California Spring Trials (CAST) 2025: Live updates
Live updates from the 2025 California Spring Trials from the Garden Center magazine and Greenhouse Management magazine teams.
3/27: California Spring Trials Day 3 Recap
PlantHaven International
At CAST, if you hear the same idea twice, you can chalk it up to coincidence. If you hear it three or four times, you can call it a trend.
That was the case at PlantHaven International and its Mystic series of dahlias — and the Mystic Wizard in particular — for “elevating” fall mums. It seems like the brands up and down the California coast are looking for a way to break the monotony of fall mums by either replacing them with more interesting plants or adding contrasting garden bedmates.
Mystic Wizard can do just that. The jewel-toned magenta flower is set against chocolatey-black foliage and will thrive in the cool temperatures of autumn. Their compact and rounded habit also make them nice companions to mums. They are currently being picked up by two powerhouse IGC companies: Pike Nurseries and Armstrong Garden Centers.
A part of PlantHaven’s mission in the coming years is to offer more for pollinators and introduce scent back in the garden. Its Scent First dianthus collection seeks to do just that with the introduction of two new varieties.
Orange Sparkler features light orange double blooms with red flares at the petal tips. Lemon Sparkler features pale yellow double blooms with flashes of orange throughout. Both smell fragrant without having to bury your nose in the flower.
Another new dianthus, Orange Meringue, enters the American Pie collection. With a bold orange sunburst of a bloom perched on a blueish stem, it is a cold-hardy option up to Zone 5 (along with the other newly introduced dianthus), meaning they will bring color into flower beds and containers well into fall.
Hardiness remains a focus of PlantHaven’s offerings this year with the introduction of its Jaws sedum, which features big, succulent-esque, slightly cupped foliage and derives its name from the toothy, yellow-hued serrated edges. But no need to be scared of Jaws — the big softy features bulbous clusters of pink flowers when it blooms, softening the bite considerably. It’s also hardy to Zone 3, with PlantHaven suggesting it might perform well in trials even farther north.
Suntory Flowers
The story at Suntory Flowers is its commitment to improving the experience of growers and consumers alike through updates in breeding. But it’s not just about improvements; there were some new varieties on display as well.
This year, Suntory is releasing a couple new mandevillas. In the vining Sundenia Suprema series, Vivid Pink offers flowers that live up to the name, but the real value is a vining mandevilla that fills a trellis with flowers from top to bottom. The blooms arrive earlier and require less light and heat than the Sundenia Giant series. Plus, they are disease-resistant, making them an easier choice for growers who want to get in on the mandevilla action.
Additionally, the FiredUp series of mandevillas adds Coral to the lineup. The numerous magenta flowers are set off by sunny yellow eyes and flourish on the tight upright habit. Coral represents a change in breeding for the FiredUp line. Soon, the roomier and airier upright habit of Orange will match Coral. There is also improvement in the branching, making this mandevilla fuller and sturdier with less pinching.
Suntory isn’t crowing about the improvements in its offerings, but growers will notice more ease and increased performance. It’s almost like getting an update pushed to your phone. Often, you won’t notice it, but the improvement is there.
This is the case for an improved Beedance bidens. While there is a new color in the series with Painted Orange, all Beedance variations will be fuller and feature more flowers and improved mounding moving forward, even if they aren’t specifically called out in marketing.
Green Trade Horticulture
For all the showy plants on display at Green Trade — including a new Pink Grapefruit-colored SunSeekers double echinacea and a trio of heuchera that all finish at the same time for combo planters — the standout was a simple pink Zantedeschia aethiopica named Flamingo.
This plant features a tight grouping of scalloped green leaves with a strong central flower stem. The flower itself is unique in that the spathe appears to open more broadly around its bright yellow spadix than other callas. The color of the spathe is nearly white at the very edges but becomes a more intense pink toward its center, which shows a deep blush. It’s truly reminiscent of its namesake.
Beekenkamp
With names like Smash Pink and Ready Royal, Beekenkamp has brought a new pericallis series called POP! to the market. Rolling out in seven colors, three of which feature bright colors around a white eye, the brand has made the flower easy to grow. Not only are the POP! pericallis cold hardy and full of small flowers, but they are also dense and well branched without any pinching. They are naturally compact with a mounding habit and easily bounce back from a drenching.
Hem Genetics
Perhaps the most interesting and surprising plants to be featured at CAST this year were in the central display tower of ornamental edibles. While not all the edibles are currently available on the market, they showcased the brand's push to bring an aesthetically pleasing, brightly colored countertop garden to consumers outside of Europe.
Chief among these, and first to the North American market, are Funnyplums. These potted plum tomatoes come in four colors and feature bite-sized shiny fruit with plenty of flavor.
Also in the edible category is Dropshot Tagetes fillefolia, an herb in the marigold family. The frilly, well-branched globule of foliage is attractive enough on its own, but a pinch of the plant popped in your mouth produces a strong hit of black licorice.
Another innovative offering from Hem is the DiBella digitalis. With four color varieties, these tall, sturdy digitalis feature flowers that look up rather than down to better see the intricate spotting toward their throats. More exciting for growers is that DiBella flowers in the first year and is ready in 20 weeks —all colors flower at the same time.
Westhoff
At CAST 2024, Westhoff introduced the eye-popping Hells the Red petunia. This year, the brand premiered the Inferno Metallic Orange. This unique novelty petunia has deep orange blooms, but the color is made more interesting by an iridescence on the petal that gives it a metallic sheen. It’s a trick that’s hard to capture on camera but completely compelling in real life.
If you’d like to play peekaboo, there’s a verbena just for you. Westhoff has rolled out a new series of verbena named PeekABoo, featuring tiny colorful flowers with white eyes. The initial rollout features Pink, Lavender, Lilac and Red. But what’s more interesting is that unlike some verbena, PeekABoo’s flower spikes are covered in flowers, without leaving any green spots at the top of the bloom.
Finally, Westhoff featured the EZ Mix line. The planted combos are unique in that they only have two varieties of petunia in one pot. Despite that, they are a riot of color due to the fact that each petunia is a bicolor variety, creating complexity and color variety without the need for additional plants.
Ball Horticultural Co.
It’s always an ocean of color at this stop, and this year was no exception. From “waves” of petunias to a swell of pollinator plants, the number of new series and hues was staggering. Here’s a sample. (Watch for more coverage in our weekly newsletters and the May issue of Greenhouse Management.)
