Chris: Day three of our 2021 CAST (California Summer Trials) tour and I think I’ve finally gotten used to saying “Summer Trials” instead of “Spring Trials,” Bill. I got tired of you correcting me on our videos.

Bill: Hey, at least you aren’t calling them “Pack Trials,” old man. Maybe you’ll have it nailed by the time we go to Short Course next month …

Chris: I did at least once today, when we found those packs at Dümmen (which the folks can see in our video below!). But as usual, we're wasting time. Tell the folks where we went today, Young William.

Bill: Just three stops and four companies to report on, as you can see from the list at the top. But don’t be fooled—we filled a lot of notebook pages!

Chris: That’s for sure! Which is why we have to remind you that this is just the highlights—our full coverage will come in the pages of GrowerTalks and Green Profit. Plus, our videos often contain more varieties than we can fit in here, so be sure to click the links you find below.

Okay, on to Dümmen Orange, which set up in a giant tent at the beautiful Avila Beach Resort, the prettiest trial location on the coast.

Bill: We started by going through some of their many New Guinea impatiens offerings, which are always really showy at Dümmen. First was an improved White for the Petticoat series, an important NGI mix component. Next were three new colors in Wild Romance, their vigorous landscape series. Lavender, Peach and Hot Rose bring the series count to six. Just next to them was an eye-catching display of NGI Magnum Duos, a group of two-color combos that looked really nice in their simplicity (Magnums are their big, bold hanging basket New Guineas). Duos aren’t a program, just a concept, showing you how to put two colors in one pot for added consumer appeal.

The Wild Romance NGI series.

Chris: Those were colorful, but Dümmen’s calibrachoa are the most colorful thing you’ll see at their trials. New is the Rainbow series. Rainbow offers flowers that change colors from pale to bold based on the conditions they’re in. They can look like a mixed container without the hassle of planting multiple varieties. Culture-wise, they perform like Dümmen’s Aloha series. Seven colors in the series. I’ll also make mention of a 2020 intro called TikTok, which features bold bi-color flowers with a star pattern that made them think of the hands on a clock—hence the name. Four colors in the collection.


Calibrachoa Rainbow Parisian Pink.

Bill: The coleus category keeps growing … and Dümmen just grew it a little bit more with four additions to their Main Street collection of vigorous sun/shade coleus: Orchard Road, Yonge Street, Bourbon Street and Venice Boulevard. My favorite was Bourbon Street, with deep red foliage and lime green edges.

Chris: Hey, we can say the same about vegetative begonias—it’s impossible to count how many are on the market. But there aren’t many that are scented and that’s what sets the I’conia Scentiment collection apart. New Peachy Keen, with its light citrus scent, joins Just Peachy and Sunrise. I’conia Lemon Berry, meanwhile, isn’t scented, but it combines a delicate appearance with garden toughness, taking sun and heat with no problem, they say.

I'conia Lemon Berry Begonia.

I’ll mention one more annual introduction, Angelonia Aria Alta. It’s a larger, large-flowered version of their Aria series. It has three colors: Purple, Pink and Raspberry (which wasn’t shown.)

Bill: Awesome! You didn’t talk about the two new concepts yet, which means I get to pick whichever one I want to cover. I’m taking Better Together, an idea that seems simple for folks to execute and very much on trend. The idea is that growers pick from three core Dümmen series—Geranium Big EEZE, Begonia I’conia or NGI Magnum and then add a Great Falls Coleus. You plant them up one-to-one (for instance, three of each in a 12-in. basket or 14-in. patio pot) and you’ve got a nicely matched combo ready to go. These combinations were picked for longevity and shelf-life, creating combos to sell at premium prices.

The Better Together concept.

Chris: I liked how complex they looked, yet how simple they are to create. The Great Falls Coleus grows through the blooming plants very nicely. We should note that they’re not a program you buy—they’re just ideas for your own plantings.

That’s the same idea with Pollinator Paradise, which are tested annual and perennial recipes for pollinator-attracting combos. The key is they’re not just generic “pollinator” attractors, but bee, hummingbird and butterfly attractors. That’s a smart way to get consumers to buy more plants!

Lastly, let me mention Basewell, Dümmen’s rooted cutting program. They’ve come up with an effective way to root cuttings offshore, then ship them north to us with the roots protected by a firm gel (approved by the USDA for import). Basewell lets you stick a rooted cutting, cutting time from your production and saving you money. How much? Check out their easy-to-use cost calculator at www.growbasewell.com to see if they’ll work in your production system.


A Basewell rooted cutting.

Oh, if you’re wondering about perennials, our expert Paul Pilon will be covering those in his Perennial Pulse newsletter. But if you just can’t wait to see their cool lavenders, check out our full Dümmen video HERE.

Okay, Bill, take us two hours north to Sakata Seed.

Bill: The first thing we noted at Sakata was how few displays there were. Then we were reminded that, until a week ago, California was mandating masks and social distancing. Sakata was just abiding by the rules. The lack of big displays didn’t detract from the quality of the experience, however.

