CAST of Characters

Chris Beytes

Jeff LaCourse, long-time perennial expert (more than 45 years!) for Ball Horticultural Company and Dümmen Orange, and now Dümmen’s distribution companies McHutchison and Vaughan’s Horticulture, explains lavender to a group of Express Seed sales reps visiting Dümmen Orange during the 2025 California Spring Trials (CAST).

Dümmen Orange, which held its CAST event at Center of Effort Winery in Arroyo Grande, saw more than 600 visitors during over four days—slightly up from last year, said Marta Maria Garcia, Head of Product Management, Marketing & Retail for the breeding company.

“We actually started to see this year more visitors arriving earlier to spend more time with us,” she said of the event. “Which is fantastic because we get to have more quality time and great business discussions. I really like the quality time versus quantity.”

Marta Maria said they heard from visitors that arrived later in the week that they plan on arriving earlier next year (perhaps also to better enjoy some of the fine wines available from the host site).

But what of that attendance figure? Is enough to continue the major investment it takes to host a trial?
“This continues to be an important event,” Marta Maria answered. “We are a ‘show me’ industry and this event allows us to build a mini Dümmen expo for customers to come, experience our flowers and spend time with us.” GT