Ball FloraPlant
The Mystical series Salvia farinacea debuts with two colors, Mystical Blue and Mystical White. The blue selection features shorter, narrower flower spikes than Mysty, with more stems and narrower foliage. Mystical White is a bright white, which is ideal for mixed combos. Plants grow up to 18 inches high and wide and are hardy in Zones 7a to 10b.
PanAmerican Seed
Ball is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Wave Petunias in grand fashion.
There are eight new colors in the Top Wave series of spreading pansies. Top Wave is best suited for 5- to 6-inch pots and mixed containers. The large-flowered, spreading selections have a mounded habit with plenty of flowers at the top of the plant, thanks in part to better branching.
Because pearls are the traditional 30th anniversary gift, Pink Pearl is one of two new colors in the Easy Wave series. The shiny, light pearl-pink flowers have violet-rose veining at the throat. Under cooler conditions, the color will be slightly darker.
There are four new colors and a mix in the Shock Wave series. These plants are selected for their ability to quickly rebound after rain or overhead watering. There’s plenty of consumer-friendly POP available.
Any retailer can create some buzz with National Wave Day (it’s an official holiday!) on May 3. Ball is offering in-store signage and promotional kits. There are plenty of ideas for store festivities, social events and photo ops.
For another marketing twist that will excite consumers, Ball teamed up with renowned baby photographer Anne Geddes as part of the Wave celebration. When someone finds the Wave Petunia Anne Geddes baby bee tag, they can enter a chance to win a photoshoot.
Darwin Perennials
Brightside is a new series of Erysimum, and plants were selected for more flowers, richer colors and a better habit than the standard varieties when vernalized. It’s a perennial in the south and works well as an annual in a stand-alone or mixed container in the north. It’s intended for early spring shoulder season production. The four colors to launch the series are Lemon Ice, Magenta Glow, White and Bright Yellow.
The new Mountain Treats series of penstemon feature big flowers with a medium habit and better basal branching. It’s a hummingbird magnet that grows up to 24 inches high and wide. It’s hardy in Zones 6a to 9b. The series debuts with five colors.
A huge fountain of Candy Cloud phlox graced the entrance of the Darwin Perennials display. This new series fills a perennial color gap, as this hybrid phlox flowers after P. subulata and before Salvia nemorosa. It grows up to 16 inches high and wide, and it’s hardy in Zones 4a to 8b.
Selecta One
Ball introduced a new option to its FunFusions combos, which now feature “Guest Star” mixes featuring Selecta One plants. FunFusions are tested combo recipes, with growers and retail growers ordering components separately to create mixes proven to grow well together.
Pacific Plug & Liner
It was, like, totally rad visiting the PP&L stop, bedecked in all things ’80s, including MTV vignettes and lots of neon. When we saw a poster for the new lavenders with the words “Violet Femmes” across the top, we couldn’t help but grin and sing “Blister in the Sun.”
Here’s our Top Five Countdown from PP&L’s perennials hits.
Euphorbia Sahara Tiny Treasure features vibrant bright-yellow foliage that is evergreen in Zones 6-9. Tiny flowers appear from spring to early summer. It grows up to 18 inches high and wide.
The large, bright pink flowers with dark centers of cape mallow (Anisodontea) Dayo appear on tall reddish-purple stems from spring through autumn. It grows up to 36 inches high and 24 inches wide. It’s a tender perennial and hardy in Zones 9 and 10.
Phlox divaricata Blue Ribbons adds fragrance and variegation to the garden. The clusters of violet-blue flowers attract pollinators. It grows up to 10 inches high by 24 inches wide and is hardy in Zones 4 to 9.
The Echibeckia hits keep coming. New for 2026 is Summerina Firana, the earliest bloomer in the series. The orange and yellow flowers are long-lasting and are an impressive 8 inches in diameter. Hardy in Zones 7 to 9, Firana grows up to 24 inches high and 20 inches wide.
For the first time, PP&L is offering a pre-finished quart program for its Frostkiss hellebores. Plants are grown to a fully rooted quart size. Check with PP&L for ordering deadlines, order minimums and shipping windows.
PDSI
The home of brands such as Encore Azalea, Southern Living Plant Collection and Sunset Plant Collection has got color, evergreens and a potential houseplant.
Cast iron plant, a southern staple, comes in a variegated form. Tokyo Skies grows in part shade to full shade and is hardy in Zones 8 to 10. This beloved foliage plant grows up to 3 feet high and 2 feet wide. PDSI Director Kip McConnell says they’re building up numbers and considering marketing it as a houseplant, so stay tuned.
Golden Sky holly (the photo is courtesy of McConnell from one of PDSI’s trial beds) is a narrow selection with bright-yellow foliage that works well in the ground and in containers. It grows up to 8 feet high (think: hedge) and 2 feet wide. It’s hardy in Zones 5-9.
Breeder Buddy Lee has not stopped adding to the prolific Encore Azalea brand. New this year is Autumn Kiss with bright pink edging (it photographed a lighter pink in the cool Santa Barbara temperatures) that fades to a pastel pink to almost white. It’s a heavy bloomer and a rebloomer the grows up to 4 feet high and wide. It’s hardy in Zones 6 to 10.
Green Fuse Botanicals
We were fortunate enough to get a tour from CEO and co-founder Jim Devereux. His no-nonsense explanations are refreshing, but don’t think he’s not excited about these new introductions.
There are three colors in the new Thunbergia Uprising series: Pink, Yellow and Orange. Encourage your retail customers to display it on a pergola for an enchanting look. They looked lovely as a mix, too.
Green Fuse has received the utility patent for Game Changer hydrangea. New this year is Pink Burst, a huge mophead type. Devereux says there’s no cooling required, and production time is 13 weeks from cuttings.
He calls Streptocarpus “the best houseplant on Earth” and has introduced Double Blue Ice, a new color in the Ladyslippers series. Plants provide continuous blooms indoors near a window or outdoors in the shade.
Schoneveld
Dragon, an F1 cyclamen, comes in Blue and Deep Blue. Plants are packed with flowers that are best suited for 3.5- and 4.5-inch pots. They’re bred with Super Serie genetics. According to the breeder, it’s the first F1 Cyclamen persicum with blue flowers.
3/26: California Spring Trials Day 2 Recap
Sakata
The theme for the Sakata showcase this year was a “A Carnival of Color.” That message was apropos, considering the wide variety of new color introductions across many of the brand’s varieties:
Candy Tops snapdragon: Champagne
The diminutive snapdragon has a new bicolor bloom that evokes champagne sparkle, with yellow hues and hints of peach.
