Features New Varieties
ForeCAST: What’s on at Ball’s stop

With CAST 2018 on the horizon, Ball’s stop in Santa Paula is ready to tickle the senses with four days of immersive displays. They’ll be showcasing hundreds of products from 10 different brands. Here’s a sample of what you can expect:

 
Beefsteak Tomato Atlas (Burpee)
The first-ever beefsteak for porches, decks and balconies, allowing customers to pick big, tasty beefsteak flavour right outside their door. The plant’s bushy, compact habit easily shoulders bountiful loads of 1lb. tomatoes. Atlas is vigorous but grows neatly in patio containers – modern performance with old-time flavor. The fruit delivers unsurpassed balance of sweetness of acidity.
 

Calibrachoa MiniFamous^® Uno Double Pinktastic (Selecta One)
The MiniFamous Uno series is an early-to-finish, medium-compact calibrachoa with uniform flower timing across the series. They grow well in quart and gallon containers, but also thrive in hanging baskets as part of Trixi^® combos. This series has the most diversity on the market, featuring classic core colours, doubles and stars. Pinktastic features heavily contrasted double flowers and a ball-shaped habit that is half trailing. It was a Fleuroselect winner for 2017.
   

Verbena Firehouse (Ball Flora Plant)
This new series is the perfect medium-mounded basket verbena. It has superior garden performance in the heat – less cycling means more colour in the garden for summer! Firehouse launches with nine colours in the series. They have excellent powdery mildew resistance and make great combo components.

Dianthus Corona (PanAmerican Seed)
Wow ’em with the biggest blooms of any dianthus of this type. Exceptional flower form and a palette of show-stopping colour choices makes Corona a regal choice for cool-season landscapes, gardens and patio planters. It features uniform flowering time and habit. Plant it along with other spring annuals, such as pansies.

Coreopsis Double the Sun (Kieft Seed)
This bright newcomer is 2 to 3 weeks earlier than Early Sunrise and other comparable varieties in the early cool season. In summer, it finishes one to two weeks earlier. Get this favourite perennial class into the store before any other compact, semi-double yellow coreopsis, and listen as those registers ring. The semi-double, clear golden yellow flowers are large. Ideal for quart and 1-gallon production in spring and summer with 13-hour critical daylength.

Spreading Petunia Easy Wave^® Red Improved (Wave)
Red gets a big-time upgrade for 2019, which moves six eye-catching mixes to the next level. Always a standout in the petunia market, bold and creative Easy Wave lets you bring in a wide array of decorator colours. Offers many upgrades compared to original Red: improved seed quality, a denser plant with more branching, and shorter peduncles for a more controlled, holdable plant structure. Foliage is dark green and the flowers are a deeper, richer red colour that does not wash out.

Hydrangea Kanmara^® (Ball Ingenuity)
Brought to Ball from hydrangea experts at the Hydrangea Breeder Association, Kanmara is supplied from Aldershot Greenhouses, who follow their strict protocol for ideal production, performance, and uniformity. It’s a new generation of hydrangeas with large, majestic blooms in unique shades and elegant foliage. It radiates glamour and is sure to steal the show! Kanmara is ideal for the terrace, doorstep or balcony. The beautiful colours of this pot hydrangea guarantee an unrivaled display until well into late summer or fall.

Salvia Sky Blue Marvel (Darwin Perennials)
Sky Blue is a light-blue addition to the Marvel family, with the same great habit as Blue and Rose Marvel. The Marvel family has the largest flowers of any Salvia nemorosa on the market. Enjoy the stunning display of colour in spring and summer. Little to no maintenance required in the garden. It is hardy in zones 4 thru 9.

Bushel and Berry™ Southern Bluebelle™ (Star^® Roses and Plants)

This petite, low-water and low-chill blueberry plant displays bright red foliage that turns emerald green as it matures. Perfect for small-space gardens or patios in warmer climates (zones 6–10). Plant grows 2-3′ high with a mounded habit. Offers medium-sized berries in the summer with a mild, sweet flavour.

 
Ball is accepting appointments from Saturday, April 14 through Tuesday, April 17. Register online at www.ballhort.com/springtrials

Contact Spring Trials concierge Janessa Bender with any questions at 630-588-3187, springtrials@ballhort.com