We saw a handful of new vegetative intros at Sakata, with some adding to existing lines and others that are firsts for the company. For instance, four new colors were added to the large-flowered SuperCal Premium series of petunia/calibrachoa crosses. Purple Dawn, Sunset Orange, Yellow Sun and Pearl White bring new colors into the series of heat- and frost-tolerant plants. For the traditional SuperCal series, Pink Improved is new for 2022.

SuperCal colors for 2022.

There are two new species as Sakata. The new Angelonia Angelissa series starts with Rose, White and Purple. And the Lantana Sundance series starts off with the core colors of yellow, red and white. Both of these series are good combo companions for SunPatiens in heat-loving mixes.

Chris: You mentioned SunPatiens, Bill. There are four additions to the massive collection. The SunPatiens Compact series gets Deep Red, Rose Glow and Hot Pink. And the SunPatiens Vigorous series gets Sweetheart White, plus White Improved.

Now everything above is a vegetative variety. Everything to follow is from seed, like Viking Explorer Begonia. The Viking series is one of those big, bold varieties like, well, BIG and DragonWing. Viking Explorer is a cascading/trailing version of it. There are two colors: Rose on Green and Red on Green.

Begonia Viking Explorer.

Profusion Zinnia, Sakata’s most awarded annual, got yet another award-winner in 2020—Red Yellow Bicolor. This 2021 intro won an All-America Selections Gold Medal. Joining it is Profusion Double Red, which may not have any awards, but it’s still a good addition to the series, which, at our count, now has 10 colors and two mixes.


Profusion Red Yellow Bicolor and Double Red Zinnia.

Bill, why don’t you fill us in on Sakata’s veggie offerings?

Bill: Gladly! And speaking of glad, I’m glad we had just eaten lunch or I’d have dove headfirst into the big pot of lettuce! Actually, two big pots of lettuce and that was just a small sample of the almost 40 lettuce varieties for home garden and CEA use Sakata has recently had access to following their purchase of Vanguard, another veggie breeding company.

In addition to the lettuce, we saw two tomatoes and a pepper. The new tomato RuBee collection includes four indeterminate slicers and they showed us RuBee Prize and Plus (the other two weren’t on display). The pepper, called Delite, is a snacking type with medium sized fruit in Red, Orange and Yellow.

See all the Sakata flowers and vegetables in this VIDEO.

Chris: The last stop on Thursday is 15 minutes away at Japanese breeder Takii Seed. Takii was light on new intros, but they did have some very nice ones from last year that we only saw via PowerPoint, so they’re worth mentioning again here. First up, Statement Snapdragon—which really do make a statement, if I may say so. On paper, Statement is your standard early, pack-type snap series. But there’s something about its large flowers and heavy branching that gives the plants a “fluffy” look. Bill said the White looks like popcorn. Statement has five colors.

Statement Snapdragon series.

Bill: I liked their Zinnia Preciosa series, which is up to eight colors and three mixes. It has really big double flowers on fairly compact plants. New for this year is Orange, now available as an individual color, whereas last year it was only available in the mix.


Zinnia Preciosa.

Also new from Takii—seen on Zoom last year, but new for us here in person—were two color additions to the Double Begonia Fiona series. Pink and White have elegant double blooms on what looked like traditional fibrous begonia plants.

HERE is a video of the Takii introductions.

Chris: Renting space at Takii was HilverdaFlorist, the recent merger of Dutch breeders Hilverda and Florist—which is why the greenhouse was filled with gerbera, which was Florist's only crop.

Garvineas are what they call their landscape gerberas, which are from tissue culture, are Zone 7a hardy and powdery mildew resistant. The collection gets a new sub-series called Majestic, which are double-flowered, with four colors: Light Pink, Purple, Yellow and Burgundy. Also new are two Garvinea Sweet colors, Sweet Sparkle (pink) and Sweet Vibe (yellow).

If you want something really big for big containers, try their Patio gerbera line. Named for parks around the world, the Patios get two new ones: Hot Springs and Daintree (bonus points if you know where Daintree is located … you can find the answer in our video below). An addition to the Patios is Patio Glorious, which sport wild, complex flowers.


Patio Gerbera Glorious.

Bill: Last on the list for today is the Alstroemeria Inticancha collection, which has two introductions, Valletta (red) and Paraiso (burgundy), adding even more beauty to the series. These can be planted just one per 12-in. pot for a cost-effective show.

See all these gerbera and alstroemeria in our VIDEO TOUR of HilverdaFlorist.

Chris, close us out, my man.

Chris: Friday will be our last day of visits, with stops at Benary, Pacific Plug & Liner and Syngenta. PP&L is hosting several different plant companies, so I think we have five or six companies to report on. Regardless of the number, count on us to sort through the marketing hype to bring you the best new intros from CAST 2021. See you then!