Candy Showers trailing snapdragon: Rose Imp.
With an improved rose depth, the trailing Candy Showers has good flowering across the top before trailing, so retailers can show good color right away.
The compact coleus perfect for combos has two new hues. Royal Red is a deep velvet red heart with a golden edge. Crimson has a similar look with a less defined yellow rim and a more rounded leaf shape.
Flamma celosia: Pink
The Flamma mid-sized celosia now features a pink hue. Unlike the popular Dragon’s Breath from Sakata, Flamma stays low and tight, creating an almost bushy profile.
As SunPatiens celebrates 20 years on the market, it adds Royal Magenta Improved, with bigger blooms meant to rival New Guinea impatiens. The series also picks up two brand-new colors. The compact variety now features a bicolor Pink Flash, while both the compact and vigorous varieties also include a Soft Pink.
The small cali variety now has two new novelty bicolors to drive point of sale purchases with Pink Splash and Blue Splash.
The SuperCal series is also getting in on the color party. Coral Star is new for SuperCal Premium, and Blue Eyed Rose with its subtle dark eye is new for standard SuperCal.
The gerbera series gets a new color with the “punchy pink” Orchid Dark Eye.
New mixes
Sakata released a new mix in its viola Colormax series, inspired by a grower who had been putting the mix together in-house. The grower requested Sakata produce the mix, and the company agreed by releasing Harvest Mix, with a “Mardi Gras-esque” grouping of purple, orange and yellow.
Also new is the first mix of pansy and viola, inspired by a fluke display at CAST 2024. Called Enchantment, the dual variety mix features blue, purple and white flowers that play well together, begging the question of why didn’t this combo happen before?
Playlist also has new music-themed mixes, with names like Alive and Friday I’m In Love. But it also features a new concept in partnership with Kientzler that allows growers to order a drop-in foliage fascinator (thriller) with their Playlist combo for an increased price point.
Benary
Consider this scenario: A friend invites you to dinner. What are you bringing besides a bottle of wine or plate of cookies? How about a rudbeckia?
Tablemate Gold joins the Benary to Go: Gifts on the Run program. This indoor/outdoor variety is a genetically compact pot type that thrives in indoor and outdoor conditions. A floriferous R. hirta selection, it features mounds of golden flowers and somewhat narrow leaves. Production time for spring sales is 15 to 17 weeks, or 14 to 15 weeks for summer sales.
What’s cooler than cool? Mega Cool. Benary’s newest begonia series boasts large flowers in four colors: White, Scarlet, Pink and Rose. Keeping with the series name, it has cool cup-shaped leaves.
This F1 hybrid is promised to flower 10 days earlier than other F1 hybrids on the market. For growers, it fills the pot quickly and for retailers, it provides a container full of flowers on the bench. Good for early spring and spring retail sales, it can be grown in containers or hanging baskets.
It’s not always about the flowers. Benary offers a selection of ornamental grasses that do well in the landscape or in mixed containers.
Corynephorus canescens Spiky has silvery-blue foliage and grows 18 inches high and wide. It’s drought tolerant and hardy in Zones 5 to 9.
Eragrostis elliottii Lovey is a fine-textured grass with airy flower heads. This warm-season, drought-resistant variety is a vigorous grower, making it a good choice for landscapes. Use in sun or partial shade. Lovey grows to 55 inches high and 22 inches wide.
Koeleria glauca Bluey features numerous short flower spikes on compact, bluish foliage. This drought tolerant selection grows best in sandy soils. Market it as a low-maintenance grass for the landscape. It grows 26 inches high and 18 inches wide and is hardy in Zones 4 to 9.
Pennisetum glaucum Inky produces large dark flower spikes on reddish-brown foliage. Use it in a container or en masse in the landscape. It grows around 40 inches high with a spread of 14 inches.
Dümmen Orange
Let the buzz begin about the newest dahlia series, Summer Bees. It kicks off with two colors, Red Bicolor and Purple Bicolor. Dazzling in pots or in the landscape, the upright habit helps show off the single flowers. Growers have some flexibility in the final product — pinch or no pinch — and produce in a 2.5-quart or 11-inch pot.
The dawn of a new Viola cornuta series, Spring Morning, includes seven colors: Royal Purple, Violet, Pearl Lilac, Sunny Purple, Bumblebee, Sunny Lavender and Glow. This also marks a new foray into this genus for Dümmen Orange.
Spring Morning was bred for heat and humidity tolerance, providing a longer window for consumers to use the plant into summer. After a rest, the series puts out another flush of color in the fall.
The breeder also offers several first-year flowering perennials, which are ideal for annual growers who want to offer the crop without much change to their production schedules, as these varieties can be finished in about two months.
The new first-year perennials include Campanula Ultra Violet, Sedum Cloudburst Burgundy and Cloudburst Green Flash, Coreopsis Radiant Velvet in Gold, Nepeta Serene Lilac and Serene White, Achillea Sea Breeze Red, Salvia Noble Princess, and Leucanthemum Sweet Daisy Kylie.
3/25: California Spring Trials 2025 Day 1 Recap
Danziger
What qualities are you looking for in a “bestie”: cheerful, devoted, dynamic, inspiring, optimistic, positive, trusty?
Danziger’s new Besties Osteospermum series provides each of the aforementioned seven qualities (as the flower names), each with an upright mounded habit and large flowers. Good for quarts, gallons, hanging baskets and patio pots, these bloom in early spring and summer with a height of 10 to 12 inches. In several trials, Besties flowered for seven to 10 days.
Another key to the Besties friendship is that each color in the series blooms at the same time with a consistent habit, notes Lisa Heredia, marketing and key accounts manager at Danziger.
“The consistent bloom and habit are perfect for retail sales,” she says.
For early-season sales, grow Besties “low and slow,” she adds.
Colors include Cheerful Gold, Devoted Purple, Dynamic Bicolor (think sunrise or sunset colors), Inspiring Orange, Optimistic Pink, Positive Yellow and Trusty Amethyst.
Also part of Danziger’s CAST showcase was Harmony Colorfall Flamingo, the newest habit and color in the New Guinea impatiens series. Flamingo’s color matches its namesake, and the trailing habit offers something new for hanging baskets, which are filled with flowers. Flamingo also works well in pots and combos.
It can handle more sun than most New Guinea impatiens, Heredia says. For growers who sleeve plants, Flamingo’s strong branching protects it from damage during that pre-shipping process.
