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Highlights from 2011 Spring Trials
March 2011
Greenheart introduces a breakthrough rose!
Relaunching Roses
by Kevin Yanik, Greenhouse Grower - March, 2011
New marketing ideas Greenheart Farms has developed for 2012 should get consumers excited about roses in their gardens, on their patios and in their homes.
Roses are about to get a lot more fun.
Greenheart Farms is ratcheting up its marketing a few notches for its My Bouquet, Garden Treasures and Table to Garden lines. Layci Gragnani, the ornamental marketing and sales director for Greenheart, spent much of last year designing programs to make its roses more saleable.
"Before, retailers didn't know how to sell these programs," says Bill DeVor, General Manager and Chief Operating Officer.
My Bouquet was actually a Ball program for a couple of years, DeVor says, but Greenheart reeled it back in and is relaunching it with new marketing. For growers, DeVor suggests...read more
Magic Show™ takes the gold at Rose Hills
October 2010
ARROYO GRANDE, CA - Magic Show™ (BENjets) has won the Gold Medal award at the Pageant of Roses Garden in Rose Hill Memorial Park in Whittier, California. Rose Hills is approximately 1,400 acres of property and is considered the largest single-operated cemetery in the world. The Pageant of Roses Garden opened in 1986, spanning 3.4 acres and is the largest rose trial in the United States
This award winning mini-flora rose was hybridized by the well respected rose hybridizer, Frank Benardella . Magic Show™ features white petals with a red edge and white reverse. Borne mostly solitary, the 2-inch diameter flowers bloom in flushes throughout the season. Magic Show™ displays glossy, dark green foliage and performs excellent as both a potted plant and a garden rose.
"No magic was used to win this award!" says Bill DeVor, General Manager for Greenheart Farms. "Magic Show has excellent color and exceptional form and habit. It’s one of many outstanding, award-winning rose varieties that we have in our program."
Magic Show™ also was a 2010 Award of Excellence winner for the American Rose Society and will be part of a new mini-flora collection beginning in spring 2011.
Proven Winners® adds Home Run® to line up
July 2010
Expands distribution of Home Run®, the most disease resistant rose on the market today
GRANDE HAVEN, MI - Proven Winners® ColorChoice® today announced an exclusive agreement with Weeks Roses to distribute and market Home Run® rose across North America within the Proven Winners ColorChoice line of flowering shrubs.
Home Run rose is a recently developed hybrid, derived from the bestselling black spot-free rose, with the added benefit of total resistance to powdery mildew. Home Run is easy-to-grow,thrives in most landscape conditions and requires little maintenance. It also is tolerant of heat, humidity and drought, blooms from spring until frost and produces nearly non-stop blooms of showy "fire–engine" red.
"Home Run rose is the most disease resistant rose available on the market," said Tim Wood, product development and marketing manager for Proven Winners ColorChoice. "You will be hard pressed to find something to stop this rose from blooming. Both of these unique qualities make Home Run Rose a perfect fit to join the Proven Winners ColorChoice line up."
Home Run rose is a hybrid cultivar fathered by the Knock Out® Rose. But unlike its famously popular forerunner, Home Run has natural immunity to black spot and powdery mildew–diseases common with other rose bushes. Black spot and powdery mildew distort the leaves and reduce the foliage of roses. Both often spread to infect other rose plants in the garden. Home Run is the first rose on the market that will remain completely free from these diseases over the entire lifetime of the plant.
Craig Reiland, supervisor of the Tyler (Texas) Rose Garden stated, "We have grown Home Run for three years. It did so well in the main garden, we've used it in many other median, park and City Hall plantings around the city. It's nearly always in flower through the growing season, and we've never observed any black spot or powdery mildew at any of the locations, with absolutely no spraying required."
Proven Winners ColorChoice is the leading brand of flowering shrubs in North America, marketing over 100 varieties specifically chosen for their hardiness, unusually bright colors and easy care, including best-sellers 'Limelight' Hydrangea and Wine & Roses® Weigela. Based in Wasco, Calif., Weeks Roses (www.weeksroses.com ) is one of the largest commercial rose growers in the United States. Weeks Roses ships 3-4 million bare-root fieldgrown roses every year.
