Penny Carnathan

Penny’s a Nurture And Hold (NAH): Nah, I won’t pull that out yet, it’s still got a green shoot. She likes dragonflies, lady bugs and new stuff only after weeding, pruning and fertilizing.

Kim Franke-Folstad

Kim’s a Want It Now (WIN): Everything pretty, everything now. She will resort to full-spectrum insecticides in desperate situations, and believes it’s her duty and right to buy new plants every weekend.

Both advocate Plant Choice (SOMEthing besides crotons. Please!), lots of color and low maintenance. We don’t agree on everything, but we’re smart enough to learn from each other - and from you.

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Spring sneak peek—what’s new at the flower farm?

Posted Jun 20, 2009 by Loren Omoto

Updated Jun 20, 2009 at 08:58 PM

The other day, Friend o’ The Dirt Susan Gillespie and I rendezvoused at Riverview Flower Farms to exchange garden goodies. I was there to see a flower farm (a first for me) and get the scoop on what brand-new-to-the-market plants owner Rick Brown is testing for spring sales.

This is part of the summer testing area—so many plants, so many we’ll never see.

Susan ended up joining me on the tour, which made it so much more fun. We both oohed and aaahed and jumped up and down. (Co-gushing—much better than solitary gushing. Who likes to scream alone on a roller coaster?)

I did not expect what I saw, which was a theme park for gardeners. It wouldn’t be as much fun wandering around alone, I’m sure, but we got the backstage tour. Rick pointed out the best-sellers (red fountain-grass) and the should-have-beens (Verbena ‘Little One’) He showed us plants with promise, and beautiful ones you’ll likely never see. It was like touring the Magic Kingdom with Mickey Mouse as your guide.

Rick started his farm 27 years ago on three acres in Riverview. He still has those three acres, plus two 60-acre farms in Riverview and Wimauma and a warehouse in Miami. He grows landscape plants – annuals, perennials and grasses – most of which come from propagators and breeders in California and Europe. He also breeds and selects his own cultivars. He has the Proven Winners brand, Proven Selections (a regional subsidiary that allows for input from local growers like Rick), and his own Florida Friendly Plants brand.

Here’s a “grass” that’s not really a grass, St. Bernard’s Lily. Rick likes it. My picture stinks—it looked a lot better in person. Grasses add a vertical element and movement, he says. (I’ve never been into grasses but I’m sipping the Kool-Aid now.)

All of the plants get tested at his farms to ensure they’ll do well here. If they thrive, bloom a long time, and look great in all of our wonderful conditions, you’ll find them at Home Depots all over the state.

In tomorrow’s Tampa Tribune, the Dig This column mentions Verbena ‘Little One,’ which passed all his tests but hasn’t done well in sales. So it’s getting pulled off the market. I have already been to two Home Depots in hopes of snagging the last of these little beauties. No luck. We didn’t run a picture in the paper, so here’s what they look like.

And here’s what a bunch of them looks like.

How could these not sell??

Red Alert Cape Fuchsia is one he’s testing and seemed kind of excited about. Until Susan an
I both said, “Eh.” (We loved that he paid attention to our loves and not-so-loves.) It doesn’t have a bright red pop, but planted en masse looks pretty good. And, as Rick pointed out, it would look good next to a white flower, like hardy Diamond Frost. He’s still seeing how it will do through the summer and winter.

This picture is not from Rick’s farm. Apparently, I wasn’t excited enough to take a picture. This variety of Cape Fuchsia I found on the Internet. It looks similar, but a little brighter than Red Alert

Another he really likes, already available at Home Depot, is a fairly new variety of Vinca, also known as periwinkle. I have 15-year-old periwinkles that are like weeds. Those are an old-school cultivar that didn’t succumb to a disease that wiped out newer varieties, Rick says. The new Nirvana series, in its third year, has bigger blooms and an immunity to that plague. This one is called Sky Blue.

So what’s coming out new in the spring? Susan and I had fits over Maraca Portulaca (it rhymes!). And when I showed Kim a picture, she about had a seizure. Pick up a Tribune tomorrow and check it out.  (Yeah, I love our paper, so I hope you’ll go buy it!)