Danziger’s Cascadias petunia series also welcomed two new colors: Lavender Ice and Romancero. Heredia says Lavender Ice “looked exceptional” at trials in Michigan.
As the name suggests, the series was bred to cascade over the sides of a container. Plants grow 12 to 14 inches high and 14 to 18 inches wide. Heredia suggests using them in premium baskets or combos.
ThinkPlants
At the ThinkPlants CAST shop, Heuger showcased its Helleborus HGC Ice N’ Roses series with a selection of some of the standout colors, including a new white. The series is cold tolerant like most hellebores but can also take heat and drought, allowing the flowers to last longer into the season.
In the Gilroy, California, warmth, the plants were standing strong. Standing is the operative word. The hellebores have a tall habit with flowers that hold their heads up, making them very suitable for cutting.
Also at the ThinkPlants stop, Creekside Greenhouses brought along a wide variety of hydrangeas, but the most interesting among them were the varieties suitable for hanging baskets.
There have been trailing hydrangeas that have been used in hanging baskets, but Creekside representatives point out that they can be fragile to ship. Instead, the nursery looked to its own lines and found the wider, shade-tolerant rock stars that could be planted in a hanging combo without needing too much sun or overwhelming companions in combo pots.
Because they chose plants that had already been established, growers can treat them as a multi-use hydrangea, either offering them for sale in hanging pots or standard pots. Suitable varieties include HI Sea, BloomChampion Mysterious and My Beautiful Forest.
Brand new from ThinkPlants is a spinoff initiative of sorts that’s currently called ThinkShrubs. A partnership with Monrovia, the program allows growers to access the Monrovia genetics and the well-known name without the need to be all-in on the Monrovia branding. There are also no required can colors, tags or minimum pricing.
Program representative and technical support Jon Russell, a one-time Monrovia grower, leads the program. He notes that costs for the liners are great for what growers get, considering Monrovia has been hyper-focused on liner quality. Liners are being sold now with a two-pallet minimum.
Syngenta Flowers
Fanatix is a new series of Scaevola (commonly called fan flower) for hot, dry conditions. Syngenta notes that the heat-loving plant is perfect for summer combos and can thrive late into the season, even in “the toughest” heat conditions.
The highly branching habit allows for an abundance of the fan-shaped flowers to flourish. Spreading up to 22 inches wide and reaching 12 inches tall, it is most popular in 1.5-gallon hanging baskets that finish 10 to 11 weeks after transplant.
The most hyped plant out of Syngenta Flowers this year (and rightly so) is the wildly colorful iCandy begonia. This hybrid begonia features big double flowers in colors that almost look like they are lit from within. Those colors, like the bright red Inferno or the orange-tipped yellow Sunset, are set against a background of dark green leaves.
Their mounding habit and bountiful blooms make them a good option for big baskets and large pots. Because they do well in part sun and shade, they’re particularly friendly for porches.
The new viola Penny Pro series is an upgrade to the current Penny series, with 11 new colors and two carryover colors from Penny. Penny Pro is quicker to finish, with a better germination rate, and bred to perform well in both spring and fall.
Thanks to its robust basal branching, Penny Pro offers both abundant flowering and follow-up flowering. Penny Pro doesn’t stretch, which reduces the need for PGRs. Penny Pro provides an improved flowering window, so all the colors in the series finish at the same time. This series is ideal for packs and quarts.
The Penny series will remain available for a time, but it will eventually be phased out and replaced with Penny Pro. Similarly, Syngenta Flowers’ Delta Pro pansies series will entirely replace Delta Classic in the future.
The Fun House Black Widow petunia checks a lot of boxes, including spooky, slick and alluring. This new color in the Fun House series is versatile, like the proverbial basic black dress, which looks good paired with just about any color.
It can be dressed up in an elegant combo, hold its own en masse or be playful in a more casual mix. It’s offered as an unrooted cutting and is well-suited to grow in a variety of quart or gallon sizes.
HilverdaFlorist
HilverdaFlorist has added many new colors to its series of Mooodz echinacea. Standouts include Fearless, with orange ray florets around a green disk; Flirty, offering magenta around an orange disk; and Powerful, with dark orange ray florets against an orange disk.
The brand is also hyping what representatives are calling its first “patriotic” red in the Garvinea series. Sweet Chili features bright red petals around a dark central eye to complement the white and blue varieties suitable for a flowering flag. Hilverda has also increased its efforts in promoting the Garvinea line, with new tags, a website and a robust social media presence.
Sahin
The “open pollinator” arm of Takii has two new standouts this year. The first is its second centaurea. Last year, the spindly flower thrilled with white puffballs. This year’s variety, Sweet Vanilla, keeps the fascination of the spiky, puffy blooms and adds a blush of pink.
Also new this year is Double Lemon calendula, which features a pale yellow flower with a dark yellow eye. The contrast adds interest to what will surely be a bright spot in the garden.
Takii
New from Takii, and represented boldly around the brand’s showcase, is the Hanabee digitalis. In Japanese, Hanabee means “fireworks.” The digitalis is available in three colors: white, pink and rose.
But what’s most notable in the breeding is that it’s well-branched without the need for pinching, and the central flower spikes remain relatively small and compact compared to larger digitalis without any need for PGRs. That and the spear-like shape of the foliage makes the Hanabee easy to ship without damage.
Also new from Takii this year are three new colors in the Trilogy petunia series. All three colors are unique in that they feature consistent veining. The colors include Purple Vein, Blue Vein and Rose Vein.
Combos remain important to growers, retailers and consumers. Jessica Cudnik, Takii’s flower product manager, says the process of creating eye-catching combos can be a relatively simple task.
From a simple, small container up to a premium mix, there’s a recipe for all sorts of skill levels and price points. One of the smaller combos displayed included a zinnia Belize Double Bright Rose, Melampodium Jackpot Gold and a Trilogy Purple Gen 2 petunia. One of the larger, premium combos featured a canna Cannova Scarlet in the center, several Trilogy Red Gen 2 and some zinnia Belize Double Orange.
California Spring Trials 2025
We can't wait for California Spring Trials 2025 March 25-29!
Follow @gardencentermag on Instagram for live updates from the road, and bookmark this link, as we'll be updating it throughout the trials!
The information below this line is from the 2024 California Spring Trials.
3/22: California Spring Trials 2024 Day Three Recap
It was an overcast day on the coast when we woke up in Carpinteria, but the gloomy skies were no match for the riot of color we’d experience on the last day of our California Spring Trials. We headed south to see some of the biggest brands in the business.
