How many times have you walked up to a crop and noticed that something wasn’t quite right? My guess is you’d say, "More often than I’d like." I recently had one of those moments. Here’s what I saw:

This is a crop of Geranium Max Frei, and as you can see, a large portion of this block isn't flowering. My question for you is why? There’re a few possibilities that I can think of, however, I’m very interested in hearing what you think is causing this block of geraniums to appear this way. I guess what I’m really trying to ask is, “What’s happening here?”

Take your time, enjoy the newsletter and I’ll reveal the answer before signing off.

In the last newsletter, I began sharing some of the new perennial introductions that were originally slated to be on display at the California Spring Trials (CAST). Let’s continue my CAST coverage and begin with Kieft Seed. Kieft has about 15 new 2021 introductions; here are a few of the standouts:

Echinacea Artisan Collection

Our industry has been eagerly waiting for the debut of colorful echinacea strains from seed for some time now. The wait is over.

Kieft has just announced the Artisan Collection of echinacea. The Artisan Collection are revolutionary and are the first F1 hybrid echinacea to ever hit the market. Just to dispel any misconceptions out there, these are NOT the individual colors found in Cheyenne Spirit (open pollinated)—rather they're F1 hybrids from a unique breeding program.

The Artisan Collection currently has two cultivars: Red Ombre and Soft Orange. More colors are anticipated in the future. This series provides improved germination, better consistency and more uniform flowering. With these improvements, first-year flowering, ease of production and Zone 4 cold hardiness, the Artisan collection is a must-have for most perennial programs.

Aquilegia Earlybird Series

The Earlybird series is an improvement to and replacement for the ever-so-popular Songbird series.

There are eight colors and a mix available in the new series, including several unique colors such as Purple Blue and Red Yellow (shown above). The other colors in the series include Blue Yellow, Blue White, Purple White, Red White, Yellow, and White.

Besides the unique colors, the Earlybird series has reduced vernalization requirements; they can be vernalized in five weeks with temperatures below 55F (13C). As the name suggests, they flower about one to two weeks earlier than the original Songbirds. The Earlybird series has a compact, controlled habit with upward-facing flowers and are very programable to meet various ship dates. The unique flower colors, blooming uniformity and consistent plant size are appealing attributes that make the Earlybird series the series to beat.

New Lobelia Starship Introductions

The popular Starship series of Lobelia from Kieft is welcoming three new cultivars to its family.

The new introductions are Blue, Burgundy and Scarlet Bronze Leaf. Starship Blue is shown in the image on the left and has good vigor, is well branched and the flowers don’t fade. Starship Scarlet Bronze Leaf shown on the right has contrasting purple-bronze foliage and vivid scarlet flowers. All the Starship cultivars are hardy to Zone 6.

Now let’s look at a few new introductions from Darwin Perennials. If I counted right, there are 17 new perennials being added to the Darwin Perennials portfolio. Let’s look at some of the most promising introductions.

Lavandula stoechas Primavera

Primavera is a very exciting new Spanish lavender introduction. One of the most notable attributes is there's no cold requirement whatsoever for flowering. Primavera blooms in the early spring and continues into the heat of the summer. Without a cold requirement, Primavera can be scheduled and grown into bloom nearly year round. This is a game changer in the Spanish lavender market. Hardy to Zone 7.

Leucanthemum Whitecap

Whitecap is a great new first-year flowering shasta daisy from Darwin Perennials. It doesn’t require vernalization for flowering and blooms early. They have the traditional shasta daisy flowers with white petals and yellow buttons. The plants are compact (14- to 16-in. tall) and the flowers completely cover the foliage when they bloom. Whitecap is a great, easy-to-grow and programmable daisy with excellent retail and landscape appeal. Hardy to Zone 5.

Salvia Mirage Rose Bicolor

The Mirage series of Salvia greggii added two new members to its family of colors (now a family of 13). Mirage Rose Bicolor shown above really caught my eye. It has large rose and cream bicolor flowers and a rounded habit. The flower color doesn't fade over time. Like it’s siblings, Rose Bicolor is self-branching, has a sturdy mounded habit and long-lasting flowers.

Keep in mind the Mirage series is only hardy to Zone 7, but they can be used as an annual or in combination planters in northern climates.

