Now that we have all had time to get all of the flyers and free pens back home, sort through all of the photos we took, and get some laundry done, let's talk about some of the highlights from this year's California Spring Trials display, Westhoff announces.
Our first year at GreenFuse Botanicals new location (not Santa Paula, but just a few minutes down the road in Somis, CA) went very well and attendance has rebounded after the last few years of canceled or delayed CAST displays. Beautiful new greenhouse structures with lots of space, fresh-squeezed Lemonade from their on-site lemon grove, and great displays from our co-exhibitors, Beekenkamp, HEM Genetics, Vitroflora, and, of course, GreenFuse Botanicals made the location an absolute must-see stop along the tour.
For Westhoff, it was a big year for Calibrachoa introductions from Westhoff. Not only did we have several new solid color additions to the Calitastic series, but we had several new Calibrachoa that we are introducing as standalone varieties, meaning they do not fit into any of our established series. The most popular of these was Calibrachoa Dracula, which in addition to having the best name this year, is an excellent mounding, semi-trailing plant with tons of large flowers from very early in the season through fall.
Another new series for Westhoff, the Petunia Flower Shower, grabbed a lot of the visitor's attention, specifically the variety Golden Harvest. As a series, the plants are mounding, semi-trailing plants that were specifically selected for incredible weather tolerance, as well as bright, bold colors.
For our most popular series, we also had nice displays showing some of the new breeding. The Chameleon series of Calibrachoa was highlighted, not by the number of new varieties (just one this year: Chameleon Pink Splash), but by how many varieties we dropped, which comes to 6 fewer next year that we will be offering. As much fun as it is to bring new breeding to market, Westhoff is trying to be diligent in removing older varieties that no longer match up to the series in terms of performance.
We also had a good display of our Lobelia breeding, including the new Rift series, featuring two colors Blue and Purple that have variegated blooms and are easily mixable. Some of the best sellers from the Hot series and the new Hot+ series were displayed to show the difference between them; the Hot series is perfect for Hanging baskets and small pots, but the Hot+ series is better for all-around production, including for use in mixes and combinations.
New 2022-2023 digital catalog is live
Due to supply chain issues (said literally everyone this year), the printing of our catalog has been delayed for a few weeks. But not to worry: technology to the rescue! The digital version of our catalog is live and you can access it by clicking on the link below or through the lead page on our website. We switched the software we used this year, due to customer feedback (thanks, Lida), to make the experience more user-friendly and accessible to our partners and customers around the world. Watch it here.
Your new BFF: Dianthus
Although the CAST displays were very popular, perhaps our biggest introduction this year is in a whole new breeding category for Westhoff: Dianthus. This has been a program several years in the making, and Dianthus is not the easiest plant category to introduce into the N. American market, but we made some great selections, crossed every "t" and dotted each "i", so we were ready. The Best Friends Forever series is a smaller, single to semi-double flower-type, with masses of blooms that mature in succession, allowing for a prolonged ship window, retail life, and consumer performance. Plants can be deadheaded to prolong the display, or you can shear the plants back and re-bloom in 3-4 weeks.
Although it has perennial blood in its breeding, we haven't completed the 3-year hardiness evaluation that is typical before you can claim true hardiness, so we are marketing this series as a grab-and-go potted item, focused on impulse sales, supermarkets, etc. The plants are super tough, showing reduced ethylene sensitivity, heavy branching, and other features that make them well-suited to the DC supply chain that most grocery chains rely upon.
For more information:
Westhoff
www.westflowers.de