Stop One: PlantHaven International, Pacific Plug & Liner, PDSI, Suntory and Green Trade Horticulture at California Spring Trials 2024
Several brands were represented at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club, starting with the breeder agency PlantHaven International. The company had several new plants aimed at solving problems for both growers and gardeners.
The perfect example of its solutions-oriented approach was the new Arabis sturii 'Arctic Fox'. Featuring variegated foliage that varies from silvery green to magenta and producing small white flowers, Arctic Fox “ticks a ton of boxes,” according to a PlantHaven representative. Those boxes? It’s a Zone 4, shade-loving, drought resistant, evergreen ground cover.
PlantHaven seeks to solve more problems with its Salvia Vibe 'Ignition Orange'. Featuring bright orange, trumpet-like, nectar-rich blooms that are particularly attractive to hummingbirds, this salvia is drought resistant and has a compact rounded habit. But it also features strong flexible stems that make it ideal for surviving shipping.
Another PlantHaven solution seeks to bring plants into the food aisle. The Colocasia Royal Hawaiian 'Hawaiian Luau' is a taro with edible tubers that starts as an impressive broad-leaf foliage plant. Its impressive, deep purple leaves, shot through with green veins, can be grown indoors as a houseplant, or as a patio plant. And once the season is done, the foliage is meant to be cut back and the tubers harvested to be used like potatoes. That’s why PlantHaven is making a push for Hawaiian Luau to be merchandised in the produce section of grocery stores.
After PlantHaven, we stepped on the Pacific Plug & Liner trail. The supplier’s theme for the week was “The Mountains are Calling” and featured a path from station to station, where flowers were paired with retro-style national parks posters. And there were, indeed, some standout sights along the trail.
New for this year, PP&L introduced “hikers” to the Pretty Polly Primula series. The doubled polyanthus in four colors stands out largely due to height and bloom size. The large, vibrant flowers are carried by robust stems well above the top of the soil, giving growers and retailers an opportunity to deliver a primula that doesn’t have to sit along a border to be seen and appreciated.
On any trail, one might expect to see rocks, and the PP&L trail was no exception, with three new colors of Sempervivum Colorockz: Coral Red, Lemon Flare and Emerald Swirl. The trio of touchable succulents shows the wild variety sempervivum can achieve. Coral Red features burgundy rosettes, while Lemon Flare presents tight, inner green heart whorls with yellow outer leaves, and Emerald Swirl thrills with narrower bullet-shaped leaves with purple tips.
Finally, two grassy plants along the trail made us stop to admire the view. First was the beautiful Carex 'Moon Falls'. This variegated sedge includes a wild spill of long trailing leaves with silver edges and deep green cores. It’s the biggest of the Carex line of sedges and was developed to be a perfect plant for landscapers who want an interesting show-stopping grass that stands out in the landscape while standing up to winter conditions from Zones 5-9.
Also on display was the unmissable Electric Pink Cordyline. This cordyline offers long, thin, upright leaves that make it look more grass-like than anything else. But what’s most unique is the deep pink core color of the leaves that glows irresistibly electric around the edges, as if lit by an inner light. It’s a plant that would be a stunner in any landscape.
Off the trail, we moved into the land of Plant Development Services, Inc. (PDSI). Front and center for the first time in bloom at CAST was the Chelsea Flower Show award-winning Blackjack Agapanthus. Drought tolerant and sturdy, Blackjack was released from the Southern Living and Sunset Plant Collections. Its prime selling point is its big round purple blooms, great for a patio container or cut and brought into the home in an arrangement.
Another new introduction to both Sunset and Southern Living Plant Collections is the Nice & Easy Yucca. This is a yucca that loves families and production workers who must get up close and personal. The long, variegated leaves have a stable, creamy-hued outer edge, but more importantly, they lack the super sharp tips and edges that make yucca not-so-nice or easy. These are, in fact, pettable plants.
From Sunset to Suntory, there were even more blooms to blow us away. One of the brightest: the Sun Parasol FiredUp Orange. Not only is the FiredUp a new color in the Sun Parasol line — it’s a whole new category, featuring an upright habit that breaks the tradition of the trailing habit common in the line. The bright orange flowers and long stems make it a perfect centerpiece for combos and containers. Also new in the Sun Parasol line is Mauvelous, which features lovely pinwheeling flowers with mauve centers that become more speckled as they reach the tips of the petals.
Suntory offered additional color innovation with the new Surfinia Heavenly Blackberries and Cream. These trailing petunias, perfect for weathering rain in hanging baskets, have creamy white flowers with a deep blackberry-colored center. The gradient of color between the two gives them an antique, almost Victorian flare that is hard to beat.
Finally, we ended our tour with the second camouflage plant we’ve seen this year. New from Green Trade Horticulture was the wild-looking Aglaonema tricolor. The patterning of the small sample we were able to look at was incredibly intricate and so perfectly camouflaged that it looked like the camo that camo was based on.
Stop Two: Ball Horticultural Company (Selecta one, Burpee, Darwin Perennials, Ball FloraPlant, Morel Cyclamen, PanAmerican Seed) at California Spring Trials 2024
Ball Horticultural serves up so much edible and floral wonder that it’s hard to get your arms around it all. We could have spent the whole day just at this one site taking everything in, but that’s not the way CAST works, so we had to hit the highlights, of which there were plenty.
Some of the biggest news from Ball’s Selecta one division was new point-of-purchase resources available for retailers to push early sales of their Early Love and Pink Kisses dianthus. Because the plants are perfect for the early spring shoulder season, Selecta one wanted to make sure that retailers who had the dianthus stocked could brand them for early spring holidays, from Valentine's Day to Mother’s Day. The pink POP includes full rack signage as well as stand-alone bench cards and pots that convey flowers are better than chocolate for moms.
Selecta was also proud to introduce new colors to the Calibrachoa MiniFamous Evo line, including Double Magenta, Double White, Double Red and Double Yellow. As you may assume by the name, these calibrachoa feature tight double flowers in a compact habit that stays compact without pinching or PGRs. Plus, they’re early to flower, and flower they do, with the plants we saw easily filling pots with tons of blooms that stay on top of the foliage.
Like many brands we saw this year, Selecta was getting into the mix with its Dynamix combination inspiration program. Available now at selecta-one.com/en, Selecta is offering growers and retailers recipes that allow users to create combo pots with a bit of flexibility. Selecting plants that grow well together, the Dynamix program also showcases timely themes, like mixes that reflect college basketball team colors during the Final Four. It’s a nexus of inspiration to draw on now and into the future.