"With six years of research and development to breed this rose, and now four years of market testing behind us, we felt the time was right to expand distribution of Home Run rose through this partnership," said Tom Carruth, director of research and marketing for Weeks Roses, and breeder of Home Run. "Plant buyers love this rose because of its ease of care, resistance to disease and repeated frequent flowerings. Simple, brilliantly beautiful and tough, Home Run is the best rose for the driest summers or the wettest springs, from coast to coast. With our new wider distribution, this rose has the potential to become the next best-seller."
Home Run produces a richer red flower than other shrub roses. It blooms nearly continuously with showy 3-inch wide, 5-petaled blossoms of an intense shade of flame-red, from late spring to first frost. It is the first to flower in spring and has an amazingly short re-flowering time of only 30 days.
Compact, growing only 2 to 3 feet in height, this flowering shrub rose can fit more easily into any sized garden. Its abundant dark green foliage provides a great contrasting background to the fiery crimson flowers.
Home Run rose is heat tolerant and hardy in colder temperatures, so it can thrive from Texas to Michigan, zone 10 to zone 4. It's also easy to grow and easy to maintain, with no deadheading required. With Home Run, you can enjoy deep red blooms everyday from summer until frost, with only a minimum of effort on your part.
Proven Winners ColorChoice expects the Home Run rose will be available for growers in July 2010, with the rose available for consumers starting in spring 2011. In addition, a new pink sport of Home Run is in development for anticipated release in 2012.
"Home Run is one of my favorite landscape roses. I have had this rose in my home landscape for four years. It is easy to manage, always in color and has never shown any symptoms of disease," said Mark R. Chamblee of Chamblee's Rose Nursery (www.chambleeroses.com)
Proven Winners ColorChoice is the brand name of Spring Meadow Nursery, Inc., a market leader in flowering shrubs, potted liners and starter plants. Located in Grand Haven, Mich., the. Spring Meadow Nursery has over 500 varieties in their catalog, including more than 100 varieties marketed under the Proven Winners® ColorChoice® brand, including Incrediball® Hydrangea, ‘Limelight’ Hydrangea, Pinky Winky™ Hydrangea, My Monet™ Weigela, Little Henry® Itea, Wine & Roses® Weigela, Quick Fire® Hydrangea and Invincibelle® Spirit Hydrangea. For more information, visit www.colorchoiceplants.com and www.springmeadownursery.com.
The Knock Out® Family of Roses is a registered trademark owned by the Conard-Pyle Co.
(Photos and additional information: http://home-run-rose.com/rose_red.html)
New Annual Rose Collection from Greenheart Farms
June 2010
ARROYO GRANDE, CA - That's right, these are roses that can be sold as annuals in the garden center. This collection of micro-miniature roses has been developed for use in bedding plant type applications. The Garden Treasures™ rose collection will add sparkle to any garden and can be sold as annuals in 2 1/4-inch pots, up to 1-quart containers.
Nothing dresses up a patio or entryway like elegant combination containers - consumers know this. These easy to grow, disease-resistant roses are well-suited for solo or mixed containers, in-ground plantings and gift plants, with little to no maintenance and no deadheading.
"We are looking forward to enhancing our rose programs here at Greenheart," says Bill DeVor, General Manager for Greenheart Farms. "These roses come straight from the Nor'East collection. Consumers, as well as growers, are going to fall in love with this versatile, easy to grow line of roses."
Characteristics of this collection include: Compact growing habit with good disease-resistance, maximum height of 12-inch by 12-inch wide, heavy branching plants with the branches coming from the crown of the plant, small foliage, heavy bloomers, and self cleaning. They are hardy to USDA Zones 4b to 11.
Garden Treasures includes eight varieties: Pieces of Eight™, Rubellite™, Blushing Mate™, Star Ruby™, Citrine™, True Pearl™, Gemstone™, and Crimson Treasure™.
Liners will be available from Greenheart beginning July 1, 2010. For additional information about products available from Greenheart Farms, visit www.greenheartfarms.com or call 800 549-5531.
Greenheart Celebrates 30 Years!
April 2010
Our 30th Anniversary Celebration/CA Spring Trials showcased Greenheart‚s history, products and 60-acre facility. Check out some of the highlights!
