Petals Show Their Mettle
At Flower-Industry Expo

It's a gardener's vision of heaven. Nearly two dozen greenhouse complexes stretching from south of San Francisco to near San Diego are stuffed with the most beautiful potted flowers money can grow, their plump blooms almost surreal in their perfection.

Amid the acres of pristine delphiniums, flawless foxgloves and impossibly stately snapdragons -- some arranged in naturalistic displays that rival the world's best flower shows -- are brand-new plant varieties that won't show up at your local garden center until next year, if ever.

One of the flowers on display is said to be the first truly black pansy. Also shown is a gerber daisy -- a big-selling patio plant -- with flowers nearly the size of dinner plates, and a shade-loving hellebore, or Lenten rose, with flowers that face upward, not buried under the leaves as is usually the case.

But you can forget about getting inside what serves as the flower industry's spring fashion shows. Much like at the runways in Milan and New York, the public is barred at the door. Called the "California pack trials," these industry showcases are organized every April by big wholesale plant breeders and seed companies to exhibit their new creations.

Slow Changes

This year, we snagged an invitation to see what draws nearly 1,000 plant professionals to these shows. Attendees range from buyers for big garden retailers to major flower growers to plant-industry sales people. What we found were some horticultural novelties that may tempt even the most experienced gardener -- as well as signs of the mass-market direction of the flower industry.

In truth, truly stunning new plants were few and far between. That's partly due to the plodding nature of plant breeding. A car or a coat can be readily restyled from year to year, but most flowers still are created by the ancient method of mating plants over many generations until the one with the desired features emerges.

It also can take several years for a new flower to get to your local garden center. Breeders of new varieties typically sell their creations to seed companies or plant propagators, which test them to make sure they are hardy and disease-free. These companies then sell the new plants as seeds or tiny plants called "plugs" to the big commercial growers, which eventually ship the grown plants to stores.

Some of the new plant features touted at the show are aesthetic: a dianthus that comes in a new cherry color; a pansy whose flowers have fringed edges; a New Guinea impatiens in an iridescent violet-rose or a primrose with what the breeder claims are the largest-ever blooms. Others are functional: a petunia whose flowers won't turn to mush in a summer storm, a vinca that blooms in colder weather than other varieties and a zinnia that is more resistant to disease. Many of the improvements, though, are aimed at commercial growers, not plant lovers -- things such as seeds that germinate more quickly or plants that grow more compactly so more pots can fit on a greenhouse rack.

There may be another factor behind the lack of exotic new offerings in the plant business. Flower breeders, much like makers of paint and power tools, are responding to the growing presence of the "big box" stores, and the big chains aren't generally looking to fill their aisles with rare or delicate plants. Home Depot, Lowe's, Wal-Mart and Kmart now sell more than half of all garden plants in the U.S., according to estimates by several big plant breeders and growers.

Clockwise from top left: Primrose 'Paloma'; Helleborus 'Immanence'; Gerber daisy 'Giant Spinners'; Black Pansy 'Bolero Nerone'

But it turns out there is more variety at the pack trials these days than, say, 10 years ago. Back then, almost all the exhibitors were seed companies, and creating new plants that are raised from seed is time-consuming. Today, many plant companies use "vegetative" means to propagate new varieties; that involves taking tiny cuttings off plants to grow new ones. "You can bring a new cutting variety to market in a matter of a few years of testing. Seed varieties take up to a decade or more," says Chris Beytes, editor of GrowerTalks, a flower trade magazine.

The pack trials -- named after the packs, or compartmentalized containers, that some plants come in -- have a "big, big" influence on what plants end up in stores, says Terry Smith, whose family owns Smith Gardens, a Bellevue, Wash., company that grows plants for major retailers, including Home Depot. "What we're looking for here is a 'wow,'" he says of his hunt for new flowers at the show.

Vincent Naab, a Home Depot executive who buys plants for the chain's stores in the mid-Atlantic region, raced around the exhibition venues in a bus filled with fellow Home Depot buyers and the retailer's major plant growers. He says one quarter to one third of the potted flowers that end up in the 200 garden centers he oversees are varieties he finds at the trials. And if he really likes something he sees, "we'll do everything in our power to lock up that product" as an exclusive, he says.

The fruits of Mr. Naab's 2004 visit to the pack trials are in stores this year. They include a new variety of coleus, those increasingly popular plants grown for their colorful, showy foliage. The new strain, called Kong Coleus, has leaves that are three or four times the size of those on traditional coleus. "Everyone who saw it [at last year's shows] immediately said oooh and aaah," Mr. Naab recalls.

As for next year, look for the nation's largest seller of garden goods to carry a striking new variety of salvia, a perennial Mr. Naab spotted last week that has "a brilliant blue flower." Mr. Naab told his entourage of growers that he had to have it, and "one of my guys bought 90,000 on the spot," he says.

Something Unique

Even the big boxes are seeking novelties -- at least within a narrow range of plants -- to gain an edge with consumers looking for something different. "The boxes sell the standard plants, but they are all looking for something unique," says Joel Goldsmith, whose company, Goldsmith Seeds Inc. of Gilroy, Calif., launched what became the pack trials in 1967 and hosts one of its major stops these days.

Buyers for big retailers aren't the only people scouring the pack trials. Ben Miller, owner of Stutzman Greenhouse in Hutchinson, Kan., came to find plants to sell at his two stores and grow in his greenhouse, which sells mostly to independent garden centers. Mr. Miller liked some new grasses with unusual textures and colors, as well as a new variety of gaura, a spiky flowering plant. He says his customers are as fashion-conscious as any clotheshorse. "Every spring they ask, 'What's new?'"

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