Since licensing the Burpee brand, Ball has been busy making innovations with plants that don’t need to be grown from seed by the consumer. These include a variety of prolific squash perfect for grilling, but the standout of the veggie group was the new BrightStar tomato. While it is a juicy beefsteak, what makes it unique is that fact that it looks like an heirloom-style tomato. It has the bumps and lack of symmetry common in heirlooms without all the fussiness and disease susceptibility.
There was a great deal to see from Darwin Perennials, too. Of particular interest was a trio of perennials meant to make the most of the northern climes. Perfect for Zones 4a-8b, Darwin introduced Lilac Splash Garden Phlox, Saxifraga Marto Hot Rose and Armeria Dreameria Hypnotic Dreams, the last of which a Darwin representative called a “Dr. Seuss plant,” because it's reminiscent of the Lorax’s Truffula Trees. The release of these plants is meant to bolster perennial offerings for Canadians who can get lost in the seasonal shuffle.
Darwin's new Agastache Summerlong collection is perfect for attracting hummingbirds, and as if it had been paid to be there, a lovely hummingbird was busily enjoying the small, trumpeted flowers of these colorful flowers on sturdy upright stalks.
AngelFlare Angelonia is a new series from Ball FloraPlant that offers heat tolerance in three colors: Black, Cranberry and Orchid Pink. It provides color for gardens starting in late spring and continuing through late summer. Use in mixed borders, plant en masse or combine it in containers. It grows up to 12 inches high and spreads up to 18 inches.
Ball FloraPlant also debuted Solera, a new vegetative interspecific geranium series, a first for the company. Its medium greenhouse habit makes it best suited for 5-inch pots or larger, as well as hanging baskets. Colors in the series are Fuchsia, Lavender, Orange, Red and Watermelon. Unrooted cuttings will now be grown at Ball’s YecaFlora farm in Yecapixtla, Mexico, and trucked to the U.S. border with better access to air freight. This series is also included in new FunFusion Combinations, such as Fuchsia in Fresno (pictured).
Morel Cyclamen varieties are available exclusively through Ball Seed, with several new varieties introduced at CAST, including Petit Moulin, a miniature, double-flowering selection that flowers for more than 100 days. This durable variety works for both indoor and outdoor use. It’s grown as a mini in 4- or 5-inch pots, or for a larger container, use two plugs in a 6-inch pot. Growing time from seed is 32-34 weeks. Colors include White with Eye, Rose with Eye, Light Rose with Eye and Lilac with Eye.
Dart is a new series of dianthus from PanAmerican Seed that doesn’t require heat for production. It fits in a variety of sizes, on the small side of 4- or 6-inch pots, up to larger 8-inch, 1-gallon or 2-gallon pots. PGRs are not required. In the garden, they grow from 6-12 inches high with a spread of up to 6 inches. Colors include Pink Magician, Purple, Red White Picotee, Scarlet and White.
PanAmerican Seed also debuted the first herb in its Kitchen Minis line: Basil Bonsai. This compact, uniform, Greek basil offers smaller leaves and grows to a diminutive 6 inches up to 12 inches high and a spread of 6-12 inches. Plug crop time is three to four weeks, and potting to finished production takes three to four weeks. Grow in a 4- or 6-inch container. Consumers can grow this indoors for fresh basil all year.
Stop Three: GreenFuse, Schoneveld, Beekenkamp and Westhoff at California Spring Trials 2024
Green Fuse Botanicals CEO Jim Devereux showed us what was causing the most stir with attendees this year.
First was Leucanthemum Kilimanjaro, with massive-sized flowers. He called it the largest flowering shasta daisy. It’s got an aggressive habit and will quickly fill a large container for a quick turnaround in production and high-value sales at retail. It’s a day-length neutral perennial that’s hardy to Zone 5.
Next, Devereux showed us another variety that fits the mega category: Calibrachoa Cielo Series. This breeding features huge flowers. There are 13 colors in the series, and he wanted to point out the bright colors of Cielo Firecracker and the more subtle, but fun, colors of Cielo Pink Splash (both pictured). Cielo will not only fill a large container or hanging basket but spill out of it, creating this colossal cali display.
The final plant on Devereux's gigantic floral tour was the newest color (and size) in the Hydrangea GameChanger series: Giant Pink. The flowers live up to their name and are noticeably larger than the other colors in this lacecap hydrangea series. Plants in the GameChanger series are day-length neutral and require zero chilling. Plants are ready in eight to nine weeks (depending on location and growing conditions) from a cutting, and Devereux says that is how this series got its name.
The Petunia Shake series from Hem Genetics (from seed) offers a compact growing habit and no need for PGRs. This seed petunia features large flowers that fall between a grandiflora and multiflora type. Three colors kick off the series: Blueberry, Strawberry and Raspberry. They're good for containers and landscape use.
Illusia from Schoneveld Breeding is an F1 persicum species that offers a unique flower shape. This novelty selection features unfolded and reversed flowers with contrasting colors. Pink is the first color in the Illusia series. Bred for 4-inch containers, this indoor potted plant takes 24-30 weeks to produce from seed to finished plant.
Beekenkamp’s dahlia production continues to flourish, and one of its latest selections is Labella Grande Coral. The sturdy stems are best suited for 6- or 8-inch pots. Labella Grande Coral can be finished in 10-13 weeks from an unrooted cutting.
Our Cleveland (Ohio) neighbor Bart Hayes, sales manager at Westhoff, assured us the petunias were plentiful this year. New colors include Double Stuff Rose (double, star-patterned flowers on compact plants), Magenta and Melon Pink in the DiscoBall series, Citrus Hill and Secred Star in the novelty Crazytunia series, as well as an electric red, aptly named Hells The Red. Bart says the habit "is very much in line with the Hells series -- rounded-mounding, medium vigor," and the colors in the Hells tend to "singe the retina," he jokes.
Westhoff also ventured into hybrid salvia territory and introduced the Tanami series. It features exceptional heat and drought tolerance, a mounding habit and a season full of flowers. Six colors are part of the new series: Blue, Purple, Rose, Red (pictured), White and Salmon.
3/21: California Spring Trials 2024 Day Two Recap
We’re on the road in California with eyes full of flowers. Here’s what we’re seeing at the California Spring Trials so far.
