Why Orange Pumpkin should’ve got a placing in the Plant of the Year contest
Why Orange Pumpkin should’ve got a placing in the Plant of the Year contest
...a question of 'forever bedding'
Why Orange Pumpkin should’ve got a placing in the Plant of the Year contest
I’ve got a theory, and it’s quite a concerning one for the industry at large. I think, in a couple of years, there will be a lot of guilt attached to growing bedding plants, both for consumer and grower, and we might regard this category as simply not sustainable enough. Of course, this might not be technically correct, but I think there will be a wave of public conscience. People could start to look down at bedding, and I think we as an industry need to be ready for that.
Bedding plants, patio plants, basket plants, plants of the annual type, could be seen to use a lot of resources for not much gain. I can hear the cries of first time buyers now, “but it won’t come back next year?” The longer flowering varieties of plants, perhaps they will be okay, but for short-term colour in pots, the growing footprint might not justify the resulting flowering period (is summer colour all about flowers though? I think that’s a whole other discussion!).
So, I have a theory about developing (or even rebranding) bedding plants as “plants that you never have to pull up.”
I actually quietly started this movement when I was at Thompson & Morgan, with the Penstemon Wedding Bells that we released, a casual perennial which just so happened to flower for five months of the year. This flowering period was comparable to any good bedding plant, with the bonus that it would do exactly the same thing in its second year.
Look around and you’ll see more and more plants that actually meet this criteria' - the wonderful dwarf Alstroemeria Inticancha Series, for example. These beauties offer a jawdropping five months of colour on compact, branched plants. Plants will flower nonstop, then die back to the base and do exactly the same in the second and third years, and so on. Compare that to a Petunia, and suddenly the Petunia looks like it isn’t such a bargain.
So, I regard the Geum Orange Pumpkin as a breakthrough plant with its Plant of the Year Finalist status. It sits there, looking all cute, much like a neat, orange French Marigold. Could this be the antidote to those that don’t like the fragrance of French Marigolds?
However, there is also a more serious side to this.. The Geum apparently flowers from spring to autumn, that’s already a longer period than the Marigold. You get the same appearance and style of the Marigold too. So what you’re looking at here is a plant that appears to look like a bedding plant (fits into those small spaces, pots, hanging baskets even) but can stay in place year after year.
Perhaps we could call this new wave of plants “the forever bedding plants”?
It’s certainly food for thought, and I’d love to know what you think!
Despite it not getting a placing in the final, I will be watching the progress of this Geum very carefully. Having championed the Geum though, I must say the actual winner Agapanthus “Black Jack” was very worthy, and ticks a lot of boxes from breeder to grower to home gardener.
Dear reader, the Agapanthus had also been in my early predictions as a finalist, as was the Hydrangea “Euphoria Pink” and Erysimum “Taffeta Series” - only the Erysimum didn’t get a place. All in all, it was a nail biting, super tough contest, with some strong contenders. I can’t wait to see the progress of each of the finalists in the big wide world!
So, tell me, what do YOU think of “Forever Bedding”?