Photo: Brian Sparks
Another California Spring Trials (CAST) is in the books, but while many growers and breeders have taken this voyage along the California coast several times before, it was a first for me. As our team at Greenhouse Grower stopped at one location after another, I marveled over and over again at the color on display whenever we walked through the door. Among many other things, beauty defines this industry, and it was easy to get lost in the sea of pink, bright red, yellow, and even in one case “blue” that we were surrounded by at each stop.
Each day of the trials, our team posted daily recaps of the standout plants that caught our attention the most. You can find all of that here, and there’s much more to come, including themes that emerged, slideshows of more favorites, and videos where we get insights direct from the source. In the meantime, here are two of my immediate takeaways from California Spring Trials 2025:
- I was impressed by each breeder’s commitment to improvement. Every year there’s a long list of petunias, impatiens, and calibrachoa that you can find at CAST, but there’s also a long list of new colors, as well as improvements to current series from weather tolerance to disease resistance. As Dr. Allan Armitage said many times during CAST, “A new plant can perform great, until it doesn’t.” It’s clear these companies are focused on continued success and innovation.
- There can be a significant gap between breeding for what the grower wants versus what the retailer wants versus what the consumer expects in a new plant. But it is possible to meet the needs of all three segments of the supply chain. Most of the breeders we talked to offered plants in varying degrees of height, timing, and compactness, not to mention color. They understand that their end customers might all want different attributes from the plants they’re buying. This is arguably even more true in the mixes and combos we saw, with some companies offering recipe suggestions and others providing the complete take-home experience.
I want to close with two words of thanks. The first is to the Greenhouse Grower team that joined me on the tour: Dr. Allan Armitage, and former Greenhouse Grower editor Robin Siktberg, who has years of experience in floriculture. They answered the questions I had and often challenged the breeders to continue thinking ahead.
The second group I want to thank is the breeders themselves for serving as great hosts. I often use the word “passion” when describing members of this industry, and the passion these companies feel about their plants was on full display. The floriculture market has an exciting future, and that’s thanks in no small part to the experts at Syngenta Flowers, Ball Horticultural, Benary, and the many others who are part of CAST. Consumers will expect new plants every year, and we know you’ll be delivering them.