The new perennials from Darwin Perennials and Kieft Seed are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the new perennial introductions that were going to be on display at Spring Trials. Add the new annual introductions on top of these and there were going to be hundreds and hundreds of new intros at this year’s event.

The breeding companies at Ball (including Darwin and Kieft) have several resources available that cover not only their genetics, but new introductions from all the breeding companies. Here are several CAST resources for you to use:

SimulCast20—This is a virtual conference covering all of the Ball breeding companies.

CAST Mobile app—Allows you to browse the 2021 introductions from all of the breeding companies. Available for FREE in the App Store or on Google Play.

And follow the Ball Publishing Bobbleheads as they covered cast on social media. These will be updated often, so check them throughout the year.

Instagram: @growertalksgreenprofit

Facebook: www.facebook.com/springtrials

LinkedIn, if that’s more your style: www.linkedin.com/company/ball-publishing

The Acres of Buzz newsletters provided daily coverage from each of the trial locations. Here are the links to this year’s CAST coverage:

Day 1: Darwin Perennials, Kieft Seed and the Ball Companies

Day 2: PlantHaven and others

Day 3: Dümmen Orange, Kientzler and J. Berry

Day 4: Green Fuse, Monrovia and more

Day 5: Terra Nova, PP&L and others

Day 6: Danziger, Syngenta, Benary

Day 7: Proven Winners

We’re all probably cleaning and disinfecting our breakrooms and common areas differently now than we did at the beginning of the year. Regardless, I wanted to bring to your attention that you likely already have a great disinfectant on hand—I’m referring to KleenGrow.

KleenGrow is a DDAC quaternary ammonium chemistry and is a very effective hard surface disinfectant primarily sold in the agriculture market. In that market, it’s labeled for use on hard surfaces such as greenhouses, benches, floors and tools, but also applies to all hard surface areas found in breakrooms, homes and offices. Click here for information on using KleenGrow to disinfect meeting areas, offices, breakrooms and restrooms.

When KleenGrow is used as a surface disinfectant, there's NO REI or required PPE since that doesn't fall under the EPA Agricultural Uses category, but is a Non-Agricultural Use. I can’t speak for its efficacy on COVID-19, but KleenGrow is a very good hard surface virucide and is safer than other viricidal products marketed.

I just thought I’d let you know or remind you that not only is KleenGrow a highly effective disinfectant commonly used to control various microbes and pathogens on greenhouse tools and surfaces, but it’s also a great option for disinfecting breakrooms, offices and other common areas. Heck, it even controls other viruses—maybe COVID-19 doesn’t stand a chance.

Last week, e-Gro sent out a new alert “Surface Disinfectants for Use Against SARS-CoV-2.” This article provides a summary of the active ingredients (including quaternary ammonium compounds) approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for use against SARS-CoV-2, the causal agent of COVID-19. It also includes general recommendations on how to use sanitizers.

At the top of the newsletter, I shared the image below (left) and asked if you could determine the reason the middle of the block isn't flowering. The image on the right shows a different angle of the same block of geraniums.

In this diagnostic challenge, I didn’t share any clues and only gave you a single image with a pattern of non-flowering plants in the middle of flowering ones. Did you see the pattern? Was it useful? I imagine the answers ranged from improper watering to chemical injury. Some of you may have guessed insects were to blame. If you were one of them, you absolutely nailed it.

Closer inspection of these plants revealed the plants without blooms were hosting a dining extravaganza for aphids. They were loaded with aphids. By the time I saw them, a treatment had already been applied, but as you can see in the image above, many aphids were still present.

There are many highly effective biological and chemical control options for controlling aphids. Ideally, any control strategy should’ve been implemented before the aphid population built up enough to cause this type of injury to the geraniums. My all-time favorite application for quick knock-down of aphids is the combination of cyfluthrin and imidacloprid.

I thought you’d enjoy these fun quarantine-related videos from the Holderness family.

New Normal in Quarantine

Songs for Social Distancing (Parody Medley)

Songs for Social Distancing Part 2

Do You Want To … (Frozen Quarantine Parody)

Sanitized Songs (Quarantine Medley)

I’m addicted to their videos. Have fun with them and continue to be safe.