Stop One: American Takii at California Spring Trials 2024
Super villain Darth Vader made “give yourself to the dark side” famous, but growers and retailers can follow his lead without selling their souls to the Galactic Empire. We were drawn to the dramatic look of American Takii’s new Dahlia Black Forest Ruby. This new selection features intensely dark foliage and stems punctuated by intense red semi-double to double flowers. Black Forest Ruby is from seed and offers an upright habit that works well in both containers or in the ground. Takii presented Black Forest Ruby with its dark-leaved ornamental pepper selections, Onxy Orange and Onyx Red. Retailers, think of the merchandising fun you could have with this combination!
Takii added Red to its Tropaeolum (Nasturtium) Baby Series. Baby Red, a Fleuroselect Novelty winner, has a mounded habit that grows up to 12 inches tall.
In keeping with the red theme, the breeder premiered Trilogy Red Gen 2, which shares the compact, mounded habit as the rest of colors in the series. This floriferous petunia series is good for gardens, containers or baskets.
Last year, Takii introduced Cannova Casa, a program designed to sell Cannova Bronze Scarlet Canna as a houseplant in the winter and transition to garden plants when weather permits, based on the region. Growers would sow seeds in December and ship to retailers in February. Takii reps told us they’re looking for feedback from anyone who tried the Casa program this past year.
Sahin, a brand of Takii Europe B.V., showcased some wild and even wacky, but beautiful, new selections. Have you seen Ammobium grandiflora? It was a new-to-us plant that featured strong, twisty stems rising high above the foliage and topped with small yellow and white flowers. It’s used in cutting gardens but would make a cool perennial in Zone 8 or higher, tucked in with other tall perennials or in the back of the landscape for structure. If you’re looking for another cut flower, Sahin also introduced Centaurea moschata 'Imperialis The Bride', a scented white form with new colors in the pipeline: dark purple, light purple, rose and a mix.
OHP displayed side-by-side comparisons of some of its products, including an example of how Fortress herbicide is safe on many plants — even when those accidents occur, and the crew applies the wrong rate.
Stop Two: Sakata at California Spring Trials 2024
There’s been a ton of music references at CAST this year, and all of them are filled to the brim with nostalgia. It began back on Day One with Syngenta’s Painted Love Purple petunia. But here we were miles away, and Sakata was kicking out the jams, too.
Its music reference was more than a single song; it was a very literal playlist. Sakata’s new Playlist concept pulls its “biggest hits” from a variety of floral lines and combines them into single offerings, all with musical themes.
Playlist isn’t just about growing recipes that create a harmonious whole. The selection has combo options that are timed to seasons and can be produced and sold from early spring to fall. And many come in vegetative kits with mixed varieties that create colorful pots that grow in harmony. Some standouts include the Cajun Chorus mix (with SunPatiens Compact Purple, SunPatiens Compact Orange and PartyTime Lime coleus) and Electric Lady (with SunPatiens Compact Rose Glow and PartyTime Pink Berry Coleus).
Beyond Playlist, Sakata was also showing off some new varieties in some of its most popular lines. One of the best on display was a new color in the SuperCal line: Shocking Pink. The blooms of this petunia with its semi-trailing habit were big and, well, shocking. The depth of the pink hue makes the petals look incredibly rich despite their brightness and an almost iridescent sheen adds some “wow” factor.
Another standout was Sakata’s new celosia, Burning Embers. This All-America Selections (AAS) award winner features tons of bright red plumes set against bronze foliage. We’ve seen a lot of dark leaves this year, but Burning Embers softens the contrast between bloom and leaf. The bronze foliage backdrop is dark enough to make the red pop, but it also compliments to create a fiery whole. 
The color at Sakata doesn’t only stay in the flower line, either. Its Home Grown vegetable line saw another AAS winner with the new Purple Magic broccoli. Featuring a rich color in the broccoli heads and stems, Sakata reports that it remains super flavorful in spite of the novelty color, which can sometimes keep veggies from being truly delicious.
Stop Three: Dümmen Orange at California Spring Trials 2024
There was an explosion of color at Dümmen Orange, our final stop of the day.
Geranium Glory Days is a new Peltatum geranium series that provides the look of an ivy type but offers the zonal habit. Two colors kick off the new series: Pink Bicolor and Red Orange Bicolor. The single flowers are self-cleaning, and the habit is medium to vigorous. They’re heat tolerant and are best suited for 3-quart containers or baskets.
Another new series, Delosperma Solstice, debuts with six colors that have a shimmery sheen: Orange, Purple, Purple Bicolor, Red, Scarlet Red and Yellow. Small flowers dot the top of the compact foliage, which is an ideal form for a groundcover. In production, this series works best in small pots.
Dümmen shines when it comes to combos, and this year it revealed new Garden Party Icons mixes, inspired by women who’ve made a difference in the world and had an impact on society and even pop culture, such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Oprah and Taylor Swift. The Garden Party mixes include four varieties, and production time is approximately 15 weeks from sticking unrooted cuttings to finish. That timing was based on California growers, so plan accordingly.
Garden Party Icons Miss Americana (for the Swifties) includes Dahlia Revelation Red, Coleus Down Town NYC Nights, Petunia Durabloom Red and Salvia Icon Glacier. The colors in Garden Party Icons Justice RBG mirror her dark robes and white collar: Salvia Icon Glacier, Petunia Potunia + Black Satin, Alternanthera Little Ruby and Verbena Empress Sun White.
We'll be back with more flowers, highlights and ideas tomorrow!
3/20: California Spring Trials 2024 Day One Recap
We’re on the road in California with eyes full of flowers. Here’s what we’re seeing at the California Spring Trials so far.
Stop One: Syngenta Flowers at California Spring Trials 2024
We woke today in San Jose and headed out to Syngenta Flowers, where we loaded up on coffee and checked out some new varieties. This year’s Syngenta CAST theme is “Meet Us in the Garden,” and the brand presented a party of floral delights.
Front and center was Sunfinity Double Yellow, a new vegetative double-flowered sunflower with a deep orange center and yellow outer petals. Syngenta says that Sunfinity can keep up its color all season long (hence the name) and works well in ground and in pots.
An interesting feature of the Sunfinity Double is the fact that visual interest remains in the bloom as it matures. When the outer leaves are shed, a tight orange pom-pom remains on stem. This selection is also resistant to powdery mildew.
Syngenta is also going big on mixed containers, offering tons of inspiration for combining their colorful varieties. Particularly striking were containers featuring the Talavera coleus surrounded by bright blooms above clouds of Muehlenbeckia axillaris Coins. The latter plant is new and somewhat unassuming on its own, but added to a container, the tiny dark leaves create a unique eye-popping texture.
