2014?  But 2012 isn’t even over…

While home gardeners ponder their seed orders for 2013 (I’ve been reviewing the new Johnny’s and SSE catalogs, and was happy to pick up the High Mowing catalog at the EXPO trade show), the wholesale horticulture world is getting presentations on new varieties being introduced for the 2014 season.  The industry gets advance notice to evaluate and trial varieties before they reach the market and to get programs finalized and catalogs printed in time for the 2014 sales season.

PanAmerican Seed has managed for the last several years to be the first breeder to present new varieties to Raker, but was barely edged out by Sakata this year.  (Sorry, no perennial intros of note from them.  Ditto for Syngenta Flowers.)  We often joke that PanAm uses the Raker group to proofread their new variety presentations, as we’ve caught our share of typos over the years.

PanAm’s parent company Ball Horticultural purchased Dutch breeder Kieft a few years back, and is introducing some interesting new seed perennials under the Kieft brand.  (Their vegetative perennial varieties are marketed under the Darwin Perennials brand.)  In the Perennial Guru’s humble opinion, the most most interesting of Ball’s 2014 seed perennial introductions are:

Gaillardia x grandiflora ‘Mesa Peach’ F1

A new addition to the F1 hybrid ‘Mesa’ series, with bicolor, light orange and yellow flowers.  First year flowering, like the other colors in the series, ‘Mesa Bright Bicolor’ and ‘Mesa Yellow’ (an All-America Selections Winner and Fleuroselect Gold Medal Winner).  A uniform series, 16 to 18 inches tall by 20 to 24 inches wide.

Plants need long days (14 or more hours) to flower, and bloom 11 to 13 weeks after transplant without vernalization.  Longer photoperiods promote faster flowering.  Vernalization speeds flowering by about 4 weeks.

Raker trialed experimental Gaillardia of this color from Kieft several years back, and I was impressed with it then, so I’m looking forward to seeing how this performs.

Zones 5 to 9.

Penstemon x mexicale ‘Carillo Red’

A new color in the ‘Carillo’ series.  Most varieties of P. x mexicale are vegetatively propagated, so it’s nice to have a good seed option available.

The series is compact (8-10 inches tall by 10 inches wide).  Other colors in the series are ‘Carillo Purple’ and ‘Carillo Rose’.  I’ve trialed both those colors, and they performed well, particularly Purple.  I look forward to seeing the new Red.

The series is day neutral, flowering in 12 to 15 weeks after transplant regardless of photoperiod.  Purple flowers about a week earlier than Rose.

Zones 5 to 9.

Note that I mooched the above images from PanAm’s PowerPoint presentation and downsized them for the web.  As soon as I can see these in trial, I’ll swap the images for ones I have personally taken.

Echinacea x hybrida ‘Cheyenne Spirit  (U.S. Utility Patent 7,982,110)

I saved the best for last.  Technically a late 2013 introduction, ‘Cheyenne Spirit’ is getting a more formal launch for 2014.  This is a major breakthrough in seed Echinacea, and is very exciting.  These are  photos I took last season in the Raker trial gardens.  I’ve been fortunate enough to have trialed this variety and observed it in multiple seasons. It has proved to be reliably hardy, unlike many of the vegetative hybrid Echinacea varieties Raker has trialed.

A compact (18 to 30 inches tall by 10 to 20 inches wide), well-branched, vividly colored hybrid Echinacea.  This is a mixed color variety, and every seed produces a different color.  Flower color includes orange, yellow, and red shades, with some rose shades and white.  Unlike previous multi-colored seed strains, it isn’t predominated by the ordinary rose and white colors.  Well-matched in height and habit to the ‘Pow Wow’ series of Echinacea purpurea.

‘Cheyenne Spirit’ is an All-America Selections winner for 2013, and a Fleuroselect Gold Medal winner.

Note that Raker has seen fairly low germination on this one, and Kieft’s page for the plant indicates that the standard germination rate is 70%, which is on the low side, but what we have been seeing.  Hopefully they will be able to at least maintain this minimum.  But wholesale growers should order early.

‘Cheyenne Spirit’ is first year flowering, but a bit on the slow side without vernalization, taking 12 to 17 weeks from transplant to flower.  High light levels, and short days followed by long (14 hour) days promote fastest flowering.  Vernalization speeds flowering by 2-3 weeks, and may result in better branched plants, particularly when mature plants are overwintered in containers.

Zones 4 to 10

For more information, see the ‘Cheyenne Spirit’ page at Kieft, which includes a downloadable culture guide.

I must comment about the U.S. Utility Patent 7,982,110 awarded to ‘Cheyenne Spirit’.  The patent is actually an interesting read if you understand something about plant breeding.  This 20 year patent protects using this variety from being used by other breeders, and protects the methods and lines used in creating the patented selection.  Wow.  There’s some well-protected proprietary pollen in Elburn, IL!

The breeding work behind UP 7,982,110 was a relatively long and fairly complex process, starting in 2001 with a cross of Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’ and ‘Kim’s Knee High’.  Multiple generations and selections eventually gave rise to uniform variety with the unexciting breeder code G0052Y.  This selection, and some of its parent lines, have been crossed with other Echinacea species and varieties (the patent lists 5 examples), the best which was used for further crossing and selection.  One of those crosses gave rise to ‘Cheyenne Spirit’.

I expect to see lots more interesting seed Echinacea in the future from this breeding work.

Note that Ball Darwin has two new vegetative hybrid Echinacea series, and undoubtedly more coming.  (I covered the ‘Sombrero’ and ‘Double Scoop’ series in my Breaking into Perennials co-talk, you can grab handouts on the Perennial Varieties page.)

Hey!  Don’t forget that these are 2014 introductions — except the ‘Cheyenne Spirit’, go hog wild over that one.  Don’t go trying to order these for spring 2013, it makes knowledgeable horticulture professionals cranky.  I haven’t even gotten my hands on seed samples for these.  Be patient!