by Marissa Verdi
The GardenTrends Team had the pleasure of visiting numerous vendors and breeders during the 2017 California Spring Trials. The team received an exclusive preview of the new varieties that will enter the marketplace in 2018. We were able to get some snapshots of our favorite plants and are thrilled to announce what we can all expect to bloom in our outdoor and indoor garden spaces next year.
The color that caught our attention this year was mango! These flowers were a stunning blend of tangerine orange with the saturation of a bright fuchsia. Mango flowers were complimented in combinations with other warm, citrus colors and there were some bolder mixes pairing mango flowers with lime green foliage and dashes of tiny, blue florets.
Pictured: Calibrachoa Chameleon Sunshine Berry & Wallflower Sugar Rush Red
Container gardening, with a mixture of plants, is a trend that will continue to flourish into 2018. Many vendors/teams we admired had constructed containers featuring different textures and heights to create both an interesting and unique visual narrative. Get creative and design your own pairings! There are many choices in components for the beginner gardener to the advanced master gardener.
Take a commercial mix you already love, add a base and accent plants and place all the components into a container of your choice. Do not limit yourself to just a patio container, think about a coordinating hanging basket near your front door or filling in a vacant bed with plants using a similar color scheme that will compliment your containers.
Bring the outdoors in! We were amazed to see how beautiful ornamental oregano or pepper can look tucked into a sunny nook in an indoor space. Imagine growing miniature, snack peppers right on the window sill in your kitchen. Convenient and sustainable, this is a trend for that has a place with families and urban gardeners alike.
Pictured: Ornamental Oregano Kirigami and Ornamental Peppers
My advice to you is don’t wait until 2018, you can be a trendsetter now! We are so excited to see what trends you pick up or start on your own to continue to influence the garden industry for years to come.
Happy Growing,
Marissa Verdi
B2C Channel Manager, GardenTrends
(in collaboration with Michael Wells, Ornamentals Product Manager, and Michelle Castaneda, Plug Department Supervisor)
Marissa Verdi is a recent graduate from the University of Georgia, earning her Master’s degree in Plant Protection and Pest Management, an interdisciplinary degree in entomology, plant pathology, and crop and soil sciences. Upon completion of her studies, Marissa was welcomed by the GardenTrends team as the B2C Channel Manager and serves as an editor to this blog. Marissa’s passion for gardening was influenced by her parents, avid garden hobbyists, who encouraged her to pick up her first butterfly net and to explore the interactions between insects and their environments.
