Now that the 2026 California Spring Trials are in the books and my Ball Publishing compadres have some breathing room, I am now able to ask them, “So, which of the thousands of varieties at CAST would you recommend for the independent garden center?”

Bossman Beytes and Bobblehead Bill Calkins suggested no less than 16. Let’s start with Chris’ recommendations for items that would do well at IGCs and his reasons why.

Marquee begonias from PanAmerican Seed. These are from the old AmeriHybrid tuberous begonia collection we used to see at Golden State Bulb. I remember walking through Golden State’s begonia section and just wanting to say there for the rest of the day. There’s something mesmerizing about those big, ruffled blooms. Why for IGCs? Because these are best if not shipped very far, so great for a grower-retailer or from a local grower. Five colors.

Dragon Wing White Bronze Leaf, another item from PanAmerican Seed. Not that a chain won’t have them, but Beytes believes an IGC can have them bigger and better and showier!

Skookum Star

Frogger White

Any of the CrazyTunias from Westhoff, such as Skookum Star or Frogger White, because you can display them so customers appreciate the novel flower colors and patterns. Chris says put them on an endcap! (What’s “skookum” mean? It’s a Canadian Pacific Northwest meaning “strong, sturdy, excellent or powerful”).

StreetArt Pentas from Benary. Big pentas! These are 25% to 50% bigger than Graffiti, Benary’s more traditionally sized pentas series. It would be a great back-of-the-bed plant for summer landscapes in Red, White, Rose and Blue.

Simple word problem: If I received a total of 16 suggestions from the Bobbleheads and Bossman Beytes sent me four, that must mean Bill had 12 plant suggestions he thought IGCs would excel with at retail. Luckily, Bill is a man of few words, so this’ll go quickly.

Scaevola Blazen (Ball FloraPlant). Very free branching scaevola, good for mono-pots and baskets on its own.

Lify Botanical Cyclamen (Morel). Because no box store will ever sell them.

Digitalis DiBella (Hem). Nice series that will still be really tough to ship long distances so it’s good for IGCs.

Begonia Wookie (Benary). Big and wild and a name that IGCs can really play off in promotions.

Colocasia Mai Tai (PlantHaven). Super unique, seems like a cool high-end tropical for IGCs if they promote it the right way.

Sedum Cloudburst Copper and Lime (Dümmen Orange). Unique colors that IGCs can probably call out better than at mass market.

Bill’s list continues below.

Echinacea Mooodz (Hilverda Florist). Seems like a common crop but these TC varieties are big and bright colors that I can see standing out at an IGC with good names to promote. Bill says IGCs should really take ownership of Hilverda’s offerings.

Torenia Tropics (Kientzler). Blue for the shade, it’s vegetative so way better than the pack-type seed torenia, and there’s no chance this becomes a box store program.

Amazonas Pink Macaw

Amazonas Midnight Finch

Amazonas Violet Parakeet

Petunia Amazonas (Danziger). Crazy cool colors!

From ThinkPlants, which is a marketing organization that represents a wide range of breeders, Bill recommends “pretty much everything.” Like this strawberry from Terra Nova—yes, strawberry!—it is a perennial, after all. It’s called Pretty Tasty Ruby, and Bill says the name says it all, except for the fact that it produces a lot of ’em. 

Vinca Blockbuster (Syngenta). It’s a series with unique colors.

Petunia Dekko (Syngenta). It’s a nice new modern petunia series that is probably more targeted for IGC market vs. mass market.

I reviewed all five of the Bobbleheads’ Acres of Buzz emails through the lens of what customers are looking for when they come into a garden center. Sure, they love color and want to decorate their porches and yards, but you’ve also been telling us that there are several hot categories that are rising to the top:

• Pollinator-friendly
• Disease/deer/rabbit-resistant
• Waterwise
• Edibles
• Natives

I’m not sure the Bobbleheads came across any nativars during CAST (well, maybe one), but I did note several varieties that fell into those other categories I mentioned above.

It's a trial! Inocculated Monteverde Genovese basil on the right compared to an inocculated comparison variety on the left. 

Starting with edibles, there is PanAmerican Seed’s Monteverde Genovese basil. A bonus is its high resistance to many strains of basil downy mildew (and intermediate resistance to many others). Plus, it tastes good, they say.

PlantHaven, which always has something unique to offer in the way of annuals and perennials, is now getting into edibles with their Incredible Edibles line. The new Gourmet Rosemary not only has an excellent flavor, but it’s also a bright chartreuse color. Different! There is a new and different Japanese Mint with an upright habit and large leaves from Israeli company Hishtil for which I could not find a photo. Oh, and we can also add ThinkPlants/Terra Nova’s Pretty Tasty Ruby strawberry here, too.

Continued from above.

I saw plenty that fell into the pollinator-friendly category, but I’m going to stick with three. Bobblehead Jen Zurko made a guest appearance in Acres of Buzz to tell us about Jaldety’s focus on salvias this year. They introduced a new three-color series of S. guaranitica called Tropicolour with very dark burgundy undersides of their leaves. I love the way they cascade rather than stand soldier-like.

Jaldety also introduced another S. guaranitica called Sunkiss Cranberry Crush with an almost-black calyx and very bright magenta flowers. The plant itself is more compact but the flower stems are still quite long.

Here’s the VIDEO of Jen Z taking us through both the Jaldety salvias and Hishtil’s herbs, among a lot of other cool new plants.

And the other pollinator-friendly item I wanted to mention is from Walters Gardens, who is making their solo CAST debut this year (they previously camped out with the Proven Winners gang). Walters introduced Hyssop Nectar Ninja. As Chris described it, “It might be the perfect perennial: It’s easy to grow, has tons of flowers, is drought-tolerant, offers all-season color and pollinators love it.” I’m guessing it’s also deer and rabbit resistant, but as you know, if some critter is hungry enough, they’ll eat anything.

Were there other deer and/or rabbit resistant varieties on the tour? Yes, and I can’t list them all. Honestly I’m still waiting for a breeder to address my groundhog and earwig issues.

Continued from above.

From the Bobbleheads’ daily missives, I spotted three waterwise/low water use introductions.

The first is the Super Semp Sempervivum program from PlantHaven, a retail program ready to go for you. Using unrooted inputs out of Quality Cuttings in Mexico, you can produce little 2-in. pots of sempervivum in eight weeks and then wrap them in graphic sleeves for holidays, color schemes or even branded with company names. The perfect gift plant! Hang it and forget about it and likely it is no worse for wear. Check out the video from PLANTHAVEN to see it in action.

Next is the Azara collection of aloes from PP&L. So many interesting colors and textures and structures. And such a fun thing to encourage as a collectible.

Last but not least, the Bobbleheads spotted something a bit crazy from Green Fuse. It’s called Monardella. Found growing from a crack in a rock formation in Utah and cleaned up to look garden worthy through breeding, it is as tough and hardy and low-water use as its origins suggest it needed to be to survive. Interesting! I know several West Coast landscape designers who would love this plant. Hmm, maybe it could be considered a nativar.

I want to shout out a gusto-backed “Thank you!” to Chris, Bill, Jen and Osvaldo for their IGC recommendations, their photos, their videos and their hard work traveling the CAST trials. You’re all amazing for doing it year after year! 

Were you at CAST? Did you spot anything that is sure to be a seller at your IGC? Drop me a NOTE about it and I’ll share here next week.