Day 5 of California Spring Trials: Big impatiens, new callas and grafted vegetables

Dummen’s new Magnum New Guinea impatiens series should really get consumers’ attention. The flowers are huge and cover the strong stems. The series starts off with six cultivars: Lavender, Blue, Salmon, Peach, Fire and White Blush. The plants are easy to grow and don’t require any growth regulators.

Takii Seed commemorated the 175th anniversary of the founding of its company in Kyoto, Japan. The company continues to incorporate the genetics it obtained from its recent acquisition of Global Flowers and Sahin. At its Salinas location, the company added Deep Rose to Royal single flower and Royal Semi-double series. Both cultivars are early flowering and produce many large dark rose flowers. 
 
Although Golden State Bulb Growers is best known for its Callafornia Callas, the plant that received much of the attention from trial visitors was Aloha Lily ‘Leia’ eucomis. This sturdy bulb crop is well-suited for pot production and can be used as a landscape plant in USDA Hardiness Zone 7. It does particularly well in six-inch pots and larger. The plant produces spikes of fragrant lavender flowers for about a month after which it forms darker colored seed pods that last an additional month and a half. The bright green foliage is covered with small lavender spots. Breeding continues for new flower colors (purple, mauve, pinks and sandalwood) and spotted foliage.

In Watsonville, Calif., Pacific Plug & Liner again played host to the Agrexco companies of Cohen Nurseries, Hishtil Nurseries, Isaacson Nurseries, Jaldety Nurseries and Schwartz Nursery, all based in Israel. Eyal Inbar, export sales manager at Hishtil, says an increasing number of European growers and consumers are asking for grafted vegetables. He said the grafted plants, which use a wild type root stock, produce hardier plants. Tomatoes are the best selling of the grafted vegetables. The grafting technique incorporates more disease resistance, increased yields and better shelf life.

Click here to view video coverage of the spring trials.