For those who don’t want to put work into building their own mixes, Syngenta has solutions with a variety of new Kwik Kombos featuring pre-made mixes that have a ton of porch-perfect appeal.
Small, niche cut-flower growers are making a comeback in the U.S. Syngenta has added several varieties to its specialty cut flower assortment — through a program named Harvest Your Potential — such as the new dahlia hybrid Karma Caroline, hybrid zinnias and sunflowers.
In a touching moment, we paused to admire the Miss Mandy dahlia, which honors the memory of Mandy Gerace, who died last year. Prior to joining Syngenta in 2020, Mandy was part of the third generation of leaders at Welby Gardens in Colorado.
Also on site was ThinkPlants, with new genetics available for growers from a variety of breeders. One standout was Monrovia’s Camouflage Fatsia japonica, featuring beautiful broad leaves with unique variegation that gives the plant its name. But we were left wondering, if you wear camo to blend into plants, what does a plant need camo for?
Stop Two: Danziger at California Spring Trials 2024
After a brisk, '80s-music-fueled jaunt, we were outside Gilroy and touring Danziger’s new offerings. The storied breeder is calling this the “unofficial year of the novelty calibrachoa” and proved it with a riot of colors and textures. A couple standouts included LIA Abstract Lemon Cherry, with randomly patterned red and yellow blooms, and Eyeconic Orange, with sweet peach-hued flowers featuring bright yellow centers.
Danziger petunias were in on the novelty action, too, with new varieties like the deep purple veined flowers of the Capella Fuchsia Lace and the mysterious RAY Shadow, with flowers that feature an outer dusty rose hue that falls into deep, dark purple centers. Ray Shadow fits well with shoulder-season crops for those fall and Halloween-inspired combos.
Also on display was Sol Luna Prime, a new series for 2025. These hybrid impatiens offer solid colors and an incredibly consistent bloom and habit that makes for a uniform and tidy bench display bursting with color. They don’t require any PGRs, and they finish on the bench about a week sooner than other hybrids on the market.
Stop Three: Benary at California Spring Trials 2024
After a detour for the annual garlic ice cream ritual, we made our way to a golf-themed Benary. While we didn’t sink any putts (we tried), we did take in some new plants.
Among the varieties, we saw a lovely white begonia new to the Benary Big line. The large blooms were set against a backdrop of dark bronze leaf foliage, making them pop. It’s certainly on theme as we see more and more plants with dark leaves and bright flowers. That theme was continued in the Nonstop begonia line with Mocca Rose, offering dark chocolaty leaves and blazing red flowers suitable for hanging baskets or pots.
Tucked amongst a variety of grasses, our eye was drawn to a display of Limonium sinuatum 'Hipster Blue'. It's part of Benary’s Hipster line and features a vibrant palette of drought-tolerant plants that provide color and texture and can be easily cut for arrangements.
Benary also debuted Masterpiece, the first F1 lobelia hybrid from seed. A FleuroSelect Gold Medal winner, it was selected for heat tolerance and its mounding habit.
Stop Four: Hishtil at California Spring Trials 2024
Our next stop was a delight for the senses just a short winding road away. We spent a good deal of time with Hishtil touching and smelling a variety of new herbs. And varieties like the new Thymus citriodorus 'Fragrantissimus Orange' thrilled on all levels. Not only did it offer tiny white blooms, but the fragrance offered a deep and unique citrus that lingered in the nose and made us sigh with happiness.
The same was true for Hishtil’s unique Ziziphora clinopodioides 'High Mountain Mint'. Not only did the plant offer a lovely compact habit with small arrowhead leaves, but it packed a bright, almost spearmint punch of scent that made our eyes widen with surprise. Because the plant is new to the U.S., not a ton is known about what USDA zones will be best for it, but the Hishtil rep said that it grows in dry mountainous regions in Israel where it thrives under cold, dry conditions. The Israel-based breeder markets its herbs in the Double Marvel program, reminding growers and retailers that herbs serve more than just a culinary purpose. Their ornamental characteristics are good for the garden and containers, where they offer attractive flowers and foliage.
Also at the stop, Prudac Americas offered a tantalizing treat for the tastebuds with its Tiny Temptations series of cherry tomatoes. The fruits are sweet, and this productive series averages up to 350 fruits per plant. Colors are red, yellow and orange.
It was a unique stop to end a unique day. And we can’t wait to see, smell and touch what tomorrow has in store.
Our California Spring Trials 2024 itinerary
We officially hit the road on Wednesday, but our itinerary is crafted and ready to execute. Our stops will progress north to south, and we've allotted about two hours for each grower and brand. If you're following along, check out where we'll be so you know when to check our Garden Center magazine and Greenhouse Management magazine Instagram accounts.
Wednesday, March 20
Morning
- Syngenta Flowers: Looking forward to a petunia party and seeing the Bright Sparks Celosia Celosia plumosa in person.
- Danziger: We'll definitely have our sunglasses on as we gaze upon the GUATEMALA Papaya echinacea.
Afternoon
- Benary: The selection of Gramineae probably isn't the California grass the Beatles sang about, but it's likely prettier to behold.
- Cohen, Hishtil, Jaldety and more: We'll enjoy an afternoon with some dahlias, lavenders and succulents. The stop promises to end an epic day one with a riot of colors and textures sure to impress.
Thursday, March 21
Morning
- American Takii: We start day two with another petunia party and some new nasturtium on the side.
- Sakata: New flowers and veggies await us for a feast of the senses
Afternoon
- Dümmen Orange: We'll see an array of offerings, including a new color in the Begonia I'Conia series, a new Coleus and a new color in the Roller Coaster series of New Guinea Impatiens.
Friday, March 22
Morning
- PDSI and more: We'll start the day with the yuccas and enjoy the partner exhibitors sharing this Santa Barbara locale.
Afternoon
- Ball Horticultural: There's too much to list at this major family of brands, but we'll do our best to take it all in.
- Green Fuse, Hem, Schoneveld and more: It's the grand finale as we take in a ton of brands to finish off our trip. Snapdragon, rosemary, daisy and hydrangea...oh my!
We've started our engines. Hop in and come along for the ride!
3/18: Catch up on what you'll see at California Spring Trials 2024
We're heading out this week to explore all that's on offer at the California Spring Trials. Our coverage begins in earnest on Wednesday, March 20, but there is plenty to explore before we hit the road. Click here to view our full roundup of the offerings from brands, growers and greenhouses at CAST 2024.