After four busy weeks of visitors from across the horticultural industry, the Ball Summer Showcase came to a close on 5th August 2022.
Despite almost five weeks without rain and the amongst the highest temperatures recorded in the UK, the summer plants trials and displays proved a resounding success and a valuable visit to all those who visited. The challenging weather conditions certainly demonstrated how plant genetics have improved dramatically over the past years, with so many plant varieties showing amazing resilience to the most unforgiving heat and lack of rain.
"Not an ideal year to launch a new series of Double Busy Lizzies!" says Stuart Lowen, Marketing Manager at Ball. "But testament to the incredible breeding work carried out by our sister company, Ball FloraPlant, the all-new Downy Mildew resistant Glimmer Impatiens simply stole the show. Through heat and sun, the robust plants and rose-like blossoms of Glimmer just battled on to give a non-stop display of color. That's just what we want from new plant varieties!"
The extended presentation of Lasting Beauty Perennials, which included Everlasting Beauty shrubs, Edible Beauty soft fruit, and Exotic Beauty succulents and tropical plants, was also incredibly well received. Developed and sourced through our extensive global partners, these varieties deliver stand-out performance in the nursery and provide exciting solutions for retail and today's modern gardener.
More of the outdoor display space was given over to retail bench displays with plants in a range of pot sizes to help growers and retailers see the real potential of the plant varieties. Ideas such as Vertical MixMasters using climbing Ipomoea SolarTower and Thunbergia SunEyes in tripods, Speedplanters in a range of baskets and containers to show how flexible they can be to suit any retail price point, and an extensive Retail Concept display of CC Trolleys and themed planters benching to create interest in taking retail presentations to the next level.
As always, there was an extensive trialing area of over 1,000 experimental Annual and Perennial varieties providing visitors full transparency on 'What's cooking in the kitchen, a great insight into the continuous stream of future new plant varieties Ball is looking at for the UK and Irish market.
As always, Ball offers visitors the opportunity to vote for their favorite Annual and Perennial varieties from any of the trials or plant displays.
"We are delighted to share these results with you." Please click on the buttons below to see the Customer's favorite varieties for 2023:
Click here for the Favourite Annuals for 2023
Click here for the Favourite Perennials for 2023
For more information:
Ball Seed
www.ballseed.com