour and habit to match the series. Eye-catching in baskets and pots.
This variety features a new anemone flower form that is shatter resistant, with bright orange blooms and clean green foliage. Excellent garden performance.
With large, attractive flower clusters, this new deep red phlox has exceptional heat tolerance and landscape performance. Great in small pots and baskets as well.
NEW VARIETIES
Extremely well branched and covered with blooms! Outstanding garden performance. Earlier to set blooms then perfect mounded habit later in the season. Extremely heat tolerant.
Early flowering, heat tolerant, and compact, the Brainiac series is outstanding for packs and 4”. Better germination, and availability than Amigos with great outdoor performance!
Salvia Farina Series is well branched and early flowering which means your benches will be filled with more flowers all season. Now in 7 colors!
The Groovy™ series’ has a mounded, semi-trailing habit, superior germination, outstanding plug performance and uniformity across the series. Bigger flowers give more color at retail.
Benary is expanding this genetically compact series with new Light Pink! A perfect color for spring hanging baskets and mixed containers with proven garden performance.
New Taka Tuka Yellow Red Star is fun and exciting. This brilliant new bi-color has an outstanding habit that is great in baskets or combos
The most trusted series in tuberous begonias now has 2 bright new bi-colors! Begonia Nonstop Fire and Sunset. Great for Mother’s Day!
Our breeders were able to keep the large, eye-catching flowers of Prairie Sun while “shrinking” the height of the plant. So easy to ship!
Heat tolerant, well branched and compact, Evita will be your go-to for full sun mixed containers. Low seed set keeps blooms coming all season long.
Nonstop Mocca Deep Red is the deepest red on the market with rich bronze foliage. Exceptional seed quality!. Wow your customers with this unforgettable variety!
A rich, unique color with outstanding landscape performance. Available in BeGreen chemical-free priming
All new vegetative breeding. Vigorous, well-branched habit is great for early spring baskets. Highly fragrant! Available in purple, lavender and white from BenaryPlus.com
BIG® Begonias get white hot this summer!
BIG® White Green Leaf is extremely well branched so your pots will be covered with blooms. It’s outstanding garden performance and a perfect mounded habit live up to the BIG® Begonia name. For white hot sales and performance, you can only trust the BIG® Begonia name –BIG® White Green Leaf.
Begonia BIG® White Green Leaf
AN EVENT RE-IMAGINED
JOIN US ONLINE
A mix of live and recorded sessions, this year’s virtual events will highlight the latest in research, technology and production. Live panels will tackle today’s most pressing issues, while pre-recorded sessions will allow attendees to pick and choose sessions, revisiting them at their leisure.
Presented
NEW VARIETIES
DUELLE
High yield potential red grape tomato with high flavor profile and crunchy texture. Intermediate powdery mildew resistance.
IVORYMOON
Exceptional and unique ‘ivory’ color and taste. Reliable yield level in this segment from a strong plant which performs well in hot temperatures without need for flower pruning.
Delivers a high number of XL size fruits for packaging and bulk. Strong ability to set fruit in all conditions. Stable shape throughout the season. HR: Tm 0-3.
A large TOV hybrid with intermediate mildew resistance. Uniform flowering and a fast setting produces clusters with consistent sizes and shapes and a high 1st class pack-out.
An easy setting variety producing high quality blocky fruits with thick walls. This powerful crop is producing fruits with a consistent fruit weight through summer. HR: Tm 0-3.
Produces uniform blocky fruits with thick walls and very high yield potential. Maintains very large fruit size in high temperature period to give high percentage of XXL + packouts. HR: Tm 0-3.
A better-quality product for the consumer. An integrated, innovative greenhouse solution for you. That’s what Syngenta provides through quality genetics and new variety innovations. Your customers, and their dinner tables, deserve nothing less than the very best.
To learn more about varieties from Syngenta contact Plant Products at 519-326-9037 or info@plantproducts.com
Syngenta Representatives: jeroen.iprenburg@syngenta.com hans.van_haeff@syngenta.com
