Plant Trials
Episode: # 13 07/07/07
Presenter: Melissa King
Have you ever wondered how we keep up with gardening trends from around the globe?
Melissa takes a sneak peak inside Ball Australia’s plant trials which is where plant growers go to get insight into seasonal trends and check out the latest and greatest new varieties from plant breeders around the world. In other words, it is what you will see in garden centres this coming spring.
One trend that doesn’t look like disappearing is the fifth room, seeing the garden as an outdoor living area. That means it should be more inviting and filled with colour.
Caladiums are sub tropical plants with luxuriant foliage – perfect for bringing life to the fifth room of the house. You can paint the room with decorative foliage in shades of pink, green, white and red. These varieties grow to about 30-60cm in height, so they are perfect for decorative pots and containers.
For vibrant flowering displays look to Celebrette (Impatiens, New Guinea Hybrid, ‘Celebrette’), an early flowering New Guinea impatiens. It produces masses of flowers on a compact plant 20-40 cm tall with unique variegated foliage, so it is tailor made for pots and hanging baskets and puts on a display in hot and cool climates.
Foliage is something you don’t often see as a feature of geraniums, but Black Velvet (Pelargonium, Hybrid Cultivar, Zonal, ‘Black Velvet’) is grown for its dark brown, almost black foliage and beautiful flowers. ‘Bulls Eye’ (Pelargonium, Hybrid Cultivar, Zonal, ‘Bullseye’) is another one for sexy foliage with chocolate brown leaves that offset vibrant flowers.
Horizon (Pelargonium, Hybrid Cultivar, Zonal, ‘Horizon’) is a top geranium for window boxes and borders, bred so the flowers are displayed at a uniform height or for something slightly offbeat try Ripples Geraniums (Pelargonium, Hybrid Cultivar, Zonal, ‘Ripples’) with attractive flecked flower petals.
Melissa talks to Jason Hough, Managing Director of Ball Australia about trends in gardening world wide.
There is a real swing back towards colour, our houses have gotten bigger and our gardens smaller and as a result people are decorating around their house. One of the things that come with decorating is colour! There are many coloured flowers that look fantastic around the patio and house.
Colourful foliage is still high on the agenda. Coleus and all the varieties that have really strong bold colour, for twelve months of the year are fantastic plants.
www.ballaustralia.com.au
Presenter: Melissa King
Have you ever wondered how we keep up with gardening trends from around the globe?
Melissa takes a sneak peak inside Ball Australia’s plant trials which is where plant growers go to get insight into seasonal trends and check out the latest and greatest new varieties from plant breeders around the world. In other words, it is what you will see in garden centres this coming spring.
One trend that doesn’t look like disappearing is the fifth room, seeing the garden as an outdoor living area. That means it should be more inviting and filled with colour.
Caladiums are sub tropical plants with luxuriant foliage – perfect for bringing life to the fifth room of the house. You can paint the room with decorative foliage in shades of pink, green, white and red. These varieties grow to about 30-60cm in height, so they are perfect for decorative pots and containers.
For vibrant flowering displays look to Celebrette (Impatiens, New Guinea Hybrid, ‘Celebrette’), an early flowering New Guinea impatiens. It produces masses of flowers on a compact plant 20-40 cm tall with unique variegated foliage, so it is tailor made for pots and hanging baskets and puts on a display in hot and cool climates.
Foliage is something you don’t often see as a feature of geraniums, but Black Velvet (Pelargonium, Hybrid Cultivar, Zonal, ‘Black Velvet’) is grown for its dark brown, almost black foliage and beautiful flowers. ‘Bulls Eye’ (Pelargonium, Hybrid Cultivar, Zonal, ‘Bullseye’) is another one for sexy foliage with chocolate brown leaves that offset vibrant flowers.
Horizon (Pelargonium, Hybrid Cultivar, Zonal, ‘Horizon’) is a top geranium for window boxes and borders, bred so the flowers are displayed at a uniform height or for something slightly offbeat try Ripples Geraniums (Pelargonium, Hybrid Cultivar, Zonal, ‘Ripples’) with attractive flecked flower petals.
Melissa talks to Jason Hough, Managing Director of Ball Australia about trends in gardening world wide.
There is a real swing back towards colour, our houses have gotten bigger and our gardens smaller and as a result people are decorating around their house. One of the things that come with decorating is colour! There are many coloured flowers that look fantastic around the patio and house.
Colourful foliage is still high on the agenda. Coleus and all the varieties that have really strong bold colour, for twelve months of the year are fantastic plants.
www.ballaustralia.com.au
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