Cut flower breeders and brokers held open houses in California on August 13-16 to show new varieties and get feedback from growers. "The event was attended mostly by growers on the West Coast, but the event is starting to garner attention throughout the USA and Canada. Groups from the Netherlands, Colombia & China also attended."
In Salinas/Gilroy, Sakata, Syngenta, Takii, and InFlora Cut Flowers showcased trials featuring field or greenhouse-grown products. PanAmerican Seed hosted customers further south in Santa Paula.
Sakata highlighted their Lisianthus portfolio, Stock Iron, Aster Azumi XL, and Matsumoto, & Marigold Coco in their greenhouse. Here are Sarena Robertson (Sakata), Tim Quirk (Express), Mike Furlong (Ocean Breeze), Greg Gabrels (Sakata), and Melissa Wark (Headstart Nursery) walking the greenhouse trial.
Sakata also showed upcoming introductions of the new Downy Mildew resistant versions of their Vincent's® Sunflowers. Available in 2025, Vincent's Choice DMR and Vincent's Fresh DMR will be introduced. "They have the added benefit of downy mildew disease resistance." These trials were grown by InFlora Cut Flowers at their trial site in Salinas with Green Valley Floral.
Syngenta Flowers hosted visitors and toured their field trials in Gilroy. Highlights of their trials included Karma Dahlias, Opus Snapdragons, and Uproar Zinnia. Below is a photo of the Syngenta Flowers team led by Alicain Carlson.
Syngenta's Dahlia collection was also grown from unrooted cuttings compared with tubers at the InFlora Cut Flowers trial site in Salinas with Green Valley Floral. The liners and tubers were planted at the same time. "The URC-raised trial plots showed better uniformity, improved stem caliper, and earlier harvest compared to the stems from the tuber-raised plots."
From URC (left) and from tubers (right)
The InFlora Cut Flowers team grew trials featuring the products. Varieties from Sakata, Syngenta, and PanAmerican were featured, but also it served as a host location for other partners of InFlora Cut Flowers including Evanthia, Danziger, HilverdaFlorist and some private breeders. This was one of the larger trial locations featuring 180 varieties of field grown Dahlias, Dianthus, Stock, Snapdragons, Limonium, Matricaria, and Sunflowers.
Peter van Noort (Evanthia) talked through the new Stox® Stock and Barcelona Dianthus with the team from Green Valley Floral (John, Janet, Hector, & Curtis).
Kelly Meringolo (InFlora Cut Flowers) and Drew Groezinger (Clara Joyce Flowers) viewed new dahlia breeding.
Peter van Noort (Evanthia) walked the matricaria trial with Kelly Meringolo (InFlora Cut Flowers) and the team from Camflor. Matricaria Cameron is Evanthia's newest introduction, improved for uniformity and petal fill.
"Danziger's Focal Scoop showed well in a comparison trial with the older seed varieties. Customers were impressed with the flower size and stem strength of the Focal Scoop series."
Focal Scoop lavender plot
Takii had a sunflower field trial with comparisons. Customers also learned about new Lisianthus, Asters, Snapdragons, Stock and Gomphrena in tunnel and greenhouse presentations.
And PanAmerican Seed showcased their BloomStudios Cut Flowers assortment with greenhouse and tunnel trials. "Most notably an upcoming series upgrade for Snapdragon Monaco (group 2,3) for next year with better colors, brighter colors, and better spike quality. New varieties will be introduced in their Dianthus Sweet Series such as Celosia Sunday Bright Orange. It's such a bright orange the Dutch growers might find it useful for King's Day."
For more information:
Express Seed Company
www.expressseed.com
InFlora Cut FlowersTM
www.infloracutflowers.com