D.S. Cole Growers in New Hampshire keeps a close eye on market trends for young plants. "Our goal is to deliver what customers want, even before they realize they want it," says president Doug Cole. "It's an old strategy, but one we must continually embrace to remain relevant." In addition to introducing new and trendy plant varieties, D.S. Cole also focuses on improving growers' processes. This includes innovations like larger cell sizes and expanding into a new category with their so-called ready to pot Kits.
Colocasia Redemption (Photo: Plants Nouveau)
Expanding assortment
Growers of indoor plants continue to offer different types of foliage plants. So, coming into this season, what's new and what's expected to become trendy at D.S. Cole? "We now offer new Gesneriads such as Streptocarpus (Primulina) 'Pretty Turtle' and Alsobia dianthiflora and we have been looking for more unusual indoor plants either with or without flowers. Aeschynanthus and Nematanthus are additional genera that fit this category."
Another new plant in their assortment is the Chlorophytum Spotlight, which is used outdoors. "It offers a fast-growing opportunity for growers and homeowners who want a good looking spiked accent in their planters. The same is true for our expanded line of Colocasia for outdoor décor."
When looking at their indoor plant assortment, they also broadened their offering of trending plants to keep up with demand. They increased their list of Hoya and Dischidia, for example.
Alsobia Dianthiflora (photo by Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56190761)
Increased cell size
Recognizing that growers need to fill out pots quickly to make a profit, they have also increased the cell size of many of products. "This increased cell size applies to specialty products, perennials and indoor plants." 
Chlorophytum Starlight (Photo: Concept Plants)
Ready to pot "Kits"
Another new category from D.S. Cole Growers is ready to pot "Kits". "There are 22 Kits available to pick from. Some are put together for sunny exposures and some are for shade", explains Doug. When ordering a Kit, the customer will receive between 2 and 4 different varieties to then pot together in the container of their choice. "Each item in each Kit is rooted in its own cell. By doing this, we can root these plants in the specific environment needed for each plant and the grower can now pot a mixture of plants that don't normally mix well while rooting. A good example of this would be a Kit called 'Boldness'. It contains Cyperus, Bidens, Petunia and Thunbergia. These 4 plants would be tough to not only root in one cell, but to also grow so tight together in one cell where at least one variety will out-compete another."
For more information:
D.S. Cole Growers
info@dscolegrowers.com
www.dscolegrowers.com