2022 CAST preview: Ball Horticultural

Notable new varieties to be introduced at CAST 2022 by Ball Horticultural:

• Stop location: 335 S. Briggs Road, Santa Paula, CA 93060
• Dates: Wednesday, March 30 through Saturday, April 2, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• Brands featured: Ball FloraPlant, Ball Ingenuity, Burpee plants, Darwin Perennials, Kieft Seed, PanAmerican Seed, Selecta One

Petunia SureShot is a new grower-friendly petunia series that has a seven-day flowering time and matching habit, so all colors can be shipped to retail at the same time. All varieties mix well together to create a range of color combinations. Ideal for all pot sizes and hanging baskets. Available in six colors.

Double Impatiens Glimmer is a new double impatiens series with beautiful rose-like blooms that is highly resistant to impatiens downy mildew. They make fabulous, durable hanging baskets for shade and low-light gardens. Launching for spring 2023 in seven colors. Available exclusively through Ball Seed.

Coleus MicroBlaze Matchsticks from Ball FloraPlant is micro-coleus has a unique foliage pattern with a habit perfect for small pot programs and decorative container mixes. It’s versatile for full sun and shade with stunning color and high impact.

Veronica Skyward from Darwin Perennials offers a high flower count on a dense, upright habit and boasts continuous blooming. Its durability ensures plants grow and ship without breakage for more saleable plants. Available in Pink and Blue. Pollinator friendly and powdery mildew resistant for perennial gardener success. Hardiness Zone 4b to 9a

With Polemonium ‘Golden Feathers’ from Darwin Perennials adds showstopping color to your shade program with this exciting golden variegated Polemonium (Jacob’s Ladder). Bluish-purple flowers are a bonus in the late-spring to summer months. Great accent plant in rock gardens, landscapes or small containers. Hardiness Zone 5b to 9a.

Echinacea Sombrero Poco Hot Pink is the compact version of the popular Sombrero series of coneflower. The sturdy plants are covered in blooms with bright, rich colors. For spring 2023, Hot Pink joins the team and is well-matched in habit, timing and exceptional winter hardiness. Hardiness Zone 4b to 9b

Pepper Aleppo from Burpee Plants. Aleppo peppers have a sweet taste with a nice kick of heat on the back end. This very thin-skinned and thin-walled pepper is native to Syria and Turkey. Mainly used dried or crushed. The taste is slightly smoky, salty, sweet, and warming.

Peppers From Heaven are small, sweet peppers great for hanging baskets and 6- to 7-in. pots. The compact plants produce lots of fleshy fruit that mature from green to glossy color (red, orange and yellow varieties are available). Plant three plants in one pot for a fuller look.

Upgrade your garden with heirloom tomato flavor and modern hybrid tomato performance. Tomato Blushing Star is an early-maturing, sweet and savory pink beefsteak. Its fruit has higher yield potential and fewer blemishes than most heirlooms. Offers disease resistance to late blight and Septoria leaf spot.

Celosia Floriosa from Ball Ingenuity. The plumosa Floriosa series is available in several colors. She shines with her flaming torches from April as a cheerful spring bloomer to October as a rewarding fall décor program. If finishing before the end of May, Floriosa can be grown without black cloth – an exciting extension for this plant.

Dianthus Falling in Love Rosie from Ball Ingenuity. The first hanging basket-type dianthus on the market! Falling in Love Rosie fills out its containers quickly and features beautiful bright-pink blooms that cascade. It offers repeat blooming from spring through summer for a lasting stream of color.

Petunia Headliner Strawberry Sky from Selecta One. The Sky Petunia family expands in spring 2023 with Strawberry Sky, a berry hue speckled with the popular sky pattern. The Headliner series is a medium-vigor, mounded series with early flowering and a fast finish.

Verbena Lascar Orange Lava from Selecta One. This is a fiery red verbena with a creeping and spreading habit – a garden spectacle, like lava oozing along the ground! It won’t fail to draw attention. Lascar is early-blooming and wide-branching, and grows beautifully in hanging baskets and in combos, too.

Calibrachoa MiniFamous Uno White Gold from SelectaOne.

Fantastic, novel bicolor addition to this established calibrachoa series. Clear white blooms with golden centers, match well with other MiniFamous Uno varieties. Medium compact habit makes it an ideal choice for baskets.

Perovskia Bluesette from Kieft Seed. This novelty variety has a controlled habit, early flowering and early finishing, making growing Perovskia for the consumer and landscape market easy. Bluesette works well at the front of the landscape, in a single premium patio container or in mixed combo. Produces a pleasing fragrance and attracts bees and butterflies. Hardiness Zone: 4a to 9a

Rudbeckia Goldblitzfrom Kieft Seed. Goldblitz is a natural daylength growing solution! This first-year-flowering perennial provides a more economical input option for natural daylength growers, as the plugs do not require special treatment to perform to the same quality as Goldsturm. Hardiness Zone: 3a to 9b

Rudbeckia August from Ball Ingenuity. This series of eye-catching summer flowering perennials show off masses of flowers in modern and appealing colors. The semi-double blooms grow beautifully in large containers for showpiece displays, or make a great home garden cut flower.

Interspecific Impatiens Solarscape from PanAmerican Seed

Solarscape is an interspecific impatiens from seed that provides unbeatable color in full-sun landscapes and containers. Performs just like vegetative varieties with the flexibility of seed. Greenhouses that supply the professional landscape market will appreciate this option for non-branded needs. Available in four colors plus one XL variety.

Begonia Hula from PanAmerican Seed

A unique spreading begonia series that looks great on the retail bench and amazing in hanging baskets and mixed containers. Hula is fast to fill in landscape beds, creating a blanket of flowers with high-impact color – launching with Red, Blush, Pink and Bicolor Red White. 

Tomato Sun Dipper from PanAmerican Seed

Just right for dipping, Sun Dipper’s elongated fruit can be held between your fingers for easy use with dips and sauces. The orange fruit looks great on a vegetable platter and tastes delicious. The durable plant has great resistance to in-ground diseases. Differentiate your vegetable program with this foodie option!